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Month: May 2019

Depreciation on Duty-Free Imports Faces no Change

Posted on by Web Master

While removing the 30pc depreciation applied to customs duties on imported second-hand items, the government will retain the 10pc annual depreciation on imported items with duty-free privileges.

A directive issued by the Ministry of Revenues on May 15, 2019, has fully lifted the uniform 30pc depreciation applied across imported used items, regardless of their age. However, the directive, signed by Adanech Abebe, minister of Revenues, left the depreciation on used items with duty-free privileges unchanged.

The 10pc annual depreciation applied to imported items with duty-free privileges will remain in place, according to Addis Ayele, price valuation director at the Ministry of Revenues, which collected 163.3 billion Br in revenues in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.

While levying customs duties on imported used items, customs officials of the Ministry have been deducting 30pc depreciation on the value of the items, according to the former directive. They were also applying 10pc annual depreciation on used items imported by expat employees of non-governmental organisations and embassies and by those that are entitled to duty-free rights. The depreciation is applied when they transfer the properties to third parties.

The new procedure outlined by the directive has already caused a price escalation in the second-hand vehicles market around the capital.

Since last Thursday, the price of used imported vehicles has drastically increased with a minimum rise of 80,000 Br depending on the model and brand, according to the car dealers Fortune spoke to. Most of the car dealers have been hoarding their vehicles with the anticipation that prices would go higher.

Retailers have already increased their prices despite the fact that customs officials at the Ministry have not yet started applying the new procedure as they wait for clarification and explanations from the head office, according to Alemayehu Anticho, manager of Qality Customs Branch Office of the Ministry.

Currently, the officers are only clearing duties of pending imported items that arrived before the issuance of the new directive. But they are no longer issuing customs declarations on the vehicles.

“The final declaration of the pending items will be issued after we get clarification from the Ministry,” said Alemayehu.

The officers have stopped processing used imported items that have already arrived at dry ports and the Port of Djibouti after the issuance of the directive until they receive clarification.

In the last fiscal year, the county has imported both used and brand new cars valued at 544.35 million dollars. At a national level, there are around 977,000 registered vehicles, according to data from the Ministry of Transport.

Since the new directive was issued, the price of automobiles has significantly increased in the market by a minimum of approximately 80,000 Br.

Make the Ethiopian Postal Service Great Again

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The Ethiopian Postal Service Enterprise, established on March 9, 1894, by Emperor Menelik II, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year.

It has come a long way from the days when correspondence was conducted through messengers known as ‘melektegnas’, who travelled great distances on foot while carrying letters over their heads on cleft sticks. The Ethiopian postal service now has 1,200 postal offices and over 170,000 post office boxes all across the country.

The explosive increase of internet usage and the move of communications to digital platforms has upended the traditional core business of mail delivery. The industry has been in decline all around the world.

Nonetheless, there is lately a resurgence. The internet is finally making post offices more relevant as people are shopping online using e-commerce websites and need someone to deliver these packages to them. Rather than falling into obsolescence, mail carriers stand to prosper if they can adapt quickly to meet the demands of this rapidly growing and evolving market.

The impact of e-commerce on the postal industry has been apparent as business-to-customer and business-to-business parcelsshipping has dramatically increased in volume in recent years and it is a trend that is expected to continue. Most postal delivery companies now believe that parcels will be the most important factor for success over the next five years.

Here, postal services around the world have been given a second chance to stay relevant by becoming an essential link in the global e-commerce supply chain. They are becoming a necessary intermediary between e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Alibaba or even local online retailers and their customers across shipping and returns.

Post offices have the largest accessible network for customers in each country, and to capitalise on their advantages post offices will need to adapt and cooperate as never before. But it seems that only a handful of postal service companies are responding to the challenges. In Europe, some government postal agencies have been partially privatised to encourage them to become more efficient while others have created products and services specifically tailored to the needs of e-commerce.

With all these developments across the world, the Ethiopian Postal Service is moving in an alternative direction and is engaging in services that are outside of its core business just to stay afloat. These activities include SIM and voucher cards, wholesale and retail, financial services and advertisement services through post boxes.

African countries are lagging behind most of the world in e-commerce and out of the 151 countries assessed, Ethiopia ranks 141st in this index, according to UNCTAD’s Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index. The key areas of consideration in this index include the share of individuals using the internet, the share of individuals with accounts and secure internet servers and a postal reliability score. The irony is the South African Post office, the third best in this index, has 800 branches compared to Ethiopia’s 1200.

