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Month: April 2020

Daring, Hot-tempered Opposition Figure, 70, Passes Away

Posted on by Web Master

Ethiopia’s parliamentary sessions have never been accused of being vibrant. But there have been exceptions. The few opposition figures sprinkled across an EPRDF-dominated parliament have had their memorable moments. There were times when they were able to hold their ground during sessions and inspire a semblance of resistance to the incumbents.

One of these was Temesgen Zewde, opposition member of the Unity for Democracy & Justice party, aka Andinet, who passed away recently after complications from multiple health conditions. Having won a seat in parliament after the fraught and contested election of 2005, the most memorable performance in his time in parliament came near the end of his five-year term.

During an otherwise unassuming parliamentary session in April 2010, he began criticising the government’s increased role in the production and distribution of goods and services. His views on this bordered on libertarianism, or at least classical capitalism, in suggesting that the government’s purpose was to protect against outside aggression and to deal and negotiate with other governments.

He inspired no less argument than when he mentioned that the nation’s fiscal and monetary policy should not be under the control of the executive, insisting that an independent central bank was necessary. He stressed that this was why the nation was experiencing inflationary pressure – by no means an unreasonable argument to make. The nation had within the past two years experienced one of its worst inflationary rates, reaching over 60pc at one time.

But in trying to express his views, this business management major who had spent over two decades in the United States was mispronouncing the word “fiscal” in fiscal policy as “physical.” The late Meles Zenawi, prime minister at the time, wryly pointed this out while rebutting Temesgen’s argument.

When Meles finished replying to Temesgen and other members of the parliament, Teshome Toga, then-speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representatives, once again offered the floor to the MPs. When it was Temesgen’s turn, he managed to turn the formality of the parliament’s question-and-answer procedures on their head.

He accused Meles of deflecting the question by focusing on his pronunciation of the word “fiscal” and that he was not “whistling” to make the letter “f” sound like “ph.” The second he said this, he was cut off by Teshome and warned not to speak out of bounds. Temesgen would not back off. He continued to suggest that Meles had a lust for power and that all of his questions had been left unanswered. He did not get to speak much more before Teshome cut his microphone off once more and gave the floor to another MP.

Later that day, Temesgen, who at the time had health conditions and was using a walking stick, went to the head office of Andinetin Kazanchis. There he ran into Girma Seifu, a fellow party member that would serve as the sole opposition figure in parliament between 2010 and 2015. Girma mentioned that he had heard of the confrontation during the session between him and Meles.

Temesgen was incensed.

“I would have loved to whack him with my cane,” he replied.

Indeed, Temesgen was not one to mince words and fail to stand his ground. He felt that if there was a point to be made, it should be made boldly, loudly and with every intention of standing by your words, come what may.

“He was a man that stood by reason,” said Girma. “When he found it necessary, he would get very angry.”

Daniel Teferra, who wrote his biography, “Behind the Parliament,” with a focus on the time Temesgen spent in the House, adds that there is nuance to his temper.

“He was true to himself and others,” said Daniel. “That is why lies, subterfuges and duplicity anger him so.”

This was crucial to his political convictions. An outspoken attitude, spontaneity and a deep-seated conviction to stand his ground made him an ideal politician. That was why he was at times able to light up a parliament that was otherwise known for being humdrum in a political environment where the government stood accused of crushing dissent. He may not have won the argument but he would make sure that he was seen standing up for what he believed in.

“If he is pushed enough, he would not have any problem getting physical,” adds Daniel.

Eskedar Man-Asbot, his wife, remembers him as a person who tried to be honest with himself throughout his entire life. Mostly, he loved to laugh and play. But he also wanted things to be on the table, up for discussion and without the attendant omissions and tricks.

“He would not tolerate lies,” she said.

About a decade ago, a tumour was found on his back that left him partially paralysed. He had to go to Thailand for surgery, after which he had begun to feel better. But half a year ago, his health declined, and he began suffering multiple complications, including breathing problems, that put him in bed.

He passed away on April 13, 2020, and was laid to rest that same day. He is survived by his wife and three children.

With Ingenuity, We Shall Overcome the COVID-19 Crisis

Posted on by Web Master

As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. In essence, the saying points to how problems encountered can pave the path to creative, adaptive and deep changes that meet the needs of tomorrow. Within the disruption of change lie the seedlings of inspiration and creativity that will enable humankind to adapt and thrive in a new normal.

Since the December 31, 2019, announcement by Chinese authorities to the World Health Organization (WHO) of the first pneumonia-like cases in Hubei province, more than 2.5 million individuals have now been confirmed to have the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), and over 175,000 people have lost their lives as a result. The global pandemic has led to unprecedented lockdowns of economies in many parts of the world, as governments grapple with adequate mitigation measures.

The immediate effects of the lockdowns, beyond helping to contain the spread of the virus, are also multifaceted. The notion that Earth is taking a break has often been cited to explain the decrease in levels of pollution related to reductions in mobility and industrial activities.

In the northeastern Italian city of Venice, for instance, the city’s grand water canals are appearing much clearer in the absence of its usual heavy boat traffic. Between January and February, NASA and European Space Agency satellite images showed clear reductions in nitrogen dioxide emissions in China and Italy.

What these will mean for broader global climate change mitigation goals may be too early to tell. Nevertheless, they force us to ponder the innovation and sustainable progress that we want to see in a post-COVID-19 world.

