New York (Tadias) – In the last few years we have witnessed the emergence of Ethiopian-American authors who are making their mark on the tapestry of American literature. The latest such work comes from Maaza Mengiste, a Pushcart Prize nominee who was recently named “New Literary Idol” by New York Magazine.
Her debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze depicts Ethiopia in the 1970s, when the country was undergoing a political revolution. The military had just deposed an archaic monarchy system with a promise of peaceful change. But what followed Emperor Haile Selassie’s removal was anything but peaceful. The country would soon plunge into unimaginable violence.
Following in the footsteps of other highly acclaimed works by Ethiopian-American authors including Nega Mezlekia (Notes Form the Hyena’s Belly) and Dinaw Mengistu (The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears), Maaza delivers what Chris Abani calls “an important story from a part of Africa too long silent in the World Republic of Letters.”
The Library Journal adds “Although the depictions of brutality are extensive, they are also realistic and captivating, helping place Beneath the Lion’s Gaze into a small cadre of Ethiopian fiction, including Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone and Camilla Gibb’s Sweetness in the Belly.”
Below is our Q & A with Maaza Mengiste:
TADIAS: Please tell us a bit about yourself. What/who motivated you to become a writer?
Mengiste: I was born in Addis Ababa, and lived in Nigeria and Kenya before coming to the US. While living in the US, I made visits back to Ethiopia to see my family. I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and my MFA from NYU. I don’t know who specifically motivated me to be a writer. I’ve always loved to read and write. I think a combination of many writers gave me the courage to make the move into the literary world, especially world/international writers.
TADIAS: Can you share more about other writing projects you completed prior to this debut novel?
Mengiste: Though this is my first major writing project, I have written a few short stories as well as some nonfiction pieces. My main focus over the past several years was this novel, however, and this didn’t give me very much time to do other writing.
TADIAS: Are your own memories of Ethiopia similar to the ones that you describe in your novel? If not, how are they different?
Mengiste: Yes, some of my own memories shape this book, but I was also very young. Only after I was older was I able to put events and certain memories into historical and political context. As a child, all that you know is that there are gunshots at night, people are taken away, and you see soldiers, you’re afraid and you sense the fear, but you don’t necessarily understand the reasons.
TADIAS: Do any of the characters depicted in your novel mirror people that you know?
MENGISTE: Hailu, who is the central character and a doctor in my book most closely resembles my grandfather. However, my grandfather was not a doctor. He (and so many men of his generation) seemed to have a certain dignity and strength that I wanted to convey in Hailu. Most of the other characters are a combination of personalities I know, or purely fictional.
TADIAS: Your book is now part of a growing library of works which NPR has said is coming from a generation of Ethiopian Americans who are “part of a wave of young people whose families fled Ethiopia in the 1970s and who came of age in the United States…adding a new chapter to the epic of American immigration.” Is this something you identify with?
MENGISTE: I do see myself as part of a wave of Ethiopians who have left Ethiopia and are continuing to express that journey in one way or another. I am excited to see this “wave” grow, there is a new generation of Ethiopians who are telling their own stories through music, art, literature, science, through so many fields. It is impressive, and it reminds me that despite everything that has happened in Ethiopia, we will always continue to strive for a better future for ourselves and our families.
TADIAS: What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
MENGISTE: I enjoy reading and spending time with friends and family. I enjoy photography.
TADIAS: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our readers?
MENGISTE: Thank you all for the support and encouragement. If you know of an artist, a writer, someone struggling to live their dreams, please encourage them also. We need many different voices and perspectives.
TADIAS: Thanks for the interview and congratulations on the new book release.
If you Go:
Upcoming Book Talks by Maaza Mengiste:
January 22, 2009
Politics and Prose, Washington DC
7:00PM Reading & Talk
Above:Ted Alemayhu, pictured here addressing the African
First Ladies Health Summit in Los Angeles last Spring, was
honored in Cameroon last week. (Courtesy photo).
Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Saturday, January 2, 2010
New York (Tadias) – Ted Alemayhu, Founder and Chairman of U.S. Doctors for Africa (USDFA), was honored in Cameroon last week for his organization’s work tackling Africa’s enormous health care problems.
Mr. Alemayhu, who convened the African First Ladies Health Summit in Los Angeles last Spring, says the acknowledgment of his service brings needed attention to USDFA’s work in Cameroon and other nations in Africa.