Just as mobile phones helped us leapfrog the need to string up landlines, e-commerce has the potential to reduce the build-out of physical retail infrastructure, lowering costs for Ethiopian customers and making us competitive in the global market for our products. This will require investment in IT and physical infrastructure, improved partnerships and coordination between post offices and shippers worldwide and standardised customs, payment and delivery processes.

In major cities such as Addis Abeba that have implemented street addresses, by collaborating with tech startups, these can be easily mapped, making parcel deliveries quick and efficient. With the rise of financial technologies, paying for our items is becoming easier and easier.

The future is e-commerce, the Ethiopian Postal Service needs to realise it and leverage its resources to make itself great again.

Ministry Issues Five Mining Concessions

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The Ministry of Mines & Petroleum has issued five mining concession licences for four companies with investments valued at a total of 4.3 billion Br. Three of the concessions are for extraction, and two are for exploration.

Samuel Urkato (PhD) and Assefa Kumsa, minister and state minister of Mining & Petroleum, respectively, signed the concessional agreements with the representatives of the respective companies at the premises of the Ministry last week.

The two mining licences were issued for Tigray Resources Incorporated Plc, one of the subsidiary companies of East Africa Metals Incorporated, a company that focuses on exploration and development projects in Africa.

The eight-year-old Tigray Resources Incorporated has signed a concessional agreement to operate in Laelay Adiyabo Wereda of the Tigray Region. One concession involves a 12-year agreement in Maetso Bula Kebele to extract gold, copper and silver; while the other is a six-year concession in Datambuk Kebele to extract gold and silver for an aggregate investment value of 91 million dollars.

The company will provide job opportunities for 677 permanent local people, while 10pc of the total workforce will be composed of skilled expats with expertise in the field.

Tanarmo Chemical Industrial, a Chinese company, was awarded a 12-year concession to extract 420,000tn of bromine in the Afar Regional State near Afdera Lake with an investment of 57.1 million dollars.

The company has been exploring the mineral for two years and now plans to export to its home country in the form of Hydro Bromine Acid, where it will be reconverted back to bromine.

Two other companies, Best Gypsum Industries and GEMROCK Ethiopia Mining, were also granted three-year exploration licenses.

Best Gypsum Industries, an eight-year-old company owned by Ethiopians and Americans, will invest 2.7 million Br for the exploration of gypsum in Somali Regional State; while GEMROCK Ethiopia Mining, a 15-year-old Indian company operating in Mozambique and Colombia, will explore emeralds in the Gudji Zone of the Oromia Regional State with an investment of 5.2 million Br.

“The government expects effective and timely output from developers,” said Samuel, adding that 20 more concessions will be awarded before the end of this fiscal year. “They have to operate by adhering to the legal framework of the country and without causing significant environmental harm.”

Recently, the Ministry granted concessions to three companies that will invest an aggregate of 31 million Br to explore gold, metals and coal in the Tigray, Amhara and Benshangul-Gumuz regional states.

The initial extraction concessions are for 12 years, which can be renewed for another 10 years as an option after the expiration of the first contract. They are also bound to operate according to the environmental laws and regulations of the country during and after the accomplishment of the mining and exploration activities.

The companies are liable for a 25pc income tax, seven percent royalty fee, five percent government share and land lease payments according to regional laws and regulations once extraction ensues.

The mining industry has exhibited a decline in generating foreign currency for the past few years. It earned 130 million dollars during the 2017/18 fiscal year, less than a quarter of what was earned from the sector seven years ago.

The country earned 39.6 million dollars against the government’s estimate of 766.9 dollars in the first nine months of this fiscal year. The nation exported 646.3Kg of gold, 1354.3 cubic metres of marble and 145.7tn of tantalum.

Tensions have also risen between investors and the authorities after 84 mining exploration and extraction licenses were terminated in the Oromia Regional State for allegedly failing to execute their duties properly, pay royalty fees and taxes or create expected employment opportunities.

According to an expert on economic geology for nearly three decades at Addis Abeba University’s School of Earth Science, the Ministry’s effort in boosting investment in the sector is promising.

“But the government needs to pay close attention to managing operation waste, toxic chemical releases and other environmental degradation caused by mining companies,” says Solomon Tadesse (Prof.).

