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Month: March 2019

Temporary Lots Alleviate Parking, Financial Problems

Posted on by Web Master

Benyam Tekleberhan, 26, graduated two years ago from Admas University in accounting but was dissatisfied with the salary scale and overall conditions of working as an agent for CBE Birr, a mobile payment platform.

“I like to work outdoors, and I am not an office person who tolerates restrictions,” he said.

He and 40 other people who have been looking for work registered at the Bole District Wereda02 Small & Medium Enterprise Bureau as unemployed persons recently. They were issued unemployment ID cards.

The group consists of students, street boys, shoe shiners and car washers who live a hand-to-mouth existence. About 67pc were street boys from around Bole, while the others have some high school education and college degrees.

The youth, after passing a selection process at the weredaand district level SMEs, were sent to the City Trade & Industry Bureau to be registered and obtain licenses, TIN numbers and a letter that makes them eligible to enter into a contract with the City Traffic Management Agency.

The Agency, after verifying their documents, writes another letter to Addis Credit Finance & Savings that enables them to open saving accounts. Then they were assigned to operate a parking lot located in front of Friendship Mall on Africa Avenue in Bole district.

The area was once leased by the City Administration to the Saudi Arabia Embassy to develop. After the lot lay undeveloped for several years, the city administration repossessed it a couple of months ago.

Many other plots throughout the city that were once leased to 95 enterprises, 18 diplomatic missions and 11 government offices were repossessed in recent months by the City Administration.

In total, 1.3 million square metres of leased land and another 2.7 million square metres of land has been transferred during different regimes or before the current leasehold system came into effect.

After the lots were repossessed, Deputy Mayor Takele Uma initiated a project of using the land for job creation purposes, while the city plans its long-term goals.

The city’s Land Management, Road Authority, Construction Bureau, Traffic Management Agency and some investors collaborated to create the project, which identified 12 parking plots around the city, six in Bole, three in Kirkos andthree in Lideta.

The City Roads Authority, City Construction Bureau and some investors provided earth moving machinery, dump trucks and other construction materials for the project. It is hoped that the parking lot will reduce city road congestion and accidents.

Terminals for taxis and buses have also been developed as part of the scheme in Piassa, Arada Giorgis, which has significantly reduced traffic congestion in the area, according to Mearnet Gebretsadiq, director at the Traffic Management Agency.

The size of the lots differs from 2,000Sqm in front of Bambis to 12,000Sqm inside the new stadium around Bole Medhanialem, which is still under construction.

The number of youth organised by the SMEs is around 300, and most of them have already registered and signed contracts with the Addis Abeba City Traffic Management Agency.

The largest groups, which consists of 60 members, are assigned to Adey Abeba Stadium, which is under construction in Bole.

One of the lots is located in front of Friendship Mall and was given to Benyam and his friends to operate as a parking lot. They have already started the service and have been working for the past four months.

“If we work hard here, we could make a lot of money,” said Benyam.

The site was neglected and bare for years and has been a concern for those in the area, according to Engdawork Mengesha, a security supervisor at Jupiter Hotel, located in front of the parking lot.

“The homeless and lawbreakers used it as a shelter,” Engdawork toldFortune.

The parking has been a good opportunity for the hotel customers, especially when there are meetings and other events, since the parking lot at the hotel is fully occupied, according to Engdawork.

Drivers like Samson Assefa, who goes to the area once a week for business meetings, are positive about the parking lot. But he points out that the parking fees vary at different times of day. “It is better if the smart gate controller operates, and customers know the price clearly,” said Samson.

The minimum fee for parking is six Birr and a maximum of 21 Br.

But the fee differs depending on the users, according to Dawit Kebede, team leader of the group that Benyam is working with.

“Some people pay a minimum of three Birr an hour, while others encourage us by giving up to 20 Br,” he said.

Four of the parking lots, including Benyam’s, have smart gate controllers. Two of them are at the National Stadium, while the remaining are located near Golden Tulip Hotel. Ephrem Zeru of Smart Parking Technology Plc installed the system.

The company has trained the youth and assigned a company manager to help them operate the system.

The controllers have been procured by the Transport Programmes Management Office, according to Ashu Sintayehu, road transport operations & law enforcement deputy CEO at the Agency.

The parking lot located in Kazanchis near the Total gas station is now operational. The area was cleared by youth who started to offer parking lot services on their own.

“Even the police force of the weredahas helped, since they view our efforts as positive, because the area was used by criminals who hide there,” said Addis Bihonegn, team leader of the parking lot that operates with 10 members.

For businesses adjacent to the new parking lots, it has been a great relief that the lot has changed for the better.

“In addition to being used by our customers, the clean and maintained conditions of the lots have relieved us from the unpleasant smell that penetrates our building and offices,” said Genet Abebe, a secretary working in a nearby building.

These businesses have to share half of their revenue with the government’s road fund, and the other 50pc will be spent as salaries, with a limit of 2,000 Br a month that includes paying taxes on turnover and other deductions.

The ultimate goal of the scheme is to enable each enterprise to save a quarter of a million Birr, which could be the basis for starting other businesses, eventually leaving the slot for other job seekers.

They are required to save the amount within a short period, as the land used as parking lots are already leased to other developers.

To graduate in the stated time and handover the lots, the youths propose to supplement their income by providing a car wash service.

Drivers also suggest a weekly or monthly ticket arrangement by the Agency, which could offer a reasonable discount.

“We will respond to their comments step by step, seeing the challenges they meet during their performance,” said Ashu.

Fekadu Gurmessa (PhD), lecturer on transport geography at Addis Abeba University for more than a decade, finds the move acceptable as a quick fix from the angle of creating job opportunities for the youth.

But he says that the city administration has to work more to decrease vehicular movement in the city centre.