Yet the immediate and devastating impact of the pandemic and the “Great Lockdown” is an economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has referred to the COVID-19 induced lockdowns as the “worst economic downturn since the Great Depression,” anticipating global growth in 2020 to fall by three percent.

Both developed and developing countries grappling with a health emergency will be confronted in parallel with an economic crisis equally pressing. The complexity added to such overlapping challenges is that no one can determine with certainty the duration and intensity of the global health crisis. In some countries, such as South Korea, that had effectively contained the spread, we see cases of relapse, while China is experiencing new infections. Such examples indicate the scale of the crisis and the uncertainty hovering over our default modus operandi.

Throughout human history, every crisis has introduced an opportunity for change. Indeed, the complexity of our globalised and interdependent lives may give the impression that a new reality is unimaginable. Yet as we find ourselves gripped by uncertainty and in flux, acknowledging the transition we are in and preparing for the inevitable new normal is a necessary step ahead.

The unavoidable prerequisite for survival as adapting to new circumstances is poignantly captured by a quote often attributed to Charles Darwin.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

In the wake of the Black Death pandemic of the 14th century, estimated to have claimed over 50 million lives in Europe, various technological innovations emerged as a result of the unprecedented changes introduced.

Mechanical clocks, hourglasses, new medical ideas and the advent of agricultural technology is attributed to the period. Similarly, the so-called Spanish Flu of the early 1900s revolutionised the public health sector in the wake of the colossal deaths the pandemic caused.

The advent of health ministries in various countries around the world is considered a direct outcome of the Spanish Flu pandemic, as was the creation of an international bureau for fighting widespread diseases, which is said to be a precursor to the WHO. Similarly, international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created after the Great Depression and the Second World War to prevent the next war and global economic crisis.

What these historical lessons show us is that the global community finds itself uniquely positioned to capitalise on technological advancements and knowledge accumulated over the past century. While the role of the state is more pronounced currently in drawing mitigation strategies to circumvent the adverse effects of the health crisis and ensuing economic challenges, citizens are also actively engaging in digital spaces to fill the gaps.

Considering that there is no single predictable outcome of the pandemic, it is hard to forecast the exact advent of a post-COVID-19 reality. This means that innovations to systems, products and processes need to be quick, creative and happen in flux, responding to the dynamism of the situation.

As a pandemic of great magnitude that has occurred in our modern period, COVID-19 is calling upon the global community to rethink and shift the way we design and manage our healthcare, economic, transportation, political and social systems. This is to be done with great attention to sustainability, equity and human centeredness.

Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Ethiopia, we have seen communities pulling together their resources, time and energy toward collectively addressing the challenges we are faced with. From reinventing mobile washing basins and foot-operated soap dispensers, to masks, face shields and personal protective equipment produced by small businesses, we see a flexing of muscles in the realm of innovation, using materials and resources already at our disposal.

Large industries are turning their production lines to the call of the times and producing hand sanitiser, which was in extremely short supply only a few weeks ago. Textile manufacturers, hit by a decline in exports of their existing products, are fast adapting to meeting the supply gap in disposable masks, while other factories are exploring the production of much needed ventilators, test kits, medical suits and oxygen tanks. While there is no vaccine for COVID-19 at the moment, Ethiopian traditional medicine experts have also joined the global race to develop a vaccine.

All of these examples demonstrate the human capacity for resilience when tested and the ability to innovate and adapt to the times.

The fear and anxiety that the pandemic has caused are undeniable. The loss of livelihoods and negative impact on the most vulnerable sections of our society is clearly evident. As part of the global community, and as Ethiopians, we are faced with a grave challenge. Yet this health crisis also poses the opportunity for us to tap into the deepest wells of our knowledge, resources and potential to create solutions to this crisis.

As Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) stressed in his April 4, 2020, address to the nation, we should apply collective leadership and “divert our energy from fear to collaboration, think and act together for our survival.”

Together and with ingenuity, we shall overcome.

 

Ethiopia’s Uphill, but Winnable, Battle with the Coronavirus Pandemic

Posted on by Web Master

The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading rapidly across the world, overwhelming health systems and threatening lives and livelihoods. Mitigation and containment measures, such as social distancing and lockdowns, are having an unprecedented effect on the global economy. The pandemic reaches Ethiopia at an important juncture – during a period of transformative social, economic and political reforms – threatening to reverse our hard-won development achievements from the past decade and threatening to eliminate the progress of our recent reforms.

However, this is also a time when we are better united and equipped as a nation. Recent gains in public trust for the government, increasing transparency and civic engagement, and strengthened economic management and macroeconomic stability put us in a stronger position to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The magnitude of the impacts of COVID-19 globally remain fluid, and things are changing everyday. Over 2.5 million individuals have been infected by COVID-19, and more than 175,000 lives have been lost. The global economy is projected to contract by three percent in 2020. The effects are being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s by some.

African economies are projected to shrink by 1.6pc, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Ethiopia will not be spared from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will overwhelm our human capital and slow down our economy. However, my take is that with the resoluteness of our government, health professionals, farmers, businesses, civic society and the general public at large, we have tools that will help us better tackle the challenges as a nation.

The Ethiopian government has a proven whole-of-government approach to economic and emergency management. Collective decision-making, learning by doing, establishing community trust and utilising existing structures are key features of the government machinery that have facilitated the country’s rapid growth and development for the past decade.

These existing structures will remain essential to bolster political commitment and mobilise resources to combat the pandemic. The COVID-19 national preparation and response plan builds on successful whole-of-government approaches and aims to strengthen and scale-up existing development and emergency programmes.