Rapprochement, Sanction Lift Would Cure Eritrea’s Economy: IMF

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The rapprochement with Ethiopia and the lifting of international sanctions would have a positive prospect of dragging Eritrea out of its economic morass and its ‘difficult situation’, according to a staff report released by the International Monetary Fund.

Led by Bhaswar Mukhopadhyay, the IMF team was in Asmara from May 13–22, 2019, for a consultation on its annual report. During the 10-day stay of the team, the mission met Eritrean ministers of Finance, Health, Tourism, National Development and Agriculture and the acting governor of the Central Bank to compile the report, which is the first in a decade.

The Eritrean-Ethiopian War and the related international isolation deprived the country of vital investment, trade opportunities and external support, leaving the economy in a ‘problematic situation,’ according to the staff report.

“Eritrea has just emerged from twenty years of conflict with Ethiopia and a decade of sanctions imposed by the international community,” reads Mukhopadhyay’s statement in the report.

The mission’s report also indicates that the information base of economic developments in the country has deteriorated, giving rise to data and capacity constraints.

Dominated by agriculture and mining, Eritrea’s economy is highly vulnerable to shocks, warns the report.

“Most of its population is engaged in rain-fed subsistence agriculture, which is exposed to repeated droughts,” it adds.

Due to regional drought, the country’s GDP fell sharply in 2017.

The drought has pushed the malnutrition rates in Eritrea to exceed emergency levels, according to the Nutrition Sentinel Site Surveillance System of the United Nations Children’s Fund.

A sustained period of high fiscal deficits, reversed over the past three years, has led to a massive public debt burden, a vulnerable banking sector and scarce foreign exchange, according to the report.

Despite these obstacles, the report praised the authorities for achieving ‘remarkable progress’ in the health and educational sectors and for having prioritised public investments in earlier years.

Looking ahead, the near-term outlook for real GDP growth is challenging due to the tight fiscal situation and existing restrictions on economic activity, forecasts the report.

“Over the medium-term, prospects for a pick-up in growth are promising, including new mining projects coming on stream,” reads the report.

The IMF also recommends the government restore the health of the fiscal and financial sectors, which are essential to the macroeconomic stability.

Medhane Tadesse (Prof.), an academic specialising in conflict management within the Horn of Africa, also believes that the government’s policy had a more significant impact on the economy than the international sanctions.

“The policies were not targeted at attracting foreign investment,” said Medhane, but “rather restricted economic activity.”

To ensure macroeconomic stability, the IMF recommends that the government implement broader economic reforms to help deliver inclusive development.

Dine for Basic Services

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Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) hosted one of the most expensive dinner parties the world has ever seen on May 19, 2019. For five million Birr a plate, business people and representatives of different organisations dined at the newly refurbished Palace of Menelik II.

Nostalgic of the lavish parties Emperor Menelik II used to hold at the palace, the dinner was traditionally themed. There were raw meat and even Tej. As far as initial reports of the dinner were concerned, it was a success and guests were satisfied, even if they came out of it five million Birr lighter.

It was not just a dinner though. It was a fundraising event for a project in the capital. Shortly before the event, the African Developmental Bank gave 600,000 dollars, the government of Italy five million euros, two United Nations’ agencies gave a total of two million dollars and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia contributed over 17 million dollars.

What sort of project would get such enthusiasm from government agencies, development partners, business leaders and organisations?

It was not one of the countless number of problems that afflict the nation, such as inadequate access to education or health services. The project did not aim to address the humanitarian crisis caused as a result of the displacement of millions of people, and neither was it meant for the street children in Addis Abeba.

It was all for the realisation of “Beautifying Sheger” project. It aims to revitalise and develop river banks and riversides along a 56Km stretch from Mount Entoto to Qality. It is planned to be finalised in three years and estimated to cost 29 billion Br. If the concept designs are anything to go by, the Beautifying Sheger project will give the city a facelift.

But it rings hollow. It seems too much like a luxury for a nation facing various infrastructure and macroeconomic bottlenecks. It is not that most do not wish for their city to look like what is envisioned in the project’s concept designs. It just does not strike one as a priority.

In the city where this dinner was held, getting by is getting harder by the day. Basic services are amiss. Costs are rising every which way, most of them as a result of a shortage of either foreign currency or supply chain disruptions.