“To be more practical, it needs to build more enforcement capacity to free the streets from cars,” Fekadu said. For a sustainable solution, the city requires a strategy that discourages the entrance of more vehicles to the centre of the city and encourages more people to use mass transport, according to him.

Binyam, currently staying with his family, is engaged in a job that makes him feel comfortable and hopeful for of a better future.

Addis Abeba: the Chicago that Never Was

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Increasing human population, uncontrolled urbanisation and inadequate sanitation infrastructure have caused a degradation of Addis Abeba’s rivers. When we travel anywhere around the capital where there is a river nearby, the smell is unbearable. Looking down at them from a bridge or a bank, we can see that our rivers are biologically dead.

The Addis Abeba City River Side City Park Project, with an expected project life of three years, aims to change this and bring our rivers back to life. There is a justifiable scepticism over whether or not the project will be realised, given the poor record of project implementation and the lavish concept designs we have been shown. But none of these factors – which can be avoided with strict follow up – are enough to discredit the importance of rehabilitating Addis’ rivers.

Most European and American cities in the industrial revolution saw increased populations as people were moving from the countrysides into the cities for jobs in factories. It was a time of booming manufacturing but the cities’ environments paid a price. Waste from factories, dumped into water bodies nearby, made rivers unbearable to be near. A prime example of this tendency was Chicago.

The Chicago River ran through the heart of the city and was once full of sewage. It led to the building of a series of canals in the late 19th century to actually reverse the flow of waste away from Lake Michigan to prevent it from contaminating the city’s water supply.

This changed in the 1980s when Chicago’s heavy industry was in retreat and the city was in decline. The mayor of Chicago beginning in the late 1980s was then Richard M. Daley, who went on to bring about an end to Chicago’s decline by beautifying the city.

“If Chicago hoped to become a world-class city, it had to look like one,” he used to say.

More than a century after the city became an industrial hub, the Chicago River Corridor Development Plan, which constructed new trails, parks, overlooks and riverwalks along the Chicago River, was launched. This waterway, far too long dismissed as a dirty and stinky ditch, is now home to a vast array of wildlife, including beavers, turtles and more than 70 species of fish.

On and along the river, people are now fishing, walking, biking, living and working just as their mayor had envisioned back in the 1980s. The Chicago River system has become the anchor of a booming waterfront economy. The Riverwalk is home to many dining options, hosts special events throughout the year, and several river tours and cruises are available.

Gone are the days when the river was stinky and an unsightly place. Nowadays, the most expensive areas to live in Chicago are near the river. The country’s second largest building, Willis Tower, is located near the river, 41pc of the city’s workforce lives within one mile of the Riverwalk and the lowest retail market vacancy rate is near the river. Based on estimates, there are about 1.5 million users of the Riverwalk every day.

Chicago’s Riverwalk shows that public spaces can even pay for themselves. By spurring commercial development opportunity, the Chicago Riverwalk is a great example of how successfully improving rivers captures future value.

Chicago and Addis Abeba have similarities. They have relatively comparable areas, populations and rivers flowing through their centres. Addis Abeba is also a quickly urbanising city with a booming service sector. But while Chicago is now one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Ethiopia’s political, economic and cultural centre is lagging far behind. Fortunately, it is not too late, and with this project, it is possible to transform Addis Ababa into the world-class city it never was.

Recurrent Water Shortage Exasperates Consumers

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For Hana Tilahun, 28, who lives in Bethel, close to Balcha Aba Nefso Street, water shortages are a common occurrence. But she is anguished that her house did not receive a single drop of water for the past two weeks.

She and her six family members managed to survive the first week using water they had stored in barrels. But as the days went by, things got difficult.

Being a full-time legal clerk and having two nieces in primary school living in the house meant that at the very least, uniforms had to be washed.

“We had to resort to the informal market for cleaning purposes,” Hana says. “We had to incur additional costs on bottled water for cooking and drinking.”

Twenty litres of water for 20 Br was what was available from water vendors. By the time the second week was over, the family had spent 80 Br for water they use for cleaning.

“If things aren’t going to change this week, I will have to buy the 50ltr bottled water jar,” said Hana. “I can’t keep buying the smaller ones.”

It is not only her area that is suffering from this problem but much of the city.

“We get water once a week on Tuesdays,” Zelalem Tesfaye, another resident who lives in Gofa Mebrat Haile, said.

He says there was water shortage since they moved into the condominiums nine years ago, but it has only been getting worse. At the beauty salon Zelalem owns, a 7,000ltr water tanker is filled on Tuesdays for clients that could number as many as 30 on weekdays.

“Sometimes we run out of reserves before the water comes again,” he says.

In such cases, he buys water from businesses that sell water from tanker trucks. They charge him 700 Br to have his tank filled.

Asefaw Kebede is one business person that has seen an opportunity in the current water shortage. Four months ago, he fastened a tank to his truck and began to sell water. He has found many clients in CMC, Lam Beret and Goffa areas.

“Business has been good,” he says.

Business has been good for Asefaw, because the city has been unable to meet its demand for clean water, and the city’s government had resorted to rationing water since last year.

Out of the 116 weredasin Addis Abeba, only 25 receive water running throughout the whole week. The rest get water between five days a week and just once a week, depending on the amount of power it takes to pump the water and consumption rates. The latter are located mostly around Gulele and Yeka district.

“Districts in areas with high elevation require the use of a great deal of power to get water to them,” says Zelalem Tesfaye, head of water pipes installation, maintenance circulation and the wastage supervision workforce at the Addis Abeba Water & Sewerage Services Authority.

The Authority, established in 1971, currently has around 550,000 clients in a city of 3.4 million residents, according to the Central Statistical Agency. Addis Abeba is home to a third of the nation’s urban population, which is growing at a rate of 3.8pc annually.

