GERD

 

All roads lead to Rome

Worku Belachew 

The issue of GERD one's again brought Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt under same roof for talks in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. Over the past years following the commencement of the flagship project, Ethiopia shades light on the solid fact that the dam won't bring any of anticipated fears of few Egyptian counterparts, environmental, social or whatever. This had been proved true as the trio panels were exposed to important evidences—both the dam site and all available documents— and concluded as no significant harm would be caused.

As stated in the FDRE Foreign Affairs and National Security Policy and Strategy, the nation's front line enemy that causes threat to its survival is poverty and backwardness. The introductory section of this document read as: “the attainment of speedy economic development, democratization and peace is fundamental to the survival ofour country which finds itself in a state of abject poverty and backwardness.”

Fighting this harsh scenario is central to its activities. Winning the neck-to-neck wrestling against poverty is not an event rather it is a process. Over the years, no stone has been left unturned, to expedite this process. Now the economic achievement of the nation is one of the fewest fast speeding in Africa. GERD is a showcase of the development and the future of Ethiopia, therefore. There is no intent to harm anyone in the basin. But, there is an intent to benefit those in the basin.

For Ethiopia, the development of the region in particular, and Africa as a whole is so important. Citizens of Ethiopia were/are in UN missions in Africa. Ethiopia is doing a lot to stabilize the region, it has played crucial role for Somalia to make it stand with equal feet among the rest of the nations. Same efforts are under way for South Sudan, to mention but few. Therefore, this nation has, since long time ago, advanced its stand to the sentiment of Pan-Africanism, the impetus that glue Africa and Africans together in the economic, social and political fronts.

The government of Ethiopia has not been preoccupied in theorizing Pan-Africanism, it has rather laid the foundation for its practicality. The power interconnection Ethiopia accomplished between Djibouti and Sudan is a case in point in this regard. And GERD is no different. Clean energy of 6,000 mega watts will be generated here but would be in use by neighbouring nations as well.

From the onset of the construction of GERD, in various fora, Ethiopia's unshakable stand has been manifest. In this fourth round of trio talks, Ethiopia maintained the stand as it accepted the agreement reached to further assess the hydro-logical modeling, social and environmental impacts of the dam.

It suffice to mention this proverb here: “All roads lead to Rome”.

In a regular press conference of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), spokesperson Dina Mufti put the matter this way: “Ethiopia accepted the proposal for further study in which four experts from each country will participate. We are confident enough, the assessment will not come up with any new impact other than which was studied thus far.”

The national effort is to abolish poverty and backwardness.

When it comes to using cross boarder rivers, Ethiopia respects the non harming principle toward downstream riparian and pursue development exercising its natural rights. As it has been mentioned above, the rhythm of the nation's development greatly considers cooperation, mutual benefit— in one terminology, Pan-Africanism.

With the exception of few, all in the riparian have understood the reality. And all African brothers and sisters, young and adult, also reflected in various ways that GERD is a source of cooperation.

In this regard, Ethiopia has wide opened all windows to cooperate on the issues of Nile in general and GERD in particular. The fact is one and one, whether assessment is done or not, GERD will not harm anyone. It rather multiply opportunity for downstream nations in many ways as suggested by famous scholars. And will integrate the region as whole.

Quotation of the day

“There is no time to waste. We must either unite now or perish.” Julius Nyerere

Taxi service irregulrities 

souring shortage

BY WORKU BELACHEW 

For most residents and visitors of Addis, transportation hassling has been an inescapable daily encounter. Passengers who beat the bitter open air wrestling, and a short distance like race secures a trophy of getting themselves on board taxis. 

The Darwinian theory of “survival of the fittest” seems to hold water here. Pregnant women, elders, fellows with physical disability... have no choice than simply be observant of the street theater. One can see the power of scarcity as it is dismantling age old culture of sympathy for the needy which our society practiced. In some places passengers have to desperately wait in lines until their turn come to get taxis.