Just this year, the city saw the kind of fuel shortage it has rarely ever seen before. The inability of the government to facilitate a functional market for wheat, cooking oil, eggs and milk has meant a significant rise in the cost of living. This is not to mention the regular scarcity in pharmaceuticals, sending citizens to scurry around to the black market.

A shortage in manufacturing raw materials and a consistent shortage in utilities such as electricity and water makes the possibility of a thriving private sector unlikely. A consumer that is hit with a high cost of living and a private sector burdened with a lack of basic infrastructure makes the likelihood of an economic resurgence anytime soon very unlikely.

The Prime Minister has a range of projects that he could dine for. The resources that are going into the Beautifying Sheger project could have been justified at almost any other time in the nation’s history. Now, there are too many challenges where such resources could have done a great deal of good and been used to heal the national spirit.

At the moment, this is a facelift for a city that is the capital of a country with all kinds of fatal afflictions. The government should instead spend its political capital, or what is left of it, and resources into strengthening the nation’s political and economic foundations.

 

Looming Debt Crisis Requires Structural, Policy Reforms

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Investors, developers, donors, lending agencies, multinational companies and even countries engaged in bilateral agreements use government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) to measure a country’s ability to make future payments on its debt. This affects the country’s borrowing costs and government bond yields.

In light of sovereign debt in the global macroeconomic perspective, we find that the first decade of the millennium has been punctuated by a series of broad-based economic crises and negative shocks.

Not only developing economies and economies in transition, but also European economies faced the 2010-2012 sovereign debt crises. The global headwinds in the crisis have meant that the prices of commodities declined, severely affecting economies dependent on commodity exports, many of them in Africa. With economies that have been weakened, they have been led into a borrowing binge.

Repeated failures to meet commitments – unsurprising given the lack of competitiveness of African economies – meant that they have had to fail into the structural adjustment “traps” of the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank or China’s low-interest rate loans.

The world economy has strengthened since the early years of this decade, despite some hiccups. In 2017, global economic growth is estimated to have reached three percent, a significant acceleration compared to a year ago. This is expected to continue this year.

But countries’ sovereign debt was not reduced as predicted. Percentage of public debt to GDP increased in some parts of Europe. It tripled in Asian and African countries as well.

The implication is that stronger economic activity following financial crises has not been shared evenly across countries and regions. The recent acceleration in world gross product growth stems predominantly from firmer growth in several developed economies, although East and South Asia remain the world’s most dynamic regions.

Cyclical improvements in Argentina, Brazil, Nigeria and Russia, as these economies emerge from a recession, also explain roughly a third of the rise in the rate of global growth between 2016 and 2017. But recent economic gains remain unevenly distributed across countries and regions, and many parts of the world have yet to regain a healthy rate of growth which exposed them to borrow more money at the expense of future generation’s resources.

Economic prospects for many commodity exporters remain challenging, underscoring the vulnerability to boom and bust cycles in countries that are overly reliant on a small number of resources. There is an elevated policy uncertainty and rising levels of debt that prevent more widespread investment.

The average total debt-to-GDP ratio in Africa is around 50pc.  A firmer and more broad-based rebound in investment activity, which is needed to support stronger productivity growth and accelerate progress toward development goals, may be deterred by elevated levels of trade policy uncertainty, as well as rising debt and a build up of longer term financial fragility.

Failure to address these issues may leave a quarter of the population of Africa in extreme poverty by 2030, according to the World Economic Outlook of 2019. Supporting growth in developing countries requires both financial resources and progress toward addressing institutional deficiencies and security concerns. Very few of these countries are expected to reach the sustainable development goal targets for GDP growth of “at least 7 percent” in the near term.

Ethiopia, with its developmental economic model, has already registered GDP beyond seven percent, but the paradox is a debt worth over a third of GDP. This is much more a result of dependency on a few agricultural commodities for trade. It is all the more a distressing issue coupled with the fact that manufacturing revenues have been stagnant for too long. Coupled with low levels of domestic mobilisation, the nation usually does not have much to fall back on other than taking out large amounts of loans for development programmes.

This cycle needs to be broken if we ever wish to break away from debt. Unaddressed, it will surely crush the economy, leading to sociopolitical problems. The fact that the government wants to build highways, power generation plants and railways is admirable but cannot be all undertaken at once for the sake of political expediency.