This is despite the fact that the Authority currently supplies 575,000 cubic metres of water, satisfying just two-thirds of the demand. This is in a country where over 71pc of the population has access to water, which according to One Wash National Programme, is defined as being able to find 25ltr of water each day within a kilometre distance and 40ltr of water within a quarter of a kilometre for urban areas.

“It’s not only population growth that is a challenge but also the increase from time to time in the number of construction projects,” says Zelalem.

Currently, the city is getting its water from three dams and around 184 water wells.

Legedadi Dam & Treatment Plant, located on the Aqaqi River east of Addis Abeba, has a capacity of producing 174,000 cubic meters of water a day, while the Gefersa Dam located northwest of the city produces 30,000 cubic meters of water. Dire, an earth fill dam, diverts water to Legedadi Dam.

The remaining water supply of the city comes from well fields, accounting for 65pc.

Although these sources do not supply enough water to the city, the compounding issue has been distribution problems. It is caused by power interruptions, water pipe breakage due to ongoing road construction and the age of existing pipes.

These problems lead to the disruption of the city’s rationing system, denying people like Hana and her family water six days a week. The Authority states that these are problems that also affect the quality of water that is supplied.

Last week, one of the two major pipes, which is almost half a decade old and supplies water from Legedadi Dam was leaking and needed major repair. Consequently, most areas in the eastern parts of the city were out of water for three days.

The authorities are also battling power interruptions.

“The water supply of one district might require five water pumping stations,” says Zelalem. “If electricity is out at one of the stations, the water supply of the consecutive stations is going to be affected too.”

The Authority owns generators to power the pumping stations during blackouts, but these were only meant for emergencies and can only run for eight hours straight.

“The cost of running them is too high,” said Zelalem, adding that the city expended 350,000 Br in diesel fuel in the last fiscal year to run the generators.

The authorities state that they are doing their best to address the myriad challenges facing consistent water provision in the city. Currently, there is an ongoing two billion Birr project to expand the water infrastructure.

The North-South Ayata Fenta water well project, set to be completed next year, will have the capacity of producing 68,000 cubic metres a day, while phase two construction of the Legedadi Water Well Supply Project will generate 86,000 cubic metres of water a day. There is also the Gerbi Water Project, which will generate 73,000 cubic metres a day.

The Authority has also put in place a plan to replace an average of 40Km of pipes annually.

“In addition to increasing water supplies, we are also working on conservation and recycling measures,” says Zelalem. “We plan to compel factories that consume high levels of water to dig their own wells and supply construction companies with recycled water.”

The City Administration has no illusions that the problem will stop, which is why it is for the time being trying to come up with a fairer rationing system. The target is to ensure that every area in the city will get water for at least two days a week.

Addisalem Zelek (PhD), who has experience in water resource management for more than 15 years, believes that the authorities should never forget that water resources will remain limited.

“Water supply should be given attention in urban planning,” he says. “There is no reason a factory that consumes 25,000ltr of water a day should be located in the middle of the city.”

He points out that conservation measures are the most important strategy the city should follow.

Frustration over the city’s water supply, nonetheless, continues.

“You can’t deprive people of their once a week water supply,” said Hana. “Unless the demand is met, it will continuously lead to grievances, complaints and conflicts.”

Lack of Awareness Feeds the Autism Problem

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April 2, World Autism Awareness Day, aims to put a spotlight on the hurdles that people with autism and their families face every day. Western countries have put in a great deal of research on this developmental disorder, raising awareness, service provisions and policy formulations.

Awareness about the disorder is showing improvement in Ethiopia, but there remains much that is still unknown and misunderstood. The number of children who are diagnosed with autism is estimated to be increasing, but the amount of dedicated health providers remains constant.

No specific policy considers autism as a specific case. We are in a country where psychological and developmental disorders do not carry as much currency in the medical profession, and special needs education has barely gotten off the ground.

Worse still, autism has not broken through social barriers and continues to be attached to myths that are making addressing the problem more challenging.

One of the most widespread beliefs is that the symptoms of the disorder have a spiritual cause. What is usually recommended, out of desperation as well as awareness by parents, are spiritual interventions. Hospitals usually are not the first choice for treatment for someone with a mental health problem, especially in rural areas.

Some research shows that faith has a positive influence on people’s mental states, but the view that an evil spirit causes autism is dangerous. It causes stigma and discrimination, even by parents, and the methods used to rid oneself of this social as well as mental problem can potentially worsen the condition of the children.

Another harmful myth about autism is that it is transmittable, leading to further discrimination and marginalisation of those affected by it. That autism is contagious, like the flu, is a surprisingly common theory in religious places and schools.

“It is not my son being autistic that hurts me,” a mother once told me. “In case my son and I pass by the field where children are playing, they run away like they have seen a wild animal. I know they don’t feel this way; it is their parents who tell them that it is transmittable.”

The causes of autism, which affects millions of people around the world, are more genetic or associated with environmental factors. This simple awareness can go a long way in getting communities to pitch in to address this problem.

Just as frustrating a myth associated with the disorder is that of aggressiveness. Autistic children do not deliberately attack their peers or anyone else. They do not seriously think about how to hurt or attack someone. But they could be easily manipulated into doing this.

Otherwise, aggression may happen due to sensory overload or the frustration from their inability to communicate or express themselves. This myth is common in schools and with teachers.

This comes from a lack of understanding of the children’s conditions and special needs. There are multiple examples of how nonverbal and “aggressive” children that were sent to autism centres showed incredible progress in both communication and academics by the time they were promoted to mainstream schools.

