Ministry cancels nude exhibition

It would have drawn a big crowd.But a government ministry found it distasteful, or sort of.

The Amharic Reporter this morningn reported that the controversial exhibition in Addis featuring nude photos has been cancelled.

The exhibition, featuring the photographs of 50 nude girls taken by Binyam Mengesha, was due to open Friday at Dembel City Center’s Abesha Art Gallery.

The gallery is privately owned but permit is required from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.But the Ministry refused to grant the permit saying that the works violate the society’s norms and culture.A claim the photographer doesn’t agree with.” They are works of art that showcase our culture and beauty.Such artistic works should be encouraged, not banned.” he was  quoted as saying.

A lecture at Goethe-Institut

Democracy and the Social Question III

A series of lectures in the Acadamic Year 2007/08

After the storm:

How to Assess the Setback in Kenya’s Democratisation Process?

By Cyprian Orina-Nyamamu

cheif executive of National Convention (NCEC), Kenya

Moderated by Leulseged Tadesse, Forum for Federalism and Democracy

Tuesday, 24 June 2008, at 6 p.m

GOETHE-INSTITUT Gebrekirstos Desta Center Addis Abeba

“I’m not afriad of going to jail” Birtukan

A new party is born in Ethiopia. The new party, UDJ has held its founding congress on Wednesday. As a break from conventional politics, a woman has ascended to the throne-Birtukan Mideksa. The BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt spoke to her after the UDJ’s inaugural press conference and asked whether given the role of familiar faces from the platform if UDJ was just the CUDP under a new name. Here is my transcription.

Birtukan-It is CUDP under another name. Most of the members of the leadership were members of the leadership in the CUDP. And at the same time, the programme, by-laws, everything is similar.

Elizabeth-Almost a year I think since you and your colleagues were released from jail, there was, I know, a genuine happiness that you were free and there was a greater expectation, you would do something. For a year you and your colleagues have been touring abroad, have been quarreling among yourselves, you didn’t contest in the recent election. What would you say to your supporters you have in some ways let down?

Brtukan-I admit that there is a feeling of discouragement. Immediately after we went from jail, what we have tried was to secure our survival, to secure that we can function as one legally recognized party. But when we tried to do that, what we have achieved was challenges after challenges, you can say. We were not able to have our public meetings, even not able to explain out positions, our situations, everything. First you have to have recognition in the legal system, so that was our priority and that took us long time.

Elizabeth-Can I ask you a personal question? When you went jail, you had a young baby you saw very little of while you were in prison. Now you’re back into politics, are you afraid you are going to end up in jail?

Brtukan-I’m not afraid of going to jail. Not because that is not a possibility. I know that could happen.  

Children adopted from Ethiopia molested

It is a harrowing tale involving the case of two Ethiopian children adopted by a French family who have become victims of paedophile.

VOA reported last night that a four-year-old boy and an eighteen-month toddler were sexually molested by their adoptive father in St. Etienne, France.

The two had been sodomized until the four-year-old child’s chance visit to a hospital brought the case to light. The man who allegedly committed the crime is now in custody.

Dawit Daniel, an Ethiopian living in  France, told VOA’s Amharic Service that the revelation came when the 37 year-old unnamed adoptive father took the child to hospital to get him a treatment for a wound on his leg caused by a beating.He had to bring him again a week later when it got worse. This had got the doctors suspicious, which led them to examine the child and they alerted the police when they got confirmation.The suspect was arrested on the hospital gound. The eighteen-month toddler was brought to hospital by his adoptive mother and was found abused with a far more harm.

The children are now being taken care of in hospital. A special children’s court has decided they would be moved to foster homes when they are discharged from hospital where they could stay for six months. Then there is a possibility of reuniting them with their biological parents in Ethiopia or might be offered for adoption to another family in France.

Embet Gebreab, a Lyon resident Ethiopian, who runs an NGO Mama Ethiopia, told VOA she is pursuing the case on behalf of the children and has opened a file against the suspect. A court hearing was held two days ago where a representative from the Ethiopian Embassy in Paris also attended.

The court has given responsibility for an adoption service to see if the parents were capable of adopting.

The children were taken to France a month ago by an Addis-based adoption agency called Tukul.