The nation needs to develop its project implementation and planning capacity before we leap into such projects. There is also a need to address low domestic mobilisation of resources and lack of export diversification armed with a different and updated set of policy reforms that puts the private sector at the forefront.

Great Teams Trump Great Leaders

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Nucor Corporation, one of the most profitable steel producing companies in the world, came up with a completely new system that relied on a concept that it is easy to teach anyone to be productive but impossible to teach people work ethic if they did not have it in the first place.

The company placed greater emphasis on the character rather than the specific educational background, practical skills, specialised knowledge or work experience. What the steel producer wanted to do more than anything else was to build a strong team.

I recently saw such a system in action. A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to work with a man in his forties who created several successful businesses in Switzerland and Poland. He was easy going and trusting of his staff.

His employees were diligent and efficient. He receives tasks completed strictly on schedule. Mostly in their 20s, this group of employees drive the company.

No business can thrive without a good team. It is important to have capable leaders and forward-looking visions and missions. But unless this can create the environment in which a team can thrive, it will be for nought.

This is a rare quality in Ethiopia. From the public to the private sector, team building is given very little attention, leading to inefficiency and loss.

Effective leadership is misunderstood in Ethiopia. A great leader is often considered to be one who can do all of the work. It is rarely one that can encourage and influence teamwork.

If we depend on individuals as the primary driving force of success for a country or a business, we can rest assured that we can only depend on them as long as they are around.

The giant misunderstanding is that some individuals do not need to build teams, for the simple reason that they do not require one.

But institutions that can execute establishment visions and objectives cannot be built in that manner. Indeed, it is a collective effort that either brings a positive or negative result. This is true for a country and a business.

Creating a great team of people defines actions as having the liberty to do what seems to be in the best interest of the country or company at any time. It is quite common to find the reverse in Ethiopia. Setting a new direction, vision and strategy without having the right people who can be devoted and aligned behind it can be as good as having no direction at all.

Building a great dedicated team never comes easy. But once organised, they are self-motivated and do not need to be micromanaged or controlled. They manage themselves, becoming a great addition to teams who are producing remarkable results. This is not just to bring the fair distribution of responsibilities and credits but to practically execute substantial growth.

This by no means implies knowledge and education is irrelevant, but they are teachable unlike character, work ethic and devotion to fulfilling obligations.

Instead of focusing on oneself, it is critical to invest resources on creating a successful team. With all the attention paid to leaders, it might be tempting to shower oneself with credit, taking it away from where it belongs.

Leaders are supposed to prioritise and delegate. They should listen and provide resources that can allow the team to be productive. Without a team, success could only last as long as the company does not grow in scale. Otherwise, too much time and resources will be lost on micromanaging every single item.

Superheroes only exist in fiction. Everyone in the real world created a great institution with the support of others. This is the harsh truth most people do not tell themselves or others. Making this a norm rather an exception is the ideal success of leadership for creating change.

The path to success is found by confronting brutal facts and collaborating with others to rectify it. It is about creating a culture of teamwork for a greater purpose. Leadership is all about organising teams that can create lasting impact for progress.

Economic Reality on the Ground Only Worsening

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I have a friend that is self-employed. He was constantly in a hurry, always waking up early in the morning to go to his workplace. He did not have time for social engagements or personal relationships; he was always on the run.

Lately, he is much more relaxed. There is no business he says, it is all dead ends. He does not seem to be like the kind of person that has anywhere to go, just wasting away his days in a country that is supposedly growing in leaps and bounds as far as international institutions and the government are concerned.

We constantly hear of the double-digit miracle Ethiopia was able to achieve in the decade since 2006/07, growing at an average rate of 10.3pc. This continues to be a major political talking point.

This supposed economic miracle continues. This fiscal year, the economy is meant to expand by seven to 8.5pc in gross domestic product (GDP), which is expected to continue on to the next year as well. As far as estimates are concerned, it is economic miracles all around.

It is evident why officials like to brag about these numbers – they want to show that they are doing a good job. It boggles the mind though how rarely international financial institutions bring up the reality on the ground, where citizens are feeling the pinch of a growing cost of living.

GDP is too complicated a measurement. It does not factor in people’s happiness, nor can it exactly pinpoint if there is a growth in employment opportunities or whether or not the economy is becoming more and more competitive. It merely adds together wealth without saying exactly who is making it and how.