What is harmful is expecting children with this disorder to act and show the same level of social communication skills that kids without autism have. Under the right treatment packages and proper awareness of the behaviour patterns of these children, there are chances of bringing them up to speed.

Without a national policy and a community to contribute its fair share in helping these children and their parents though, the problem will persist, and early recognition and treatment possibilities will dissipate.

 

Should Public Demonstrations Turn into Platforms for Intimidation?

Posted on by Web Master

There was a demonstration – of sorts – held in the city of Bahir Dar, the seat of the Amhara Regional State, on March 24, 2018, carried out as a “protest” of a planned townhall meeting by leaders of Ginbot 7, an opposition party that was recently brought back into the political fold after abandoning its insurgency from its base in Eritrea.

Those protesting – indeed intimidating – the organizers and would-be participants of the meeting were against the party holding a meeting in the city, which sounds unreasonable given that citizens of any democratic state have to be able to tolerate even those with views they find hard to swallow themselves. While some of those lined up on the front lines of the protest march were visibly armed and appeared lethal, the issue transcended the right of protest and demonstration.

There were of course placards carried during the demonstration that may have proved offensive to the organizers and their supporters. Indeed, these were unproductive to a nation in great need of public discourse free of extremism.

However, a multiparty democracy has to tolerate such conduct for it is a system which, if given time, favours the centre.

What any sort of democratic dispensation should not tolerate though is the use of coersive force by various groups and their supporters on the battlefield of ideas. Bringing deadly weapons to a demonstration does not stand for reason and is not the sort of conduct justifiable by any of the principles of pluralism. The Bahir Dar demonstration was only a recent example of what could be nothing less than a perversion of the democratic process.

Many of these violent demonstrations taking place across the country, often spontaneously, with no recognisable body that takes responsibility for organising them, feature wooden clubs and even machetes. It is not uncommon for them to climax with the destruction of public property and lives.

These are far cries from what marches, sit-ins and rallies are supposed to be. In their proper form, they can be used to bring attention to matters that have not received enough attention from agents of the state or show support for the rights of common citizens.

Around the world, they have been used for activism. It was civil resistance that won India its independence in the 1940s, African-Americans their social justice in the 1960s and the revolutions of the 1980s that resulted in the end of Soviet rule in Eastern and Central Europe.

What is currently taking place in Ethiopia is the opposite of these, and indeed of the protests, largely peaceful, which led to a change of leadership within the EPRDF last year. They have a different character and feel.

What followed appears to have changed its form. Demonstrations have become platforms for showing force rather than an actual call for political change. They are more akin to a military government’s conduct in forcing citizens to turn out in mass on specific dates of the year, hoping to flex their muscles and intimidating its political opponents.

Such rallies, like many of the demonstrations being held today, are carried out to show force, to drive a political point home that one group is powerful and thus should be reckoned with. They are meant to intimidate rather than publicise a political issue.

Indeed, political activism can take many forms and be used in support or in protest of a national issue that could be interpreted as counterproductive. Strikes, boycotts and sit-ins may cause economic disruptions; and some issues at the centre of demonstrations can be exceptionally offensive to groups that are being opposed. All of these are part of the package of a multiparty democracy that the state needs to tolerate in the name of recognising citizens’ freedoms of association, expression and organisation.

But when these demonstrations deploy objects designed to inflict harm, they fall outside the bounds of all sorts of democratic dispensations. Citizens have the freedom only in as far as they do not place others in harm’s way. This is to say nothing of the adverse effects of such types of demonstrations on the democratisation process. This includes even those that may be conducted in a manner that does not contravene the bounds of the law. There could be little gained from demonstrations meant to intimidate others despite their peaceful conclusion.

Activism is crucial to democracies, and public protests are a major feature of these. But when these become corrupted into opportunities to bully and show the willingness to perpetuate violence, what follows is an escalation by every opposing group. It becomes a politics of mobs rather than of ideas.

Fueled by the general sense of confusion in the country, lawlessness and an undeveloped democratic culture, such demonstrations provide the impetus for polarisation. Without the backing of a justifiable cause, they become mere opportunities for the exercise of strongman politics, a far cry from consensus building, an element crucial for institutionalising power.

The source of the problem for political activism in contemporary Ethiopia is the stifling of opposition in the past. Such activism has been inherited from a long-held, and on occasions true, view that political change can only be realised through intimidation. It is the fruit of the absence of orderly and legitimate transfers of power on the national psyche. A zero-sum game.

There is neither the patience nor the trust in local officials to apply and wait for permits to hold demonstrations, a matter that can be addressed by bringing clarity to the list of requirements that need to be fulfilled for holding public demonstrations and making the process smooth. Transparency, specifically concerning why requests for demonstrations have been rejected, is crucial.

It is important that there is an organising body ready to take responsibility for demonstrations and checks to ensure that displays of weapons other than those held by law enforcement are not allowed. Such precautions need to be backed by the courage of local authorities’ conviction to ensure that offenders are brought before the law, no matter the political consequences this may bring.

This is not only crucial to making demonstrations safe. It is indispensable to realising activism that plays a constructive role in the democratic purpose, in bringing about socio-political progress, and not in merely being used as an opportunity for various groups to show force and to intimidate.

Investing in Inclusive Growth

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Inequality has skyrocketed in recent decades, and those who have not shared in the fruits of economic growth and development are becoming increasingly frustrated. Some political leaders have responded to rising public discontent with massive social welfare programs or beggar-thy-neighbour protectionism. That is the wrong prescription.

Populists on the right and the left have led the charge in implementing such counterproductive policies. The former often embrace protectionism, and the latter advocate unproductive social welfare spending. Even if they provide short-term benefits to some groups, these policies will fail to bring about inclusive growth – and they may do serious harm to the economy in the long run.

