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Henok Semaegzer Fente

Henok Semaegzer Fente

Henok Semaegzer Fente, a media educator and policy advisor. He is the executive director of MERSA Media Institute, a non-profit think tank. He can be reached at fente@mersamedia.org.

Henok Semaegzer Fente's Articles

Alibaba to Ethiopian Markets: “Open Sesame”

Nov 30 , 2019 . By Henok Semaegzer Fente

Remember the Ali Baba tale in Arabian Nights, where a poor woodcutter discovers a sec...

Commentaries

Demographic Dividend Drains Away When Youth Policy Drifts

In contemporary sub-Saharan Africa, young people drive the economy. Nearly two-thirds...

Protectionism Will Not Protect Against Pandemics

As many Global North countries turn inward, foreign assistance has become an easy tar...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Editorial

Researchers Churn Out Studies by the Ton. Quality Checks are Causality

May 17 , 2025

Ethiopia pours more than three billion Birr a year into academic research, yet too mu...

Ethiopia's Aid Reckoning Demands a Homegrown Rescue Plan

May 10 , 2025

Federal legislators recently summoned Shiferaw Teklemariam (PhD), head of the Disaste...

When Pension Funds Nap Inflation Steals the Blanket

May 3 , 2025

Pensioners have learned, rather painfully, the gulf between a figure on a passbook an...

Policymakers Trudge Down a Path of Punitive Taxation

Apr 26 , 2025

Benjamin Franklin famously quipped that “nothing is certain but death and taxes....

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Sunday With Eden

Drowning in Someone's Storm

Friendship is supposed to be a two-way street; a bond built on mutual respect, trust, and support. But when that dynamic shift, and the frie...

Raising Builders, Not Spenders

Raising Builders, Not Spenders Over lunch recently, my husband and I sat with a young friend from one of Ethiopia's wealthiest families....

Life Matters

Gambling on Survival

Sometimes it feels like the world has turned into a high-stakes lottery. The kind where everyone is expected to become a millionaire overnig...

When a Comment Cuts Deep, Thank the Shadow

There are moments when a comment from a friend, partner, or colleague strikes a nerve, not with casual ir...