Indeed, neither the World Bank nor the International Monetary Fund go into specifics. They do not mention what the rate of unemployment currently is and take a great deal of their stats from government agencies such as the Central Statistics Agency or the National Bank of Ethiopia.

It does not take a genius to realise what is occurring on the ground. A trip to Merkato, which is supposed to be the largest open market in Africa, tells it all. It is eerily empty compared to the hubbub of just a year ago. One mostly finds young people sitting around and chewing khat all day long. This market should be enough of an indicator that the economy is not at all performing to the degree it is estimated to be.

But Merkato is not the only indicator. The cost of living is becoming a headache to many, exports have declined compared to last year, foreign currency continues to be a problem and the failure in the rule of law is severely affecting investor confidence.

These problems are contributing to a loss of dynamism, especially in human productivity. They are problems that are additions to inadequate infrastructure, an ineffectual public sector and policy bottlenecks.

“Abiy’s administration needs to act decisively as it has already received a strong mandate from the majority of the populace – avoid bestowing political favours on any coalition partners and avoid being constrained by them. It must move fast to use its political capital in pushing for a comprehensive reform agenda,” said Eyob Tesfaye (PhD), a macroeconomist in one of his expert analysis for this paper.

This is a spot on advice. Economic institutions from the Ministry of Trade & Industry to the National Bank of Ethiopia should be filled with people, from the middle to senior levels, that have experience and knowledge. Putting into place people without the required expertise would be too much of a gamble at this time of great economic uncertainty.

 

Brightburn Fizzles Out

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Brightburn asks a critical question.

What if Superman was not a good person? What if he did not take to our moral values?

The film then proceeds to give us the answer predictably – he kills lots of people. For a film that wants to get serious about comic book scenarios, it manages to neglect what sociopolitical impacts there would be in the case of an alien living among humans.

It is obvious why Superman movies and comic books are not as interested in these subjects. They merely want us to witness how awesome a super-human being is. But Brightburn had the opportunity to see matters from a different perspective and acknowledge the fact that the arrival of a being such as Superman, however nice he may be, would likely have horrific consequences on the institutions and psyche of a species that has gotten used to believing that nothing in the universe is more important or powerful than them.

The film stars Jackson A. Dunn as Brandon, a teenager that looks, walks and talks like a teenager. But he is not. He had dropped from the sky into Brightburn, Kansas, just close enough to a couple that was trying to conceive. Luckily for Brandon, they were also naïve, or just plain insane, to take an alien child into their home, and for the authorities to let them adopt it although no one knows where he came from.

Ten years pass by without anyone the wiser of the fact that Brandon never gets sick or injured, and things start to change. Brandon begins to realise he has powers, super strength and speed, flying, invincibility and shooting powerful lasers out of his eyes – the whole nine yards of Superman’s almost Godly powers.

But, skirting tradition, he does not become a superhero. He has a thirst for blood and world domination like a mad scientist. He does not bat an eye at killing people left and right in the ghastliest manner possible.

The movie might have as well ended right there and then. That was all the thematic and character development its lazy writing was willing to give audiences. The film delights in perverting one superhero trope but crams into its running time every horror movie cliché it could find.

A major opportunity was missed here. Instead of posting a mere “what if”, it could have been about puberty and the challenges of modern parenting, themes barely explored in this film. Brandon could have been made older than 10, and this film could be about how complicated growing up can be in a world that does not understand puberty.

Brandon is like every other teenager, suddenly hateful of society and his parents and suddenly obsessed with women. The difference between us and him was that he had the powers to carry out his misguided plans.

Sure, he seemed a little weird in this movie from the beginning. But which teenager with super-human strength would have had the self-control not to fling a bully into the sky?

This is a kid, to begin with. Of course, he would become drunk on power – even the grownups rarely manage not to indulge themselves in this manner. There is no reason for him to be depicted as inherently bad when we know that teenagers are too idealistic and uninformed to ever be trusted with this much power.

Brightburn could have as well explored how modern parenting works. Children are not to be spanked anymore, which, even if a good thing in the long term, does lessen the disciplining capacity of parents. Children are also empowered by virtue of having platforms that allow them to speak out as well as expose them to the grownup world to a degree never before seen.