The most prominent proponent of protectionism today is United States President Donald Trump, who has aggressively pursued his “America First” agenda since his inauguration in 2017. Trump blames free trade for job losses and real-wage depression in the United States’ manufacturing sector and argues that measures like higher import tariffs will bring back manufacturing jobs, raising many American workers’ wages and improving their welfare.

But most economists agree that protecting less productive industries and unskilled workers against global competition will not lead to long-term economic gains. Even in the short term, there is no evidence that Trump’s protectionist policies have had the intended effects.

The other favoured approach to reducing inequality – excessive redistributive policies – is similarly problematic. In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in’s administration has raised the minimum wage by 29pc over two years, while expanding social welfare spending. This was supposed to boost the wellbeing – and consumption – of low-wage workers and low-income households, thereby strengthening inclusivity, a key pillar of sustainable growth. But the change hit small businesses hard, and job creation remains weak. The country’s income distribution has worsened significantly.

Then there’s Venezuela. For two decades, left-wing populist governments – led by the late Hugo Chávez and now by his protégé, President Nicolás Maduro – have pursued excessive social-welfare policies, funded by large oil revenues. Yet because the government failed to diversify the economy, Venezuela was quickly consumed by a dire economic crisis when crude oil prices plummeted.

Over the last three years, Venezuela’s real GDP has contracted more than 15pc annually. Last year, the annual inflation rate exceeded 1.3 million percent, with prices doubling every 19 days. As food and other basic necessities became unaffordable, the average Venezuelan reportedly lost 11Kg. More than three million people, about a tenth of the population, have fled the country.

By weakening incentives to work and invest, protectionism and excessive social welfare policies undermine job creation, impede technological progress and drive down economic growth. In other words, far from boosting inclusive growth, these strategies discourage it.

A far more effective approach would emphasise human-capital development, achieved through greater investment in education and skills training. The World Bank, among other international organisations, recognises this, advocating human-capital investment – together with improved infrastructure, pro-competition regulatory reform, anti-corruption measures and adequate social security systems – as key components of any successful strategy to secure inclusive growth.

To remain competitive, an economy must pursue open trade policies, promote technological development and encourage higher-value production – all while building a workforce with the skills to match. That is precisely the strategy that enabled East Asian economies to create quality jobs, raise incomes and achieve strong “growth with equity.”

The first step is to expand access to quality education and vocational training across regions and social groups. Governments must provide financial assistance, including subsidised loans or scholarships to children from low-income households. Public support for vocational training must target low-skill and other disadvantaged workers, especially those in small firms or the informal sector.

Sustaining such policies will require considerable financial resources. That is why governments must not only place a high priority on education in their budgets but also attract additional resources from the private sector and the international community. Moreover, they must strengthen the efficiency and accountability of school systems and vocational training programs. Encouraging competition among institutions and strengthening monitoring and evaluation mechanisms would support the efficient use of resources.

In an environment of rapid technological change, education and vocational training must evolve to equip people with the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to prosper now and in the future. In particular, lifelong learning opportunities should be improved and expanded, so that workers can continue to secure quality employment throughout their lives.

If governments are to fulfill their responsibility to support people’s ability to reach their potential, they must not succumb to the siren song of protectionism or excessive social welfare spending. Establishing an inclusive labour market is a prerequisite for inclusive growth. To achieve that goal, policymakers must make education and skills development for all workers – together with pro-growth policies to expand economic opportunities – a top priority.

The Misconceptions of Ethiopia’s Feminist Mov’t

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It is not uncommon to hear of misconceptions people tend to have about one of the most critical issues in our contemporary society, feminism. It is just as frustrating, if not more, to hear why many find the subject matter hard to swallow.

Indeed, in a developing country where most basic economic and political necessities are not met, how it is possible to develop without the active engagement of half of the population is not clear.

It is as well atypical that the concept of equal opportunities for both genders became a surprise in a patriarchal country. It is only natural that all socio-political systems will at some point or another be faced with counter movements, which in this case was the rise of women’s movements meant to resist male-dominated political and economic institutions.

Why are people unwilling to support such changes if it is a concept that must be easy to grasp?

This is a matter that nonetheless deserves scrutiny. Primarily, most people believe that the concept of feminism is not necessary for a society where women were and are symbolical representations of their country. This shows the value of women in that society, they would claim. This leads to deflections of the matter: that inequality in fact only exists between classes.

While the woman was working the whole day in the household, the husband was out there tilling the land, thus where is the justice in only calling for the liberation of the former?

There is also the view that those that call for the betterment of women’s lives and gender equality do not care about the issue as much as they say. Rather, they care about the funds they gain from foreign activists. The proponents of the issue become the point of argument more than the issue at hand itself, which is a favourite tactic used by politicians. It is a strategy of attacking opponents personally, instead of addressing the issue head-on.

The other critical point raised, and particularly popular these days, is the matter of contextualisation. It is often said that these concepts are imported from the West without a good understanding of the socio-cultural circumstances.

Emotions are a product of ideas, actions and their consequences, thus defensive reactions of feminism are a consequence of incorrect interpretation of conceptual implications. A criticism of societal backwardness without considering its positive values, and blaming men for everything that has happened to women, will lead to the creation of polar opposites.

Beyond bold, visible and positive efforts of women’s rights activists in Ethiopia, there are issues that have left a vast hole in understanding. This has to especially do with the development of positive values in a society and ensuring that the space is wide open for men to join the argument. It should never be forgotten that the equality of women can never be attained fully until it gets positive support from the society it belongs to.

What contributes greatly to this is the presence of poor or non-contextualisation among advocates of women’s rights. Its representation should not be solely from the perspective of Western cultures and norms, which can otherwise create misunderstanding and the extreme politicisation of the issue.