Jorg and Munit’s concert

It was a low-key musical affair yet an immensely enjoyable experience for the mostly young audience at Hager Fikir Theatre. Two young musicians, one a US-based Ethiopian female vocal singer and a German guitar player, took the stage at the huge, high-ceilingled hall. There wasn’t any flashy or heavy instrument-just the tow of them-Jorg and Munit, with of course their guitar.
It was Munit who did the introduction with her stammering but proper Amharic, at times mixing with English. She had an aura of simplicity and humour. She told us that she was having a cold, so she might produce some bizarre sounds, she warned us. Jorg was also having flu, she told us to beware, because “nifit” might come anytime. It was a little cheeky but the audience roared.
The first line of song they played was Bob Marley’s rendering of “Jamming”. It was enjoyable and fairly upbeat. The next one, “Just the two us” the cover song for their CD which was on sale at the entrance. The audience seemed unable to settle on response to the music at this early stage and a mixture of reaction were seen.
As the atmosphere progresses, the crowd entertained with a mixture of original and time tested favourtie music.
One of the songs, “I remember” which Munit said was her first full Amharic song conjures up childhood memory, like drinking Pepsi and watching Ababa Tesfaye on ETV. There was a hint of sadness in her voice as she recalls those times passed. Other songs include Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me one Reason”. But my favourite one was an interpretation of Girma Beyene’s “Set Alaminm” which Munit understandably changed in to “Wonde Alaminm”. It beautifully displayed Munit’s talent for soft, fluid vocals.
The music style expresses childhood innocence and simplicity. This style can be witnessed in “Lem Lem.”
I feel some of the songs need some more work and practice but all in all the two deserve respect and attention.
Jorg and Munit’s C.D ..just the two of us, recorded live at @ the Coffee House could be found at Irea Music shop in Kazanchis.

Live concert at Hager Fikir

A late concert announcement but you have still the opportunity not to miss it. Jorg and Munit  are performing this afternoon at Hager Fikir Theater starting from 3, 00 P.M.It is all free.

I look forward to attending and reviewing the concert.

For more info, check out thier website.

Desperation as hunger grow: BBC

Appalling news from BBC’s Gavin Hewitt from the south-west Ethiopia with a video.

“It is a strange and unsettling ride west from the Ethiopian town of Shashamene. The fields are vibrant green. There is water in the creeks. The soil is a deep rich burgundy. However, the people here speak of a “green drought”.

 

It is the time when the land is full of new shoots but there is no food. It happens because the last rains failed and few crops were planted.”Read the full story here.

Elisabeth blunt is also reporting from the Eastern Harar where she says children have become victims of a deadly coincidence of factors: drought, price rises and aid cut.Read story here.

Victory party for Obama

Here is a picture from Tadias where Ethiopian Americans are seen celebrating Obama’s Democratic presidential nomination.

 

 Read full story here.

Did Hilary say ‘bring ‘em on’?

Rosa Brooks, an op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times, writes an ode to Hilary’s failed campaign relating with Bush’s strategy on the Iraq War.

Here is the start.

  

‘It’s the economy, stupid,” said James Carville, summing up Bill Clinton’s 1992 win over George H.W. Bush. Bush started out with incumbent status and an impressive resume, but he never managed to wrap his mind around the fact of the recession. In the end, he lost to Clinton — the candidate from nowhere.Sixteen years later, it’s Clinton’s wife who’s found herself in the elder Bush’s position. Hillary Rodham Clinton began the Democratic primary with a famous name, thousands of Democrats who owed their careers to her husband, an enviable war chest and scores of super delegates in her pocket before the race even began. 

Read the whole here.

Andreas is back

The past week came as a relief for family and friends of Prof. Andreas Eshete when he made it home after being treated for pneumonia and strokes in South Africa.

His loyal circle of friends and family members hurried to welcome the wheelchair-confined professor who flew from Washington D.C where he spent weeks convalescing.

It is said that the illness was brought on by over-abundance of alcoholic consumption and chain-smoking, though he has been sober lately.

While the university is busy preparing for the graduation ceremony to be held in August, his assistants are looking for ways to distract the professor from his troubles.

It is hoped that he would be out of a wheelchair by then and lead the commencement ceremony, as he prefers to call it.

Though Prof. Andreas is widely admired for his brains, the university community has never developed a fondness for him. Just the opposite, in fact, he has long suffered from his image as Mele’s pet dog and an opportunist who has given up his liberal values for Mele’s brand of “revolutionary democracy”.