So called taxi coordinators who are organized into micro and small scale enterprises get busy collecting money from every passer by taxi doing almost nothing valuable for passengers. Only in few places they coordinate queues and rarely give protection from pickpockets.

 

The varied modes of public transportation, such as blue and white taxis, mid buses and city bus carry passengers to their brim, previously in peak hours but now throughout the day.

The situation has turned into a state of 'money cannot buy comfort' when it comes to public transport. Honestly speaking, a slight part of the shortage is artificial. There is still a kind of irregularities that the city's transport authority has overlooked.

Coming year is decisive in that it will bring the Light Rail Transit (LRT), deemed to downplay the shortage and irregularity, operational. But, until then sort of controlling to leverage the available modes into public need appears so essential. It is clear that the city transport bureau has put various mechanisms in place to bring the service back in track. Sadly but, their lone efforts and its results are insignificant compared to the chaos.

The blue and white ones have route plates. And particularly on week days until evening, they operate sticking to their routes. Owners of these taxis have organized themselves into associations and the route case is revised periodically by the associations. This is done to make the zoning system fair. For instance, if a taxi works in a route that road construction/maintenance is underway or in a place that has a high traffic jamming, then in the next round it will be assigned to better areas.

Let's put the irregularity here: For instance, some taxis are double licensed to serve both in the city and across regions tagging a name “supportive taxis''. Moreover, supportive taxis has no visible route plates.

If anyone knows the routes of supportive taxis, it obviously is the taxi driver, the attendant and transport authorities. Consequently, these taxis, at times when they can be out of the sight of transport controlling officers, break trips aiming to collect two higher fares or force passengers to pay extra fares or drive to a route that they can reap maximum gains. Such irregularities are furthering the transportation chaos.

No argument, transport controlling officers cannot be on the spot every time but a kind of system need to be put in place to ease passengers woes.

In the first place, the transport fare is vague to passengers. Yes, a passenger knows the route they regularly uses. But, when they have to move to places they rarely use, it is hard to predict the fare unless one asks that form someone else. The list of fare should be made available to anyone. It could be made visible somewhere in the taxi. This protects passengers from paying extra fares. As many argues, technology is underutilized nationwide in our case. Otherwise, the list of transport fare should be on the bureau's website so that anyone can either visit or download it.

In addition, transport officers assigned in particular areas need to carry mobile phones that everybody can report breaches such as cutting routes, paying extra fares... This is not to mean their personal cell phones, but the office should make them equip with that and the public know the number just by posting it in the taxis. There should be also toll free phone that properly functions so that passengers can report such inconveniences.

Concerning supportive taxis, as they are serving in the city, a kind of double standard felt now need to be noticed and neutralized. They need to put their route plate in a transparent place as the blue and white taxis do. And route does not mean something thrown away on a dashboard. It is an instrument placed on a visible place so that every passenger can see it. In addition, the font of the text telling the route of the taxi should be reasonably magnified. Most supportive taxis so called route plates are hard to be read even for a person with good eyesight. I doubt this is unnoticed by the transport officials too.

Quite often, transport officials headache centers on number of people on board to taxis. If extra persons are on board, they immediately stop the taxi to issue a penalty ticket to drivers. The traffic police also do the same. The taxi drivers on their side do not accept their mistake easily and turn off their engines and leave their seats to beg the transport officers or traffic police, to seek their pity and escape penalty. The question lies here. Is is appropriate to leave driver's seat while eleven people are on board? But the officers do not bother about this, according to my observation. 

To make matters worse, their controversy goes for minutes at the cost of passengers. This writer has no any intent to say that officers should not penalize offending drivers. That is enforcing the law. And they are doing their jobs. But let's raise another question. In a city where transportation shortage is critical, what if those taxis board extra persons in pick hours? According to the taxis specifications they can carry up to one thousand kilo grams, meaning more than 15 persons. It is a relief. Workers can arrive their destinations on time. Students can attend their classes too.