“The President and The First Lady of Cameroon were kind with their generous recognition of our efforts in bringing the highly needed medical manpower and other resources to the continent,” Mr. Alemayhu told Tadias Magazine. “The recognition would simply raise the level of attention and awareness of the needs for organizations like U.S. Doctors for Africa to be more engaged in providing much needed medical care and services to the people of Africa who continue to suffer from the lack of basic medical care.”
According to Mr. Alemayhu USDFA is currently working with three local organizations in the country: The African Synergy organization, the First Lady of Cameroon’s Foundation, and The Chantal Biya Foundation. “All of the organizations are our strategic partners in Cameroon and their missions are directed to providing access to health care to under-served communities, mainly targeting women and children,” he said. “U.S. Doctors for Africa brings volunteer medical manpower as well as medical supplies and equipments to further assist several clinics that are currently being managed by these organizations. Currently we are working toward sending an estimated $500,000 Dollars worth of medical supplies and equipments to Cameroon.”
Mr. Alemayhu tells us that he has also traveled to his native country, Ethiopia, and that a medical project there may also be imminent.
“During my recent yet very brief trip to Ethiopia I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the Health Minister and other senior officials of the government. We’ve had some productive discussions in regards to USDFA’s possible new engagement in the country,” he said. “I will be back in Addis soon for further discussion and action plans. In the past, USDFA has developed several successful medical missions to Ethiopia, and we hope to expand on our efforts in accordance with the country’s health plan and strategic approach.”
Asked about what he considers to be the biggest health care challenge facing the African continent today, Mr. Alemayhu is quick to answer that lack of trained medical professionals is the number one chronic problem. “Unfortunately, and despite the great effort that is underway by several thousand organizations across the continent, the biggest challenge continues to be the extreme shortage of medical manpower,” he points out. “According to some credible sources, the ratio of doctors per population in most African countries remains 1 doctor per 100,000 people. This staggering and disturbing statistic further complicates the situation despite the fact that more vaccines and other medical supplies are being provided to the continent. Our effort is not only to bring in U.S. trained volunteer medical personnel to the continent but to also help train more local health care providers as well.”
And what is he looking forward to in 2010? “We plan to host the second-annual African First Ladies Health Summit in 2010,” Mr. Alemayhu said during an interview conducted on New Year’s day. “However, it will be held in Africa. At this time we are considering several possible hosting countries.”
New York (Tadias) – Tadias Magazine is proud to present our list of people of the year for 2009. The list includes researchers, social entrepreneurs, authors, filmmakers, artists and musicians, whose inspiring work has made an impact far beyond their individual accomplishments.
Below is our top ten list of Ethiopian-Americans. As always, we welcome your additional suggestions.
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta
The 2009 World Food Prize, considered by many to be the Nobel Prize of agriculture, was awarded to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, a Purdue University Professor, whose sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed have dramatically increased the production and availability of one of the world’s five principal grains and enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. We congratulate Dr. Ejeta on his accomplishments.
Dr. Yared Tekabe
Dr. Yared Tekabe’s groundbreaking work on non-invasive atherosclerosis detection and molecular imaging was published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation, along with an editorial citing its clinical implications. Tekabe, who runs studies in cardiovascular disease detection and prevention at Columbia University, has helped his laboratory, headed by Dr Lynne Johnson, to receive another $1.6 million four-year grant from the National Institute of Health to continue his research. Tekabe hopes that in a few years time his work can similarly help heart disease prevention efforts and early detection of atherosclerosis in humans. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Tekabe for his his continued scientific efforts.
Judge Nina Ashenafi
Nina Ashenafi Richardson, who was elected to the Leon County bench in Florida on November 4th, 2008 and received the oath of office from Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court Peggy A. Quince on Friday, January 30, 2009, is the first Ethiopian-American judge. Born in Ethiopia, Nina came to the U.S. as a young girl and was raised by her late father Professor Ashenafi Kebede, the renowned Ethiopian composer and musicologist, who was the Founder and first Director of the National Saint Yared School of Music in Ethiopia. Judge Nina, a mother of two, was also the the first African-American woman to head the Tallahassee Bar Association and the first African-American to lead the Tallahassee Women Lawyers (TWL). Tadias congratulates Judge Nina Ashenafi Richardson on her accomplishments!