Modern parenting is very democratised as a result. This is a good thing, but it is also tasking for parents. Managing democracy is hard enough with informed grownups. Imagine it with irrational teens.

Brightburn skirts all of these possible themes. It is not a study of the psychological effects of poverty and how parents deal with it. It is a run-of-the-mill horror movie with a young Superman as the villain.

A Not So Friendly Visitor

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Every month a girl that has reached adolescence has to host a not so friendly visitor. Its name is menstruation, and it is not pretty.

The first time I heard about the biological process that leads to menstruation, it scared me more than any horror movie I was exposed to at age 10. It horrified and disgusted me to the point where I hoped I would never grow up. But I did. As a woman who has had her share of menstrual cycles, the emotions that were once fear and disgust have now evolved into something more than that, shame.

Despite the fact that this phenomenon is normal, it is frowned upon as an item of discussion in public settings, especially when men are present.

Not talking about it however does not in any way address its challenges. In fact, it being a taboo can cause irreversible psychological and physical damage to some women.

Physically, menstrual cycles cause lower abdominal pains, back pains and headaches. It also affects the texture of skin and the sound of one’s voice.

More commonly, periods affect the day-to-day activities of most women that have to go through with it. A common mistake people make while attempting to understand periods is assuming that they last from three to seven days each month.

This is not true. Days before this not so friendly visitor, premenstrual syndrome (PMS) comes with all kinds of mood swings ranging from irritability, anger and moodiness to more severe conditions that can be debilitating for some.

Another factor that also carries an immense significance is the financial aspect of periods. A number of nongovernmental organizations have done case studies that highlight the stress and weight sanitary pads designed for this particular purpose have on regular users. Earning less income than men, paying for these items can create financial strains for some women.

Given the impacts of a single period cycle on emotional and physical wellbeing, the way society chooses to deal with it is instrumental to the welfare of women.

In some rural areas of Ethiopia, families build a rather tiny room that can be of use when the girl has to go through that time of the month. These girls are kept there with little to no ventilation, which may ultimately result in their death.

Not only that, even here in the capital, female students sometimes miss at least four days of school because of the lack of awareness that is given about the sexual and reproductive health and the lack of finances to cover the cost of sanitary pads. These girls then have to try to catch up with lessons they miss when they are not around.

This lack of discussion of one of the most common phenomena that cause distress and anxiety among teenage girls who may be at a loss for who to talk to.

“Menstrual blood is the only source of blood that is not traumatically induced. Yet, in modern society, the one so rarely spoken of and almost never seen, except privately by women,” says Judy Grahn, American poet and author.

Menstruations, menstrual cycles or periods are a part of women, which makes them a part of society. That is why more platforms that encourage open discussions with girls should be available. That is why norms and taboos should be broken to make sure that little girls that will inevitably reach the age when they will have menstrual cycles do not get the impression that there is something wrong with them, to educate them and ensure that it does not serve as a barrier.

 

Forex Crunch Escalates Price of Dates

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On the afternoon of May 21, 2019, Mohammed Dinsefa, 27, was in Merkato, the large open-air marketplace in the capital, searching for dates, a fruit used to break the Muslim daily fast, Iftar, during Ramadan.

Mohammed and his fellow Muslims break Iftarby eating three dates and drinking water.

He usually goes to retailers around Anwar Mosque in Merkato to get his supply of 10Kg of packed dates as he does every year. He recalls paying 450 Br last year for the package, but he was surprised to discover that the price is 850 Br for the same item this year.

“It is unaffordable for me to buy the 10Kg pack,” said Mohammed.

Nonetheless, he cannot do without the dates, for it is required to break each fast with three pieces of the fruit during Ramadan.

Since he cannot afford to buy the bigger package, Mohammed has been buying Eshet dates, a semi-dry variety, for 120 Br a kilogram since the beginning of the fasting season on May 6, 2019. This one kilogram of dates lasts him and his family up to six days when he returns to the market to re-supply.

Mohammed’s complaints are not limited to the high price he has encountered but also concern the quality of the dates he buys.

“The taste of the dates is different, and it is not the same as it used to be,” Mohammed told Fortune.

Ahmed Wabela, one of nearly 30 merchants who carry dates near Anwar Mosque in Merkato, shares Mohammed’s claim. Ahmed sells different types of dates imported mainly from Saudi Arabia: Kimia, Madina, Ajwa and Eshet; and a local variety, Asayita, that grows in the Afar region.