Previously the back seat of taxis were for three persons only. The transport bureau permitted to board one extra person sometime in the past. How can this be treated according to the law? Isn't it the shortage that forces the bureau to board three persons in the cabin of taxis including the driver? Otherwise it is risky and uncomfortable.

Hopefully, the Addis Ababa Transport Bureau would see into these artificial cases that is adding into the shortage and give a timely solution. And these writer may hold interview with the senior officials of the bureau on the issues treated above in the near future.

Ebola...

Ebola virus outbreak is making headlines on world's mainstream media being global health emergency. Countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, are said the three states where the outbreak has been the deadliest. A related case also registered in Nigeria. The disease has a potent to spreading to neighboring countries and even to other continents. Unless, timely and adequate preparations take place, the disease would roll to our country too. The BBC ascribing the latest from WHO which classified Kenya as a “high risk” nation wrote as this nation is vulnerable because it is a major transport hub, with many flights from West Africa. Our nation is no exception. Some 500 passengers enters Ethiopia from Nigeria on a daily basis. This depicts that the country, particularly flight crew members and the likes would potentially be vulnerable.

The old adage but goes afresh now “prevention is better than cure”. However, when it comes to Ebola virus this does not work. The world seems to remain far behind discovering either the vaccine or the cure. Therefore, “Prevention is the safe way out”.

Ethiopian flights to west Africa must strictly be checked.

In a Thursday press briefing with local journalists, Health Minister Dr. Kesete-Brhan said preparations are underway to prevent the outbreak of the disease ahead. He also unequivocally proved that no single case of Ebola suspect had been tested so far here. According to him, some 275 health professionals drawn from public and private health institutions were offered with training about the virus. Committees and Command Posts have also been organized to facilitate the prevention. Likewise, a special hospital and Ambulance are also at the ready to treat those which would exhibit symptoms. In addition, a mechanism of keeping those with fever at the airport quarantine has been launched.

For African countries where there exist higher dependency for pharmaceuticals on developed nations, this disease remains hard to contain. Horrendous would be when it is compounded with countries that are most populous as the available resource is too dwarf compared to demand. But, the deadly virus is in Africa for a time being unless countries collaborate sooner than later. It can go anywhere right, left and center. That is why it is marked as an international public health emergency. That is way countries which are moving world's largest economy such as China are willing to help humanity. A Chinese embassy press statement sent to The Ethiopian Herald indicated a provision of around USD 5 million for humanitarian aids to the three Ebola hardest hit countries namely Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

A single person with the Ebola case could spread the disease and would cost in human life. Let's substantiate this argument with a clear fact. "Nigeria declares National Emergency on the outbreak of the disease. Reports has shown that this nation becomes the “fourth West African country involved in the outbreak when a dual US-Liberian citizen infected with Ebola arrived in Lagos after flying from Liberia via Togo on 20 July”. That is why we need to expedite every efforts ahead to prevent our citizens.

The preparation discussed above must be intensified and get supports from every stakeholder. Equipment that help detect suspects need to be available at airline checkpoints and strict control should be done at gateway of boarders. In addition cabin crew members need to get the proper protection.

Sadly, it seems that the world has critically failed or even ignored to bring cure for this disease. May be it was considered as it happened only in Africa and everyone overlooked it back in the mid of 70's. Yes, such ignorance cost in immense to the global community. But, this time the disease is an international health emergency. Therefore, the international community need to quickly respond to the emergency call of nations affected by the virus. It is time to contain the virus and come up with genuine solution. People are dying in west Africa, and countries need to follow the imprint of China to get people out of despair of dying alone.

May omnipotent creator brightens the mind of those working to find a cure!

“One of the biggest problems in Africa is that governments do not trust their people” -Dr. Harry Verhoeven

 BY FANUEL LAKEW

Dr. Harry Verhoeven is a doctoral researcher at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University (St Cross College). His research focuses on conflict, development and ecological change in Sudan and he is the convenor of the Oxford University China-Africa Network (OUCAN) and Oxford-Central Africa Forum (OCAF). He is also involved in research on the Great African War and political violence in the Great Lakes Region.