Undeniably, strong and entrenched women’s rights is a huge help to our society. But it is hard to come to a consensus over the matter without the balanced and rational interpretation of what it entails.

Contextualisation, reconciliation and working on the development of indigenous values for creating a healthy relationship between men and women will bring us closer to a clearer understanding of the concept. Because, whatever the case is, a nation will find it hard to develop, as well as be at peace with itself, if it does not ensure that the cultural, political and economic avenues are not open to half of its population.

A Malnourished Nation

Posted on by Web Master

From time to time on Fridays when schedules permit, my younger brother, who is in his clinical year in medical school, and I go out for dinner or the movies. As his schedule is unpredictable, I often go to the hospital where he is practising and wait for him in the patients’ waiting area until he finishes his work.

On one of these occasions, I met a young boy who quietly stood next to his mother. He was half dressed, barefoot and very minuscule with blemished and pale skin. I was surprised when he mentioned that he was eight years old – he looked much younger. He was tired, was uninterested in playing with my phone and would not speak to me for long.

His mother was more forthcoming. She confirmed that her boy was indeed eight years old and that he has lived all his life in Addis Abeba, though he had not started school yet. She, her husband and six children live in a one-room house in Sidist Kilo. Surprisingly enough, I learned that this mother of six, one of whose children I was able to see was evidently malnourished, came to the hospital seeking fertility treatment.

Even sadder, she had lost three children before they even reached five years of age. In each case, doctors had told her that the primary cause was malnutrition. This is a problem emblematic of the whole country.

About a third of all child deaths are connected to malnutrition in Ethiopia, according to UNICEF. This tragedy puts Ethiopia sixth in the global ranking of under-feeding its child population. What is aching is 72pc of these deaths are preventable if malnutrition, the leading cause of child mortality in Ethiopia, is halted. Out of Ethiopia’s 15.2 million under the age of five, 38pc are severely stunted, while a quarter are underweight, according to USAID.

The chronic problem is not of children only but also adults. Over half of our adult population is malnourished, according to estimates by medical professionals. It may not cause sudden death to adults for the body grows accustomed to it, but it has been confirmed that it puts adults at high risk of infectious diseases due to compromised immune systems, making diseases such as tuberculosis common in Ethiopia.

Nearly 800 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. Regrettably, it is common for poor nations such as Ethiopia to be overwhelmed with chronic child and adult undernourishment. People are categorised under this grouping if they are not getting enough protein, calories and micronutrients. On the other hand, the category of overnutrition is described as overconsumption of nutrients, such as protein, calories and fat.

Inadequate amounts of food cause retarded growth and cognitive development. Malnutrition in all its forms increases the risk of disease and early death by affecting organs like the central nervous system, which develops during infancy.

Apart from the risk of developing diseases, such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, later in life due to malnutrition in childhood, there is evidence of long-term adverse effects on the intellectual capacity of human beings.

Undernourished children lack energy and appropriate cognitive development, forcing them to be less enquiring and proactive. This impairs their physical, mental and economic development.

Malnutrition, common among the poor and those with inadequate access to health care, education, clean water and good sanitation, causes children to have lower intelligence, problems in reading, arithmetic, reasoning and vocabulary.

Ethiopia is living in this disturbing reality. Children’s undernourishment not only perpetuates the vicious cycle of stubborn poverty but also leads to an enormous waste of human potential. Ethiopia’s short and long-term efforts to economic development will inevitably be unsuccessful until optimal child growth and development are ensured at a country level.

The consequences of malnutrition should be a significant concern for families, policymakers and the community in general, because the damage is far-reaching and lasting. It should receive a strong political commitment from the current incumbent and should as well be a point of debate for political parties aspiring to public office.

 

The Harmful Notion of ‘My Country, Right or Wrong’

Posted on by Web Master

The New York Times’  March 20 article by Selam Gebrekidan, an award-winning journalist, raised the ire of many Ethiopians and even some foreign fliers of Ethiopian Airlines, who lashed out at Selam on social media outlets. The response was quick and savage from many quarters that belie the Ethiopian character when it comes to issues of national pride.

Ethiopian Airlines is indeed a national pride that has somewhat managed to survive the onslaught of nearly half a decade of misguided government policies that have managed to sink telecom, the postal service and the electric utility service.

Ethiopian Airlines has survived to be a multi-award-winning airline with a modern fleet, world-class service and facilities, profitable operation and remains a pioneer of aviation development in Africa.

Questioning the veracity of the sole crown jewel of the tattered Ethiopian business sector is tantamount to treason in some quarters. Defenders flooded social media with what would pass for the malignancy of the Ethiopian discourse – devoid of reason and facts but overburdened with emotion and tantrum.

Salem Gebrekidan was accused of treason, banditry, lack of knowledge, lying, of being paid by Boeing to defame the airline. Salem’s ancestors were evoked for having failed to teach her lessons in patriotism, as was the independence of Ethiopia. What this entire diatribe has to do with her article is anybody’s guess.

Ethiopian Airlines soon joined the fray by issuing a statement that expressed, “its disappointment on the … wrong reporting of the [New York Times] titled “Ethiopian Airlines Had a Max 8 Simulator, but Pilot on Doomed Flight Didn’t Receive Training.”

The offending article was, in turn, defended quickly by the New York Timesthat stated, “Ethiopian Airlines tweeted a statement challenging what it described as ‘wrong reporting’ without specifying what was incorrect.”

While the accusations of treason, treachery and wrong reporting were flying around, the country’s newspapers and television stations towed the old familiar line and avoided any of the controversies regarding the doomed Flight 302, choosing to recycle news articles and graphics from the international media.