The Prime Minister established the high-level national COVID-19 preparation and response task force within days after the detection of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the country. The task force is comprised of seven committees on health emergencies, food security, resource mobilisation and the economy, among others, to continuously assess the situation and refine and implement the national COVID-19 response plan.

With the Prime Minister at the helm, setting the political direction and tone, the leadership facilitates streamlined decision-making. To date, the task force has executed notable actions to prevent the spread of the virus and protect lives and livelihoods. Far-reaching social distancing measures were implemented, including the suspension of schools and universities; testing, isolation, quarantine and treatment capacities have been scaled up; borders have been closed and inter- and intra-city transportation is being monitored; and extensive resource mobilisation has been undertaken.

Leading by example, the President, Prime Minister and top government officials have donated one month of their salaries to the COVID-19 response fund. The government has revitalised civic society organisations and successful social mobilisation mechanisms that have been instituted during the last two years.

Financial and in-kind resources, technology and human resources are now flowing from within the country and the diaspora. Following the government’s call, 18,000 health professionals – including students and retired professionals – have responded to join the emergency team, and 5,000 were placed on duty immediately. The multipurpose Millennium Hall – close to 8,000 square feet – was refurbished into a COVID-19 treatment centre, demonstrating the organisational efficiency of the leadership.

Most recently, a state of emergency was declared to reinforce social distancing measures and enhance the government’s ability to administrate and take quick action as the situation unfolds.

The most pressing priority is to save lives and implement social protection for those whose livelihoods are being upended, followed with provisions to build economic resilience. We are prepared to provide safety nets to 30 million individuals, including the poor and those in subsistence employment.

Mapping of the vulnerable groups has been undertaken, including those on the street, sex workers, IDPs, returnees and refugees. Food security plans have been elaborated with reserves in place for the April to June period, and additional resources are being mobilised to cover the demands for the following three months, as the need arises.

The government is working to safeguard the agriculture sector from the immediate impacts of the pandemic to ensure that the food supply is maintained and productivity is enhanced. Arrangements are underway to make inputs available to farmers to prepare for the next season. National and regional food supply chains and logistics networks are being mapped in collaboration with regional and local governments to avoid disruptions to the national supply chain.

While the challenges are vast, the good news is that we will not need to reinvent the wheel to deliver on our lives and livelihoods protection plan. The country has existing livelihood protection and development programmes, such as the safety net programme and the health and agricultural extension workers, that are ingrained at the grassroots level and have been proven to work.

The national safety net programme, which is the largest in Africa, has been effectively protecting livelihoods and enhancing the resilience of the most vulnerable for 15 years, providing food and cash transfers to eight million vulnerable people and millions of the transitory poor annually. Similarly, the health and agricultural extension workers have played a prominent role in mobilising communities and building capacity for socioeconomic development.

The government is now tasked with the scaling up and strengthening of these existing programmes. This past week, 40,000 health extension workers took part in door-to-door screenings of communities for COVID-19. Local governments are working with existing social institutions such as idirs, local elderly associations, to spread information and support the most vulnerable population during the pandemic.

The protection of livelihoods and building economic resilience also requires targeted interventions to avoid the gradual slowdown of the economy. The pandemic reached the country just after we launched the comprehensive three-year Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda to improve macroeconomic stability and stimulate growth in key sectors. These reforms provide us with an unprecedented scope to strengthen our COVID-19 response.

The early wins in ensuring disciplined macroeconomic management, re-energising the business community to lead the economy, and setting the foundations for a digital economy are giving us leverage in the mitigation of the pandemic and the recovery of our economy. This reform momentum has also boosted the confidence of our international partners, and promising support is being garnered in the immediate term to support our COVID-19 response plans.

Leveraging improvements in the business climate and overhauling regulations, government officials are working with the re-energised business community to enhance production and productivity, ensure jobs are maintained, and further economic resilience. The burgeoning manufacturing sector and SMEs are adapting to meet the needs of the time, including the production of items that are essential for the response to COVID-19 such as masks, face shields and hand sanitiser.

Policy provisions are being introduced, including ensuring the availability of inputs and various fiscal, monetary and sector-specific policy measures, to help preserve livelihoods and businesses and stimulate the productivity of sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. These measures will be strictly complemented by actions to contain the spread of the virus in the workplace through the provision of personal protective devices, awareness creation and rescheduling work hours.

The early efforts to erect the foundations for a digital economy are already paying off, encouraging start-ups to lead in launching digital payments and markets to promote social distancing. These are promising initiatives that will not only help to cope with the pandemic but also prepare us for the post-COVID-19 global economy.

In light of the dynamic nature of the pandemic, the government continues to assess the situation on the ground and learn from experiences elsewhere to refine and recalibrate its plan to save lives and livelihoods. The emergency plan covers three to six months to mitigate the health and livelihood impacts of the pandemic, while the resilience and recovery plan stretches over a year. The plan considers scenarios regarding the duration and severity of the pandemic and follows a people-first approach.

The pandemic is a global challenge that requires coordinated efforts from governments, civic societies, businesses and all segments of society. The scale of the challenges remain vast, yet what shields us is our collective resolve to protect the wellbeing of our citizens and our hard-won development gains. We need to stay on track toward achieving prosperity for all.

Home is Not Always Safe, Especially for Women

Posted on by Web Master

As the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has spread across the world, governments have been imposing or at least advising preventive measures to fight the spread of the virus. Citizens have been asked to stay at home as much as possible.