His research focuses mainly on the politics of water and agriculture in Sudan (and their link with political-economic evolutions) but he also writes on Ethiopia, Congo (DR), Uganda and Rwanda, concentrating in particular on regional conflict, the internal dynamics of regimes, rebel movements and natural resources.

The Ethiopian Herald's Fanuel Lakew has interviewed Dr Harry Verhoeven and discussed various issues including his educational and professional background as well his views on hydro-politics in the Eastern Africa Region, and African-China relations. The following is the full text of the interview.

Herald:- Would you introduce yourself to our readers?

Dr. Harry:- I was born in the Kingdom of Belgium, Western Europe in 1985 and I had a wonderful and educated family. I was able to travel from a young age to very different countries, come across many cultures and am very greateful for that. My travel does hopefully given me a certain degree of humility in my dealings with people and the cultures.

I studied my first years in Belgium in Social Sciences mainly Politics and Economics and then I moved to the United Kingdom (UK) right now live and work there. Then I studied in London School of Economics my Masters Degree and completed my doctorate at the University of Oxford which focuses mainly on the issue of the Nile, politics of the Nile and Sudan's role on that as well as some on Ethiopia and Egypt.

Since then I have been teaching African politics at the University of Oxford. I have also researched there on the whole range of issues pertaining to mainly Africa and a little bit to China and the Middle East.

Herald:- You have been to Ethiopian many times. How did you find Ethiopia, and what things impressed you most?

Dr. Harry:- Ethiopia is a very beautiful and fascinating country and I think it is a very complex country which is not easy to understand even if you visit many times and read a lot of books.

Herald:- What are these complex things?

Dr. Harry:- Oh! I think Ethiopian society but also Ethiopian politics even the economic situation are not so easy to understand and you know you have deep history that is connected to politics, religion, social affairs and relations to the outside world. So, I find a very complex society and for that reason very interesting to study and to try to better understand. So, I always enjoy coming back because I find it a good challenge for myself.

The other reason I like to come is because I like this country very much and I like its cultures and nationalities. I also find it to be a good place to work in. Of course, sometimes there are some issues of infrastructure or the telecom but it is a safe country and great weather, and hospitality and kindness of people.

Herald:- You have conducted researches on Great African War and political violence in the Great Lake Region and you mainly focus on African politics. Was there any special reason why you choose to focus on African politics?

Dr. Harry:- Yes there are some specific reasons. The first thing is that when we come to East or Central Africa, many things are happening; and many people are doing many different things but the truth is that violence has unfortunately been disproportionately important in defining the lines and options available to the overall majority of people living over there.

What is particular about this violence is that often that happened for a long period of time and is very systemic; not just by one government or one regime or political party. So, it is difficult to try to make any progress on any of the other issues we are concerned with such as social, environmental, economic, and political. Thus, we need to tackle this question of violence. Why do certain leaders take this decisions even though they have often catastrophic outcomes?

I would like to think that my research and partnership make a small but meaningful contribution to address those issues particularly in this region. The first reason is general while the second reason is personal. I happened to spend quite a little bit time in Northern Uganda in 2005 which at the time was in the midst of a terrible war, terrible insurgency by the Lord Resistance Army fighting against the Ugandan government. Living there I saw for myself the consequences of war and what is like to be in a war zone, and seeing the impacts on the people whether in terms of physically or mentally. You know, you see not just the material deprivation the poverty, the hunger and the disease which are pervert in many parts of Africa even the other part where there is no any war.

But the other dimension was fear of war and memories of war and the ways of distortion between families, human being, ethnic groups, religions, etc. is the frightening thing. For me, obviously that has changed my life. I mean I have seen poverty and suffering before and so particularly in the many of the children who taught me many things and for whom I have a highest consideration for teaching me something. For me it remains one of the best types of education which books never teach you.