There were no mentions in the Ethiopian media of the level of insurance coverage that Ethiopian Airlines has taken for the crashed aircraft; nor how compensation will be dispensed for Ethiopian victims as compared to victims from Western countries; nor any mention if the airline will be represented by an international legal team against any claim, and which international law firms may represent Ethiopian victims of the disaster.

The Ethiopian media has set aside the idea of investigative and serious reporting, while the authorities seem to pay scant attention to a flourishing media that is filled with opinions and viewpoints.

Trying to refute a New York Times article by anyone, let alone by Ethiopian bloggers who are driven by emotion and misplaced patriotism, is a Herculean task. The newspaper is the gold standard of print, and now online, media; and if it stands behind its reporter, Selam, it is because it has already vetted the story before its publication.

The notion “my country, right or wrong,” is acceptable when supporting a football team but fails to stand up against a serious discourse.

There was an opportunity for the Ethiopian media to excel by investing time and resources in reporting on the entire episode of the airliner crash in Ejere – from its human side to the technical side. It was a missed opportunity, because the pilots, engineers, managers and officials of Ethiopian Airlines, as well as international investigators, were on the ground right here in the city to be interviewed and be used as sources.

Instead, official statements were regurgitated without being examined by the Ethiopian media, while much of the actual reporting and documentation was left to Reuters,New York Times and even the farflung Baltimore Sun.

In a vacuum where there is no apparent professional press; too few regional newspapers; and an established culture where opinions and points of view are presented as the main content of newspaper publications, TV and radio broadcasts – what else can be expected?

The hard questions are never asked by reporters, who often appear to be too intimidated by officials who themselves are unused to being examined. Government institutions consider their internal workings as proprietary and thus outside the purview of the public.

It is the function of the press to report on matters that affect the public interest. The press is the eyes and ears of the public and must report on what goes on behind the hallowed halls of government to the citizens. Meanwhile, the state has the responsibility to open the space for free media to flourish.

As to Ethiopian bloggers and social media aficionados, take heed of William Shakespeare, “forbear hurling things at [others].”

United States: the Movie

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Once in a while, there comes a talented filmmaker that the mainstream becomes infatuated with. For a long time, it was Christopher Nolan, who debuted with the absolutely mystifying and brilliant Memento and gave us over-hyped and overrated movies such as the Dark Knight Rises and Dunkirk as his career progressed.

It is somehow different for Jordan Peele. He was not like Terry Gilliam, who came from the Monty Python comedy group, whose work was objectively creative. Jordan was part of a comedy series, Key & Peele, for Comedy Central, which was, as the British would say, “rubbish”. It was more than a surprise that he wrote and directed Get Out, a social critique and that he kept the momentum going with Us.

His new movie stars Lupita Nyong’o, one of the truly gifted actors of our time, as Adelaide, a married mother of two. She has a history of trauma that she was never able to explain away. After being lost as a child at a beach in a secluded amusement facility, she comes face to face with a person that looks exactly like her.

She survives the ordeal after running away but has to face the trauma once again when her husband insists they go to the beach during a visit to the family beach house. It becomes clear shortly after that she was not hallucinating as a child. Individuals wearing red and wielding scissors, but are otherwise doppelgangers of everyone else alive, begin to terrorise the United States.

Many mentions have been made of the point the film wanted to make. The film’s title, Us, could be an allusion to the US, the nation itself. Adelaide’s doppelganger, when asked who she and her family are, says, “we’re America.”

Of course, Us does not have the clever twist that Get Out has on the very theme of the movie. The latter seemed like a critique of a pretty straightforward issue – the treatment of African Americans in the United States. But the film ends up being about the evolution of race relations in the country and how it is manifested in the progressive elite.

Us does not have that brilliant subversion of a common theme. It is pretty straight forward. There is the United States, depicted in the luxurious, shiny beach house of Adelaide’s family, that we all know. It is wealthy, progressive and a symbol of our civilisation. And then there is the part of the United States that is poor and forgotten, the section of the population that has gotten the short end of the stick in the grand game of capitalism.

Traumatised and dehumanised, the forgotten rise up and take revenge. In the centre are the innocents-of-sorts, the upper middle class who have never felt the suffering of the forgotten, nor have paid much attention to it, and could not for the life of them understand why everybody else is so angry.

This movie is a warning to the top one percent – there will come a time when the poor will get so hungry they will have no choice but to eat the rich. It is a pretty obvious description of a scenario we all know will happen in some form or fashion, but we are unwilling to do anything about it.

Us though delivers on visuals, indispensable to any horror movie, and gives us a movie that is terrifying while at the same time avoiding as many horror clichés as possible. There are no cheap scares, flickering lights or villains coming back to life. The scene where Adelaide’s family first encounters its doppelgangers was especially terrifying.

Us is not as clever a social commentary as Get Out and neither is it as good a horror movie. The plot has too many holes, which could have easily been avoided had Peele resisted the urge to reveal what the doppelgangers are and where they came from. The plot twist in the last minutes of the movie was also as anti-climatic as it was illogical.

But Us, for all its flaws, is one of a number of horror movies elevating the genre. Just when we thought Hollywood could not match 20th-century horror classics – from The Shining to Pyscho – it has managed to terrify us with the likes of Hereditary, It Follows, The Witch and A Quiet Place recently. Time is the best judge of art, but this decade is already proving itself to be the golden age of horror movies.

Social Media: Riddle Wrapped in Mystery

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It is hard to believe a year after the opening up of the political space that what we have in our hands is not the “marketplace of ideas” but a race for the bottom by the nation’s political and intellectual elite.

It has been surprising how many politicians and activists are willing to take part in a game of zero-sum politics. Forget the youth, much of our time these days is spent trying to persuade people that should know better – through the sheer benefit of having lived to old age – to calm down.