Ajwa, a soft, luscious, fruity date variety with fine texture is the most expensive date and sells for 1,000 Br a kilo, while Eshet is by far the largest volume sold to customers. There are over 400 date varieties globally, and they cover three percent of global farmland.

Last year, Ahmed was selling 600g of Kimia dates imported from Iran for 90 Br, which has now jumped to 130 Br; and 10Kg packages for 450 Br, which have risen to 850 Br. His daily average sales volume during the fasting season is 20 packs of 600g and 10 packs of the 10Kg option.

The price increase started to be seen beginning from the eve of Ramadan, according to Ahmed, who claims that he receives the product from wholesalers who have increased the prices of the product to retailers like him.

“Our suppliers claim that the current increase in price is due to shortages of foreign currency,” Ahmed told Fortune.

There are 150 fruits and vegetable importers registered under the Ministry of Trade & Industry who are the primary suppliers of dates to the market.

Ethiopia imported 9,511tn of dates in 2018 at a cost of 4.1 million dollars, of which 78pc of the dates were obtained from Saudi Arabia. These figures are almost double 2016, which saw the importation of 4,087tn of dates at a cost of 2.2 million dollars. In the first two months of the current year, the country spent 114,000 dollars to import 212tn of dates.

Date palm cultivation goes as far back as 4,000 BC to ancient Mesopotamia, what is now southern Iraq. Currently, date fruit is commercially cultivated in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

In 2017, these countries together produced close to seven million tonnes of dates, which represents 88.9pc of total world production. After the flowering date palm plant, Phoenix dactylifera, is planted in the ground, it takes four to eight years to produce its first fruit, and then it takes another seven to 10 years to be commercially viable.

Bederu Ummer, 35, is one of the fruit and vegetable importers who obtains his dates from the Middle East to supply local wholesalers.

He claims that he used to order four shipping containers of dates during the Ramadan season, but this has not been the case lately due to the forex crunch.

“I did not import a single container this year,” he said.

The shortage of foreign currency has also forced him to cut down on other imported goods.

“This year, my monthly import expense is no more than 10,000 dollars, which is four times lower than what it was a year ago,” Bederu laments.

Yinager Dessie (PhD), governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, has expressed his frustration on the current depletion of the foreign currency reserves in the country.

Two months ago, he told parliament that the nation’s foreign exchange reserves would only cover two months of imports.

“If this shortage continues, it will only enable the country to import pharmaceutical products and fuel,” he said.

Mamush Sadiq, 28, a wholesaler in Merkato, is a new entrant to the date business with only two years’ experience under his belt. He too attests to the drastic price increase of dates.

In preparation for the fasting season, he stocks 700 packages and 1,000 cans of dates at a time. His sales volume, which averaged 10 packs of dates a day prior to Ramadan, spiked to 200 packages a day.

“The price of dates has risen in concert with demand,” he said.

Date consumption is not limited to Muslim consumers alone, as the general public seeks the fruit for dietary reasons.

Webalem Beyen, 30, is a regular consumer of dates and keeps it on her monthly shopping list.

“After reading about the health benefits of dates, I became a regular consumer,” she said.

Different research has shown that dates are high in nutrients, fiber and antioxidants. It is also believed that the fruit provides other health benefits ranging from improved digestion to a reduced risk of heart disease.

Early last week, she was near Anwar Mosque in Merkato to buy the fruit. Last month she bought a kilogram of dates for 70 Br.

This time around, she spent 130 Br to buy 600g of Kimia dates imported from Saudi Arabia.

“Even though I am not fully convinced with their justification for the price increase, I bought the dates since I don’t have any options,” she said.

Henock Semaw, dean of the College of Business & Economics of Haramaya University, believes that the current political uncertainty and the black market contribute to the severity of the forex crunch.

In the black market, traders buy a dollar for 41 Br, while banks buy a dollar for around 28.6 Br, which represents a 43pc premium.

If the current condition continues, it will create worsening political, economic and social problems in the country, he said.

“Now is the time for the government to seriously turn its focus to the economy,” Henock said.

Moving shop

Posted on by Web Master

A vendor in Merkato sells home decorations such as picture frames and plaques with inspirational quotes. The man pushes his cart slowly down the street in Merkato, trying to sell his products to people headed to the Mosque.