There are certain things you understand when you are there and see it; and I think that gave me some motivation to try again helping and understanding whatever small way I can as individual.

Herald:- What do you think are the root causes of the conflict in the Horn of Africa and the Great Lake regions, and how can they be resolved?

Dr. Harry:- It is a million dollar questions. Of course about many books have been written simply puts conflict as the work of human beings. Obviously there is a history of colonialism and very problematic external engagement in Africa in the post-colonial era since 1960s.

On conflicts in Africa, there is an awful leadership that many African countries enjoyed. Everything is the fault of the outsiders but they have been frankly many disastrous decisions by African governments and that is extremely worrying.

There is the fact that in many cases poverty means that people be vulnerable to extremist youth or extremist rhetoric where it is Marxist or religious, ethnic or racist because this poverty of course creates a lack of dignity and loss of self worth, and shame and humiliation comes after all of that not having being able to provide to your family and not able to marry in some cases as a serious staff. These all play an important role in explaining why ordinary Africans join rebel movement and doing terrible movements. As I said how we can solve these things and there is no one magical solution. The whole range of things need to be improved and it would be very welcomed if the outsiders come to the helpful position towards Africa whether in trade, aid, investment or politics. It would be very important for African leaders to be trusted. One of the biggest problems in Africa is governments do not trust their people. But of course if you treat your people like animals, they will act like animals.

The point of trust is that someone can only act responsibly if you give him freedom to do so. There can not be responsibility without freedom and no freedom without responsibility.

Thirdly, it is very important that African countries believe on regional integration whether in sub-regions or continent wide level. Do not do this because I get all romantic about Pan-Africanism.

I think cooperation will give you much better chance of dealing with the power politics and the global economy. Some countries are five million people and some countries ten million people, and it does not mean very much but if Africa unites or negotiates as one that it talks as a billion people.

When you talk to the USA, the European Union (EU) or China, it is a different organ and that is something I would hope will help also prevent these conflicts.

Herald:- Let us come to the issue of water. Some people fear that water would be a source of conflict specially in the Nile Basin region in the future. Do you think it would be a source of conflict in the region and how do you see that?

Dr. Harry:- In my writings, I have always argued against that. I do not think that there is any evidence to suggest that water or other scarcity of resources is going to cause conflict or already caused conflict. Scarcity in most cases stimulates people to cooperate whether at the level of a village or the level of states. There are a lot of academic researches which prove this statistically. People do not fight over water or other resources.

Particularly when we comes to the Nile region as I have argued so many times before, the future of the Nile Basin is in cooperation, to let the past be passed, to move forward, to share your resources.

Herald:- You must be aware of Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance Dam. Don't you think that Ethiopia has the right to develop its water resource in order to fight poverty?

Dr. Harry:- Very quickly and simply put I believe that the Ethiopian Dam—Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GRD) on the Blue Nile is a good thing not just for Ethiopia but for the region as well.

It can bring cheap and clean electricity to countries that need such as Sudan, South Sudan, Egypt, Kenya and may be one day Eritrea. So, I think in respect to that we should support any attempt by any Ethiopian government to try to speed up regional integration and the languages that has been coming up from the government here is encouraging.

I would hope that the Egyptian government becomes more flexible and understand the dam does not have damage to it, and it could work for its advantage. This could help change the relations in the region which historically has seen dozen conflicts and proxy wars to those of cooperation, economic growth and peace.

Herald:- You have presented a paper under the title: “Is China's non-interference policy history? The people's growing willingness to intervene on the African Continent” here at the Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University. Tell me a little bit about the argument of the paper.

Dr. Harry:- Okay. The argument of the presentation I made is that China is already giving up its interference policy in Africa because its growing business interests forced to increasingly get involved politically in Africa. Simply put the more economically exposed you are to a country, the more you are likely to want to protect your interest in that country. If I invest a lot of money for example here in Ethiopia, I do not want to have a government that confiscates my asset. I want to have some kinds of leverage over this government. So, I will develop a political tie that would build a bigger embassy, and I will try to protect that as much as I can.