But home is not safe for everyone, especially women. In many countries across the world, domestic violence cases have risen significantly as couples and families stay home together. It is painfully obvious why this is happening.

Growing up, I had a friend who told me that coming to school was the only escape she had from what was happening at home. She enrolled in all after-school and summer programmes just to reduce the amount of time she was expected to stay home. Today, she lives on her own away from her abusive household.

If the pandemic had taken place years prior, I wonder what any of us could have done to help.

While we cannot, in a span of just months, hope for the manifestation of behavioural change, what we can do is make sure our loved ones are cared for. As abuse is often about power and control, and as today’s crisis is making everyone feel like they are no longer in control of their lives, we should expect that incidents of abuse are rising behind closed doors.

Compounding the issue is how the lockdown has also included organisations that in normal times would have their doors open to victims. But shelters all over Addis Abeba have largely been closed to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to the Association for Women’s Sanctuary & Development.

This has left many abandoned to their dangerous homes. Others have ended up staying at police stations or at the offices of some of these organisations. Fortunately, nonprofits such as the Ethiopia Network of Women Shelters are acting as emergency centres for those seeking help.

Homes can feel like traps for the abused and tormented, who will be isolated from services that can help them. It is an important fact to remember that a third of women around the world experience physical or sexual violence, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), making it “the most widespread, but among the least reported human rights abuse” cases.

On top of this, Ethiopia’s conservative culture puts the blame on victims and tries to justify the abuses inflicted upon them. Women are encouraged to handle the burdens of the imperfect man they have married. The more enduring the woman is, the more she is respected for her role as a wife. Even when she involves close family members to serve as mediators, in the end, the most commonly given advice for the husband is a soft warning for his behaviour, while she is given long speeches of encouragement for her patience and endurance.

The wife is often given the responsibility to cater to his good nature and rise to the challenge of tempering her husband’s worst instincts.

Justice has often failed women living in abuse. The exact data on this sensitive issue is difficult to obtain in this conservative country, but the definition of abuse and the language that is in use should be a good indicator of how widespread abuse in households is in Ethiopia. Older brothers and husbands are designated as disciplinarians in many homes.

Most domestically abused women in Ethiopia stay with their abusive spouses in fear of religious and cultural ramifications. Add to this the imbalance of power in the household, mainly in terms of economic capability, which prevents women from leaving. The problem is compounded if there are children. With the economic devastation caused by COVID-19, it  is likely that even more women will be left financially dependent.

There is some hope in that the judicial institutions have found it prudent to continue to protect the rights of women. Chief Justice Meaza Ashenafi, president of the Supreme Court, announced that domestic abuse cases would be entertained as a matter of priority by the courts. The decision is a major step in recognising the voices of Ethiopian women.

As we slowly grasp the many aspects of life COVID-19 will touch, we should begin to realise that victims of other problems, especially domestic abuse, are more alone than ever before. Our community must stand stronger than before if we are all to come out of this in one piece, with no one left behind.

Did We Beat COVID-19?

Posted on by Web Master

On March 13, 2020, the first case of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) was confirmed in Ethiopia. It was not welcome news. For weeks before then, the disease had been ravaging Europe, with the number of cases growing exponentially and a higher fatality rate being reported than was the case in Asia.

The scene of patients on respirators and ventilators in hospitals and the anecdotal experiences of people with the virus on social media seemed to be harbingers of what was to be visited on Africa very soon.

If COVID-19 was ravaging the health systems of countries far more advanced, with better contact tracing, treating and organisational capabilities than Ethiopia, then what chance did we have?

It was a question everyone asked. It seemed a foregone conclusion that even with the strictest of social distancing measures, the country would be blighted significantly.

It has already been six weeks, and this seems not to have happened. There is still no conclusive evidence to suggest that Ethiopia will be spared the worst of the pandemic and that precautionary measures should be suspended. But there seems to be a gradually growing consensus that African countries such as Ethiopia might have dodged a bullet here.

The number of cases has passed 100, but they have done so very gradually. This has been the case even as daily testing significantly increased to over 1,000 and the occasional jumps by eight or nine more reported cases in a day. But the daily growth rate has largely been below five percent without any visible signs of a significant jump.

There is an argument to be made that testing is still well below what it should be to feel comfortable. And despite a few initiatives, testing has focused on people with symptoms and travel histories.

But then again, if there is exponential growth, with the government, the media, health professionals and organisations and citizens as vigilant as they are, it is hard to believe it has completely gone unnoticed. Our health systems and disease recognition and response capacity may be low, but not non-existent.

We have a government and institutions that have been tasked with detecting and battling bacterial and viral outbreaks such as Malaria, Cholera, Measles and HIV/AIDs for decades. This infrastructure, know-how and tracing capabilities still exist. Our public health institutions may not be state-of-the-art or even adequately funded, but it is unfair of us to assume that they would be so incompetent to fail to sniff out an outbreak right under there noses for six whole weeks.

While scepticism should not only be welcome but encouraged as well, we should also not let the view that Ethiopia is poor be the reason for us to deny that, against the odds and defying expectations, the curve may somehow have been flattened.

But how do we explain what has happened? How is it possible that a disease that ravaged countries with far more advanced health infrastructure and response mechanisms has barely impacted ours?