Contributing to this problem is social media. There was a time when the public decried being unable to access Facebook and Twitter, and the government was blamed for suppressing free speech.

The tables have turned now. Now it is citizens’ conduct on social media that is considered the source of evil. The Prime Minister’s Office has been open that social media has become a negative influence in the political experiment currently taking place in Ethiopia, and state media has been echoing this line.

Part of the fault for this problem lies in the opposition’s expectations of the value of such platforms. There has always been the automatic assumption during political transformations that a swift reversal of what has been the rule previously is a panacea to our socio-economic challenges. Our biases for past administrations were so strong that we failed to see what was in front of our eyes.

If social media can hurt the democracies of the West, despite their strong institutions, what chance did we ever have when we unleashed it without due diligence? If these platforms can instigate social disharmony in countries with much more resources than that of ours, how are we to deal with them when push comes to shove?

Never a fan of Facebook, I nonetheless never expected it would take its current form and shape.

What is manifest in people’s willingness to be cruel to each other and their utter disrespect for one another’s opinions is the breakdown of the traditional rules of engagement. The conservativeness of our past governments, whatever their political ideologies, has meant that authority is sacred and that there were subjects that were off the table. Most of the sorts of discussions that went on in social media, or TV and radio, were carried out with gloves on.

But those traditional rules of engagement have dissipated in this rapid transition to a liberal political order, and the gloves were off. Without a democratic culture to lessen extremism, or the old rules that kept society in check through a social attitude of conservatism, chaos is ruling.

Does this mean that previous administrations were correct and that censorship needs to be introduced?

Many governments of developing countries would answer in the affirmative. If social media increases social disorder, then get rid of it. Or introduce policies that discourage its use. We cannot allow civilisations and nations to be destroyed by a social networking website created in a dorm room by a 20-year-old, they seem to be saying.

A tax on social media use was recently introduced in Uganda, and Egypt has made all users with over 5,000 followers on Facebook or Twitter subject to prosecution for posting “fake news”.

For all our deep-seated suspicion over the intentions of African governments, it is hard to claim in this day and age that social media is indeed not as harmful as it is beneficial. Limiting its use as some African countries are doing is not an answer though. To do as such would mean to give up on the central tenets of liberal democracy, which is that human beings are reasonable, and under the right circumstances, will act reasonably.

What is the point of consciousness if we cannot trust ourselves to overcome our emotions?

Ethiopia should take a different route than the one followed by Uganda and Egypt. Social media’s ability to empower the public enough to hold government accountable, without the input of state resources, should not easily be disregarded. We were able to witness this during the concerted effort throughout social media platforms to get the government to attend to the humanitarian problem in the Gedeo Zone.

Unfortunately, there is as of yet no magic bullet any government in the world has been able to come up with to encourage only positive uses of social media. Indeed, government transparency and professional and independent media institutions can help, but they can only take us so far.

The ugly truth is that social media is a reflection of society, specifically that part of the body politic that has festered. It is everything that past generations chose not to deal with but instead allowed to putrefy in the corner of the house – the only difference is that it reeks now. Like we did in the past, we can take the easier path and spray perfume around the house. Or we could roll up our sleeves and sweep up the filth.

Nothing short of a just and democratic state will ever fix our social media.

 

The Technological Scourge

Posted on by Web Master

The answers to how to get pearly whites, lose weight in 30 days or the inner workings of a light bulb are a click away in this day and age, thanks to a marvellous invention known as the internet.

It is now tremendously easy to connect, no matter the distance, or learn new hobbies and skills without having to spend a dime or get off the couch. Knowledge is just a wi-fi and a smartphone away.

The internet, in the form we have come to recognise it today, has come a long way from its inception in the 1960s as a seemingly nondescript project for the United States’ military. It is easy to use and understand, and those smart enough to manipulate it are today some of the most influential individuals and entities in the world.

Nonetheless, the internet, despite all of its advantages, comes with a great deal of baggage. Like almost every invention by humankind, it has a dark side. It has become a weapon of destruction both in the physical and emotional sense.

For one thing, it has single-handedly ensured the eradication of the concept of privacy. It has manipulated its users into believing that all the information that is put in the various applications are in a safe environment without explaining the fact that there is no guarantee that that information will not be used against them at any time.

An example of this was political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica’s use of millions of people’s personal data on Facebook without their consent. The information was used for political purposes, a worrying instance that can seriously impede nation-building and democracy in developing countries.

Even though this data manipulation was found and Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, testified and apologised in front of the United States Congress, it is still daunting to think of the power that technology companies now have.

The internet has also become a platform for political and social activists. The internet has proven itself a force for positive change. It has also shown it can serve the opposite purpose, wreaking havoc on social harmony.

Ethiopians should now be well aware of this fact. It is hard to log into Facebook or Twitter these days with all the negativity taking place. Social media sites have been infected with extremism. And even though agendas such as the #metoo and #blacklivesmatter movements have created a platform of openness, other movements have been used to spread hatred and anger among constant users.

The internet has also become the reason behind the emotional distress and depression of millions of users. There are too many examples of research on social media’s harm to mental health at this point, making them something of a cliché.

The internet is no longer a luxury but almost a necessity in the day-to-day activity of its users. It has made life much easier by allowing almost everything to be a click away. It has made fame less complicated and human interaction to be less of a priority. But the same platform, if not used properly, can bring about damage to civilisation, which took millennia to bring to its current state.

“Every time there’s a new tool, whether it’s [the] internet or cell phones or anything else, all these things can be used for good or evil. Technology is neutral; it depends on how it’s used,” said Rick Smolan, a famous photographer and co-author of “The Human Face of Big Data.”

If what was created as a benefit for the human race is not used wisely, it could be a tool used to wipe out generations.