In many cases political protection is enough and countries scale up to also militarily, and this is the classical story of what happened with the Americans in the Middle East in the Persian Gulf in search of the oil.

My argument about China is that as its interest deepens so does the tendency to want to protect even though China will maintains its rhetorical commitments to non-interference principle. In reality it will increasingly get politically involved in Africa as I showed in the presentation that already has huge amount of cases. You can think of China involving in peacekeeping in Africa including sending combat troops to Mali. You can think of China's involvement in Anti-piracy operations in the coast of Somalia.

We have seen the evacuation of China nationals from Libya at the time of civil war in Libya in the NETO intervention. Thus, this is likely to be increased not decreased in the future.

Herald:- There is a regional organization here in East Africa called IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development). Do you think IGAD is successful in conflict prevention, management and resolution?

Dr. Harry:- In conflict prevention, the answer is no. IGAD and Ethiopia are trying to mediate these parties. That is welcome, necessary and important but it is not enough clearly. And let us encourage IGAD to do more to be vigilant and raise its gain further but let us not sit back and think everything is simple. We see conflicts in Somalia, tensions in Eritrea, the multiple wars in Sudan, South Sudan. And we are very far.

Herald:- So what has to be done to solve these problems?

Dr. Harry:- Fundamentally of course it is a political leadership as I always said wars are made by man, they can be solved by man.

Herald:- What are the lessons to be learned in this regard?

Dr. Harry:- It would help if countries would stop meddling in each others' matters. I mean Uganda is part of IGAD but unilaterally moves into South Sudan sending troops without consulting others.

Herald:- Would you tell me a little bit about the modern historical relationships between African and China?

Dr. Harry:- The relationship between China and Africa goes back to the 1950th and 1960th when China used to be ruled by Mao Zedong when he came to power after the revolution in 1949. Mao was to support a range of African liberation struggles as well as to support a number of progressive leftist regimes in Africa through friendship projects, typically building infrastructure and providing some support in agriculture, education and health care.

However, the political assistance was limited in terms of financial size and the impact. Perhaps, the famous project, the so called TAZARA railway— (also called the Uhuru Railway or the Tanzam Railway) links the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam with the town of Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's Central Province. The project was financed and executed by the Peoples Republic of China at a cost of 500 million USD and was constructed as a turn key project between 1970 and 1975. TAZARA currently handles exports/imports of both Tanzania and Zambia, as well as Malawi, DR Congo, the Great Lakes region, South Africa and Zimbabwe— but apart from that there was not a huge amount of change in the development landscape of Africa.

The late 1970s, 80s and the beginning of 90s, the cooperation declined and China more focused on its internal growth and issues of democratization, economic reform, and opening up. This began to change as China began to realize that in order to sustain its growth and rapid industrialization external natural resources were needed.

For that it reason began intensifying relations with a range of African countries who mainly provide of natural resources and all critical materials such as petroleum, cooper, manganese, oil, etc.

The other phase, mainly after a year 2000, Africa did not just become a place where you could take resources but also you could sell things. Many people often see CHINA-AFRICA story as a straight forward extraction of resources. But the truth is that China serves a lot of things too here and provides services, engages in construction of roads and telecoms. It also provides cheap manufactured goods which are good business for Chinese companies particularly because there is no western competition, and the West thought there was no money to be made.

Herald:- Can you tell me the nature and the outcomes of the Sino-African relations?

Dr. Harry:- As I said the African-China relations is mainly driven by an economic goal which are explained in the extraction of resources as well as exporting of finished products. Historically, this is mainly about the so called One-China Policy. China does not pose any conditions on African countries. That is the policy of non-interference. China will not tell African countries how to organize their political system. But there is one exception. That exception is what we call the One-China Policy which is the instance of the government in Beijing that Taiwan as former part of China that they can not be independent, that it cannot be a state on its own. There cannot be any recognition for example for Taiwan by African countries. If you want official government assistance you have to recognize Beijing as a sole legitimate representative of the whole of China.