Not much is known about the disease so there has not been any conclusive reason given for what seems to at least be an unusual delay. Perhaps it is a stroke of luck or a stark reminder of how loosely integrated with the globalised word almost all African countries are. I am sure that many of our folk would say that it is divine intervention.

We may also never know, as was the case with the swine flu outbreak of 2009. A relatively milder flu outbreak with far lower case mortality, lab-confirmed deaths stood around 18,000. But estimates by CDC and WHO have put the numbers in the hundreds of thousands.

Like we never found out the extent of the damage of the Swine Flu, we may never know why we have dodged a bullet with COVID-19.

There is only one thing that all of this points to, and that is the importance of caution. The fact that it seems that we will not be devastated the same way Italy, Spain or the United States were should not be a reason for us to let our guard down. If anything, it should give us encouragement that the prices we are paying with our freedom of movement and organisation are working and should be maintained until enough testing has been done to ascertain that the curve has indeed been flattened.

 

Beware the Black Hats

Posted on by Web Master

In the age of digital technology, we find ourselves more vulnerable than we had ever previously imagined. For this, we do not even have to go into the sketchy underbelly of the web. It usually comes to us.

Recently, I stumbled upon a vacancy on Telegram, a popular messaging app in Ethiopia and throughout the world, for temporary recruitment. The vacancy said that they were looking to hire individuals who were interested in helping test various applications for at least two hours a day and who had either a smartphone or a personal computer and internet access.

Interested, I contacted the person who posted the vacancy, and he sent me a file format to install the application. He also gave me instructions on how to install the app and asked me to screenshot the “installation complete” pop-up for verification.

I tried to do this the next day. But downloading the app was unsuccessful. I thought it might have been my internet connection. I gave it a second try but was unsuccessful.

Later that day, I tried to contact the person who posted the vacancy, but his username had been deleted, and our correspondence had disappeared. Thus, I turned to a tech-savvy friend of mine and sent him the app for a query.

My friend called the second he received the file and told me to turn off my internet connection and delete the format file to – using his technical term – remove the backdoor Trojan app.

It turns out that the app was a virus. Had I installed it, I could have given the hackers access to my camera, microphone and basically anything saved in my phone. The thought that someone could be watching me through my phone camera at any point and time without my knowledge sent chills down my spine.

This is something we have to consider further as our use of digital technology increases. It seems that every other person in Addis Abeba is sporting a smartphone these days.

Although our engagement with the worldwide web is negligible in comparison to other places, we are already witnessing a number of its pros and cons. We have everything from internet celebrities (vloggers) to social media activists. A less-discussed corner of the internet is Ethiopia’s own version of the dark web, where hackers are known to congregate.

Indeed, not all hackers are bad, and the negative connotation related to the word can be misleading. There are two kinds: black hat and white hat hackers. As obvious as it sounds, the former have malicious intent, while the latter are security experts testing systems for vulnerabilities who are also known as pen testers or penetration testers.

There are two tried and true methods of hacking. One is purely hardware-based. The other is the exploitation of people in the process of hacking them, which almost happened to me.

The hacker first places themselves in the mind of their victims and develops a way for them to install, click or open a file granting them access to the victim. How this is achieved often varies. One popular way has been Telegram.

In between the constant posts for shoes, jackets, glasses and household items, we may find ourselves face to face with a fake Telegram account with users posting Android installation files usually between 90Kb and one megabyte. The files usually come in the form of a data saver format file or even a wallpaper.

Many fail to pay attention to the file size and install these apps that disappear, never showing up in our app drawer, and we just move on. Unknowingly, what we have installed is a tool that allows the hacker to do a number of things from triangulating our location to reading our passwords. Most eerily, whenever we are connected to the internet, the hacker is able to access the camera or listen in on the microphone.

This has become quite a common occurrence. That is why we should be careful of the applications we install on our devices, especially those we find on such social media platforms and the links we find in the random emails we are sent.

As a rule of thumb, whenever we come across such applications prior to installing them, let us either ask someone who knows about these things or do some research on our own. Otherwise, we may have a digital Peeping Tom on our hands.

 

COVID-19: the Social, the Spiritual and the Illness

Posted on by Web Master

In the plagues of yesteryear, epidemics were equated and explained by social and spiritual phenomena. As the treatment for pandemics entered the “medical model,” the persecution and elimination of the abstract culprits became a form of treatment. The Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), though viral in origin, is a disease that reveals the same old social and spiritual ills in society.

Take the great pox, for example. It was called “the French disease” by the Italians, “the English disease” and “the Spanish disease” by the French, and the “Neopolitan disease” by the Spaniards. We now call it Syphilis, but it serves to show how civilizations blame socio-spiritual causes for pandemics.

It ravaged the French army and Spanish mercenaries during the siege of Naples in the mid-1490s. The discovery that it is transmitted through sexual contact led some authors of the time to advise people to refrain from “succumbing to the attraction of love.” The name for Syphilis comes from a poem in which a shepherd by that name is punished by a god for worshiping a king instead of the deity.

Over the years, advances in medicine helped to treat the illness. As the disease sometimes was self-limiting, any treatment might have helped some cases. However, the disease has neither been eradicated nor controlled. This is because treating disease medically is one thing, but eliminating it is part of the more difficult task of interfering with behaviour.

A number of people are suggesting that human evil is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some are going so far as to argue that this pandemic is punishment specifically for sins committed by health professionals in the course of their duties. They also say that this is especially the case here in Ethiopia.

What COVID-19 is revealing to us is what happens when a society with high levels of suggestibility encounters an abstract challenge like a virus. If the threat was an imminent war, then patriotism and aggression would have claimed centre stage.

It is not that spirituality has no place in the fight against COVID-19. It absolutely does in as far as it helps us find meaning, calm and purpose in what we do – some of the prayers from some denominations have been especially comforting. However, blaming sin for something we can deal with by the act of washing our hands is dangerous or, at best, absurd.

As we are forced to consider our mortality in the face of this pandemic, questions regarding the meaning of life come to the fore. In this circumstance, there is no place to hide but our spirituality as an end in and of itself.

This epidemic is also bringing our attention to love.

Do we love the people we love, humanity or ourselves?

With Syphilis, people were warned not to fall for the attractions of love. Now we are being asked to fall for love, specifically the platonic kind, at a distance of two metres. COVID-19 is revealing to us that sometimes we show how much we love others by staying away from them.

As an illness that is getting us to rethink our attitudes and spirituality, it should be stressed that it actually does not compare to others we have encountered before.

Throughout history, Leprosy has probably inflicted more discrimination and social prejudice than any other disease. As we now know, and the people who were victims of that epidemic probably realised as well, Leprosy is far less contagious than other diseases. But the public health and legislative measures taken were less to control it and more to do with saving the rich and the powerful from the sight of those disfigured by the illness.

Biblical and medieval Leprosy was probably a name for many types of diseases that may or may not have included the disease we now refer to with that name. However, in most places in the world, old control measures persist.

There is a lesson to be taken here: control measures we take have the habit of enduring for years. Some of the control measures we are employing now will have an impact on the trajectory of this current epidemic. Some will go on to have social, economic, political, cultural and spiritual implications that will last longer than the epidemic. It is for this reason that we need to be careful and calm when we legislate interventions.

Take, for example, the decree in some places that citizens have a responsibility to inform the authorities if they suspect their neighbor of having COVID-19 symptoms.

We must realise that this gives citizens the power to diagnose and intervene – the responsibilities of health professionals. We are also encouraging citizens to break an age-long social fabric of standing together, a trait we need to depend on at this time.

A measure that will serve the same purpose without the same damage is to say “anyone who observes that someone is displaying symptoms of COVID-19 should advise, educate or encourage them to seek help.”

What we are considering here is what our responsibility is to others. The pandemic is revealing both the good and bad in our society. At times we are seen taking our responsibility for others quite seriously and observing all the commands, while at other times we are seen coiling into a posture of selfishness. COVID-19 is revealing how human we all are, after all.

Cholera and Typhus are examples of diseases where ineffective and discriminatory intervention strategies led to more disease instead of less. The early 19th century was a period when the practice of medicine was very laissez-faire. This was mostly because health was assumed to be the affair of bureaucrats, whose only interest was balancing the budget, and physicians, who focused only on treating, not preventing, the diseases.

This was all done on the back of public health interests, which were predicated on impulses to protect the well and help the sick. This led to interventions where people with symptoms of Cholera were kept together, contaminating each other and dying for reasons other than the disease. This continued even after the connection between Cholera and water contamination was established, since many doctors remained convinced that the disease came from immigrants, the poor and the dirty. The same fate was to affect Typhus victims that were put in overcrowded rooms.

In modern history, the need for public health interventions has never been this dire. Over the years, there is no doubt that significant milestones have been reached in the control and prevention of disease and in promoting health. What makes the current pandemic unique is the urgency of the need for smart local interventions that are sensitive to the context.

What do we do when what we know does not seem to work?

We either give it up or start to think. COVID-19 is making it evident that we need more than what is written in books and articles. We must consider and face what people think and feel. If there is anything to be said about COVID-19, it is that it reveals much about who we are.

Dawit Wondimagegn (MD) is associate professor of psychiatry at Addis Abeba University’s School of Medicine and chief executive director of Tikur Anbessa Hospital. His views are personal and do not represent the opinion of any institution. He can be reached at dawitwondimagegn@gmail.com.

BY DAWIT WONDIMAGEGN

Pandemic Justifies Strong Response, Not Neglect of Other Health Emergencies

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Since the first cluster of cases was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread to almost all countries in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared it “a public health emergency of international concern” on January 30, 2020.

Ethiopia reported the first case of COVID-19 on March 13, 2020. Since then the number of cases has steadily increased to 111 cases reported in just five weeks.

The Ministry of Health and its partners are now in full force to curb the pandemic. The country has closed inland travel across its borders, and travellers that come by air to Ethiopia from abroad have been required to remain in isolation for 14 days. Quarantine and treatment centres have been established, and diagnostic kits have been distributed to regional and university laboratories. A national state of emergency has also been declared.

While fighting pandemics of this scale, the damage inflicted by other health threats is often overlooked. Significant shifts in resources to fight pandemics halt our ability to provide other essential health services. Such precarious conditions are more significant in low-income countries where health systems are not resilient enough to absorb shocks. When a pandemic of such magnitude occurs, there is also widespread stigmatisation and abandonment of hospitals as people perceive these facilities to be favourable breeding places for the disease.

Stigmatisation and abandonment of healthcare facilities is further exacerbated by misinformation and blunted health communication strategies. In countries such as Ethiopia, where the level of health literacy is low, people will certainly be influenced by unfounded claims.

The notion that healthcare facilities are breeding places for contagious diseases is not an unsubstantiated public concern. Unless standard procedures are followed, hospitals and health centres can become sources of new infections. Yet if healthcare workers follow standard precautions, these facilities will be safe to visit and receive essential health services without concern.