China also believes that engagement with Africa provides it with lots of diplomacy support in places like UN General Assembly, some degree of South-South Solidarity.

Herald:- Thank you very much for you time.

Dr. Harry:- Thank you.

 Rastafarians lament part of their gift land being taken off

BY ABERA WENDOSON

SHASHEMENE—Jas Meil is a Rastafarian living in the Shashemene along with fellow Rastas in a compound. She recently told the Ethiopian Press Agency(EPA) journalists that part of their land,which King Haile Sillasie granted to their predecessors as a gift, has been taken off by the town administration.

She also lodged a complaint that they could not get a citizenship ID, though they lived more than four decades in Shashemene.

“When Haile Silasie got back from exile he had given 500 hectares of land in Shashemene to the people of Jamaica or Rastafarians. But now this land is being taken away from us for different reasons. You see our land and our status go hand in hand!”she lamented.

She also complained the Rastafarian community is neither receiving an update of information on as to how their cases are proceeding nor getting a residence permit with a short period of time.

“I have lived in Ethiopia for fourteen years. This is my country and I have a legal right to be given citizenship. We participate in the building of Jamaica community schools to outreach town's children that don't afford education. We do many things. ”she added.

She told EPA reporters that unless Rasta community own a carter-plan,it is very difficult to protect their lands ensuring their ownership. She had approached the Ethiopian Emigration Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs several times in vain.

“We need the government to probe into the despicable situation we are in, approach us and alleviate the ailments besetting descendants of the African slaves honored by Haile Silassie. Sometimes I feel there might be something the government discussed with the local government but the local administration seems lax in imparting information. Earlier the government used to occasionally summon the Rastafarian community to appraise us new developments and updates,” she said.

EPA journalists had got the deputy mayor of the Shashemene town,Adem Bedhado with the complaints of Rastafarians. Regarding the claim that Rasta's land was taken away,he said,Shashemene is expanding from time to time.

Hence, the expansion of infrastructural facilities, as a matter of the town's master-plan, doesn't only obligate the devotion of Rastafarian's land for such purpose, but also require development- purpose-needed lands of citizens without a preferential treatment.

He didn't hide ,part of the Rasta's land has of course been included in what the administration demarcated as an Industrial Village.

“They used to have a wide farmland just like that of Ethiopian farmers. But government intends to take the land not because they are Rastas or Ethiopians but as per the infrastructural necessities,” Adem said.

He also added, “After all they are Ethiopians. Some are intermingled with Ethiopians and have given birth to children and adopted the culture. Besides, they are actively participating in all of our social as well as cultural activities both in Shashemene and beyond. So these citizens are crucial in building the image of the town. They also participate in the community-policing and help us in lots of fund raising efforts. Hence we could not ill-treat them or show them a cold shoulder”

“With regard to their claim of not getting citizenship,the deputy mayor said,the administration of the town has written a recognition letter to pertinent federal bodies recommending ' Rasta's deserve Ethiopian citizenship!' We have done our part. I believe the federal government would soon give response to the issue of citizenship,” he added.

He went on to say the Rastafarians' lack of carter plan for their lands,is not only harming them but it is also posing a setback to the town that fails to receive the necessary income.

For veracity reporters asked the deputy mayor regarding town residents' apprehension over Shashemene youths being drawn to a drug called 'Shisha' which some Rasta's are rumored to be using.

“Rastas are one of the emblems that Shashemene is known for. When some of them use the drug called Shisha they presume it is legal because they were known for using these drugs,”he responded

ras tefferians in ethiopia history

“The fact that these people are using this drug however does not mean they are the only factors behind few youths going off the track. Besides all Rastafarians don't use this drug just like all of Ethiopians in Shashemene cannot be using this drug,”Adem Added.

“There are a number of Rastafarian who are ethical and who really care for the renaissance of this nation. Nonetheless we are fighting the trend!”Adem added.