COVID-19 has already killed over 100,000 people across the world. These are deaths directly caused by this contagious disease. Surges in deaths from other causes is eminent because of health system disruptions. Yet health officials have barely tallied these indirect deaths. We are in the black box, and nobody knows the scale of deaths as a result of health system disruptions.

Past epidemics have shown the true effects of health system disruptions. The negative effects of large-scale epidemics on health systems were explicitly seen during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic in West Africa from 2013 to 2016. Apart from the direct deaths caused by the epidemic, EVD weakened health systems and ultimately resulted in many deaths among mothers and children under five years old.

There is mounting evidence that healthcare facilities were overwhelmed by EVD cases and were unable to manage other health conditions at that time. Individuals and communities lost confidence in the healthcare system and even considered it a potential place of viral spread. As a result, people were hesitant to receive care from hospitals.

Women gave birth in their homes without a skilled birth attendant. Child deaths surged because of lack of treatment for common childhood diseases. Immunisation programmes ceased, and malaria deaths climbed, because the quick diagnosis and treatment of severe cases was limited.

The health system in Ethiopia has already started feeling the effects of COVID-19 within this short period. The number of blood donations has, for instance, significantly dwindled. It has been reported that the number of clients seen by healthcare facilities has woefully been dropping since the illness was first reported in the country.

There have also been rumours that labour and childbirth have taken place at home without a skilled birth attendant, as women and their families fear Coronavirus infections in healthcare facilities. Many people with an illness stay at home, facing possible complications and death.

As the COVD-19 cases are surging, Ethiopia’s government should chart a coherent path and exert an all-out effort to combat the pandemic. Side by side with this response, a proper epidemic intelligence organisation should be put in place to monitor other lethal epidemics, since Ethiopia is vulnerable to multiple illnesses that have the potential to start pandemics.

Malaria outbreaks are often seasonal and inflict significant damage during autumn and spring, the harvesting seasons in rural Ethiopia. When outbreaks occur in non-endemic fringe areas, Malaria fatality is significantly higher and far more fatal than COVID-19.

Another worry is Measles. Unless almost all children are vaccinated, it can occur in an epidemic form and kill a significant number of children. Measles is an extremely contagious disease. Every case results in an average of 12 to 18 new cases, making it far more contagious than COVID-19.

Unless mitigation measures are in place, diseases such as these could create a human tragedy that reverses our health gains over the past two decades.

The public should be reassured that healthcare facilities are still safe and are not serving as breeding places for COVID-19. The Ministry of Health should remain vigilant and take a series of measures to restore public confidence.

The first one should be doubling down on efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. When its spread slows down, healthcare facilities will not be overwhelmed by multiple COVID-19 cases at a time, and there will not be health system disruptions.

Another measure is stringent oversight to prevent the spread of the virus inside the premises of healthcare facilities. This should be followed by the establishment of a public relations system to communicate and reassure the public to remain confident in healthcare facilities. It should also be ensured that the quality of service remain optimal and address the needs of individuals and families.

Women should be encouraged to give birth in healthcare facilities as they did before the pandemic. Childcare clinics should open their doors all days of the week as they used to. A disease surveillance system should be activated to identify any outbreak in its early stage, before it causes significant causalities.

We should not give this scourge the chance to spoil our health system and reverse our achievements over the past two decades.

Brave New World for Global Insurance Industry

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Predictably, COVID-19 has had a knock-on effect on service providers across the world. Those in the insurance industry have been no exception.

World-class insurers have been devising a strategy to protect their businesses. The most common form of disaster recovery programmes and risk road maps though have become meaningless in the eyes of customers. This is especially the case for many airlines that failed to refund beforehand and kept on flying due to conflicting advice given by governments as to whether people should travel or not.

The need for cover and the issue of practical pricing creates questions regarding insurers’ reputations. Policyholders believe and always maintain the principle of “utmost good faith” during acceptance of claims, while insurers occasionally refer to exclusions in their books, even for corporate clients. This practice is resulting in a lack of focus on the design of the product itself. When a pandemic such as COVID-19 occurs, policyholders are surprised to find that they are not covered by their insurance.

This situation arises largely due to customers not fully understanding insurance coverage, which is partly the fault of the insurers for using long and complicated terms and conditions. The way the international media sees it, insurers are unfairly treating their customers during this harsh time.

The long and short of it is that insurers of the 21st century work in a marketplace in which people buy whichever insurance policy is cheapest. Unsurprisingly, cheap policies rarely cover unexpected or unusual events – like global pandemics. It was a scenario that could have perhaps been salvaged had insurers designed tailor-made policies through intensive negotiation instead of blanket tariff and rating approaches.

During the pandemic there has been a great deal of confusion as insurers have tried to grapple with an increased volume of claims and customer queries, as well as a chorus of criticism from journalists and social media users. This is exacerbating the situation, resulting in long wait times for responses and even further customer dissatisfaction.

Things will dramatically change globally following COVID-19 – there are enormous risks to the insurance businesses on a scale we have rarely seen before. Even world-class reinsurers, such as Munich Re, could fail as international trade, events, flights, games, entertainment industries, hotels and restaurants fail or cancel, and organisers and owners come asking for claims.

It is almost certain that we will see insurance businesses fail globally and quite possibly in significant numbers. The global pandemic may bring a more stringent approach, especially as policyholders come to expect more tailor-made policies due to how they treat risks such as pandemics. This will affect the industry all the way to the reinsurers.

Things are dramatically changing, and we should strive to introduce a pragmatic response to the emerging risk in the eyes of insurers. Let us think outside the box to develop a means to secure the financial burden of policyholders and insurers as well, and this will have to be led by the nation’s only re-insurer, Ethio-Re.

Currently, paying out on policies will be a huge hit to insurers and for reinsurers when the cost is added to their other exposure. That could put them in serious jeopardy. This impact may create de-marketing for both composite and general insurers and Ethio-Re.

The most worrying of these may be the volume of payouts on existing travel insurance policies being far beyond what was expected. As if this was not enough, the investments insurers rely on to give them funds to pay such claims are in free fall.

Additionally, giant global businesses are failing, with airlines looking to be the earliest casualties and hospitality chains likely to follow swiftly. Firms of this size are more likely to have comprehensive coverage. Having to pay out on any policies that include contagious disease will further add to the burden faced by the insurance industry. This will significantly affect reinsurers, most of which have connections to the Ethiopian insurance market.

Despite the risk, insurers and reinsurers seem to have taken little action in developing a global risk road map. This has been despite the increasing recurrence of natural disasters, including forest fires, floods and even locust invasions. The primary role of insurers, and mainly reinsurers, should be to develop a global risk road map, including mitigation factors and advising governments to design their disaster recovery programmes.

It is almost certain that, as we go forward, the insurance industry will suffer severely, the impact of which will be more exclusions at the expense of policyholders. This will create a catch-22 at a time when customers expect insurance packages at a reduced price, with wider coverage and lower deductibles.

We should reconsider our existing manner of doing business and craft comprehensive risk road map strategies that will mitigate pandemics such as COVID-19 and the increasing number of natural disasters.

Let’s Meet Victims Halfway, at Least

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In Ethiopia, there is a harmful cultural norm that focuses on blaming victims, making it difficult to have important conversations that might bring support. Perpetrators are protected by the conservative views of society, and this has led to the perpetuation of abuse of the most vulnerable groups.

Several years ago, I met a woman that was undergoing some sort of physical and psychological trauma. When I met her at my friend’s house, she was acting like someone who had lost her sanity. After several hours of trying to calm her down, we succeeded, and she went home.

The whole situation was a horrific thing to observe. I asked my friend’s family what happened to the woman, and they replied that it was a well-known fact around the neighbourhood that she was a victim of domestic abuse. People had tried to report the matter to the police, but they were not only stopped but threatened by members of the woman’s family.

I took the woman’s contact information and approached her to encourage her to seek help. It was confusing to hear her explain how much she and her family loved each other. A year ago, she told me that she got married and left her parents’ house. But her wounds and bruises persisted. When she was asked what had occurred, she would insist that she had gotten into an accident at work or on her way there.

She kept contact with me over the phone as well and always maintained what a great character her husband was. But last week I received a call from her. Sobbing, she told me that her husband had been abusing her physically and verbally for years. She reminded me of the visible physical wounds I had seen.

It was then that I begged her to seek help and inform the police and her employers. But this made her distant all of a sudden. She refused to contact the authorities about this and in fact seemed to regret ever telling me this.

Since such problems are embedded deeply in society, law enforcement bodies and those working to respect human rights often never find out about such hidden crimes. This puts an enormous burden on the victims. Discouraged to seek help by societal norms and expectations, and fearing the lack of empathy to the religious, social and economic circumstances they feel they have to contend with, victims often fail to seek any help.

No doubt, we each have the ability to speak truth and better ourselves. When we are true to ourselves and let others see the real us, we reap a fruitful life that nurtures ourselves and others. But when we try to hide we are only robbing ourselves of the possible ways we could be helped.

Seeking help can allow us to dig ourselves out of the hardships we suffer. Most people are afraid to open up and point out what is holding them back. In fact, a good number of people are convinced that once they are in trouble, they have no way out. But this is far from the truth. There is always some way to escape.

Indeed, for many, this is easier said than done. It is not easy to escape from a life of abuse and exploitation, often because the victims are deeply tied to the perpetrators culturally and economically. They are less likely to dare to speak out when they feel that their survival depends on the house and the financial benefits the perpetrators themselves provide them. This is not to mention the cultural and religious norms that often require these vulnerable groups themselves to excuse and forgive their perpetrators.

What we require is a two-pronged approach. We need to have sympathy for their predicament and how they are often unable to escape the abuse they are faced with. There are shackles attached to their ankles that are often hard to see and complicated for the victims themselves to describe.

By the same token, we need to insist on the importance of victims coming forward. It is by opening up to those that we trust that we can find a possible solution to the problems we face. This will, doubtless, be hard, but we need to reach out our hands to them and make the process easier.

Without looking at the problem from these two sides, it will be impossible to address it.

 

Seytan Bet

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A building that used to be the first cinema house in Ethiopia, opened in the early 1920s and informally known as Seytan Bet,  or “House of the Devil” in English, stands solo next to a demolished building, utilised for purposes purportedly other than a theatre.

Forgotten Sink

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Following the first few reported cases of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ethiopia, one of the chief means of fighting against the pandemic was considered public hygiene. There have largely been initiatives from the government and grassroots volunteer groups to improve access to water as a result, but some have not turned out as they were expected to. One of these is around Mexico Square, where sinks were constructed on top of and next to a trash bin. Worse, they have since stopped working, with no soap in sight, and pose more health risks than they address.