Marcus Samuelsson
In a rare gesture by the White House, chef Marcus Samuelsson was invited to prepare the Obamas’ first State Dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. First Lady Michelle Obama called Marcus “one of the finest chefs in the country.” And as Politico reported: “The importance was not lost on Samuelsson. Waking up on Wednesday morning, after about three hours of sleep, he had not yet come down from his high. ‘It was the biggest dinner I cooked in my life — in terms of the occasion,’ said the chef, born in Ethiopia, raised by a Swedish couple in Sweden and now a naturalized American.” We extend our congratulations and wish Marcus Samuelsson continued success!
Dr. Mehret Mandefro
Mehret Mandefro was named by President Obama as one of the 2009/2010 White House Fellows. Mandefro is a Primary Care Physician and HIV prevention researcher. She was a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Her research addresses the intersection of violence prevention and HIV prevention and the application of digital media in translating research. She completed a Primary Care internal medicine residency at Montefiore Hospital where she founded a nonprofit called TruthAIDS that is focused on health literacy efforts among vulnerable populations. She received a BA cum laude in Anthropology and a Medical Doctorate from Harvard University, and a Masters of Science in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar. We congratulate Dr. Mehret Mandefro on her accomplishments!
Dr. Abraham Verghese
Dr. Abraham Verghese is the author of the well received Cutting for Stone, an epic novel about a young man’s coming of age in Ethiopia and America. From fascinating social and political portraits of Ethiopia in upheaval, Cutting for Stone zooms into a territory where few have gone before: the drama of the operating theater and the mysteries inside the human body. There can be no doubt that Verghese is one of the most seasoned writers of his generation. Verghese’s own career as a physician in the United States has taken him from his grueling days as a foreign medical graduate (recounted in The New Yorker article, The Cowpath to America) to becoming the voice of empathetic medicine. As Founding Director of Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas and in his current role as a Professor at Stanford University, Dr. Verghese is a champion in the field of Medical Humanities.
Haile Gerima
Haile Gerima, the internationally acclaimed director of Teza, Sankofa, Adwa, Bush Mama and other feature films and documentaries, sparked a healthy discussion among the Ethiopian American community this year about the tumultuous years of the Mengistu era as depicted in his latest film Teza as told by an idealistic Ethiopian doctor who recounts dreams and nightmares. The film made its U.S. premiere in Washington D.C. this past fall.
Ted Alemayuhu
Ted Alemayuhu, founder & CEO of U.S. Doctors for Africa, a California based non-profit organization, played host to the first-ever African First Ladies U.S.-based health summit on Monday, April 20, 2009 in Los Angeles. The event, which included a performance by Natalie Cole and a luncheon hosted by California first lady Maria Shriver, engaged the First Ladies in identifying top priorities for the coming year related to maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and Education. We congratulate Mr. Alemayuhu on his continued innovative approach to bettering the lives of millions of Africans!
Julie Mehretu
Ethiopian American artist Julie Mehretu was a subject of a PBS documentary that aired on October 28, 2009. Mehretu has exhibited in some noteworthy venues – The Museum of Modern Art in New York (the only Ethiopian artist whose work is represented in MoMA’s permanent collection), The Whitney Biennial, The Istanbul Biennial, The Busan Biennale in Korea, The Walker Art Center, and her work is currently on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego.
Thomas T. Gobena
Tommy T, bass player for the New York-based multi-ethnic gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, released his first solo album entitled The Prestor John Sessions this year. The album includes collaborations with Gigi, Tommy T’s brother & bassist Henock Temesgen, members of the Abyssinnia Roots Collective, and a bonus remix including Gogol Bordello bandmates Eugene Hütz and Pedro Erazo. Tommy describes The Prestor John Sessions as “an aural travelogue that rages freely through the music and culture of Ethiopia.” Most importantly, the title of his album has inspired scholars to research the true identity of Prestor John. We congratulate Tommy on his album!
Regarding Ardi, Lucy & Selam: Interview with Zeresenay Alemseged
Above:Dr. Zeresenay Alemseged, Director and Curator of the
Department of Anthropology at the California Academy of
Sciences. (Courtesy photo).
Tadias Magazine
Interview by Liben Eabisa
Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
New York (Tadias) – You may have noticed the recent widespread news coverage of an anthropological discovery in Ethiopia. The journal Science published a collection of eleven papers explaining the findings of an international group of scientists regarding the bones of a human-like species named Ardi, short for Ardipithecus ramidus, who roamed the Earth 4.4 million years ago. The researchers concluded that Ardi is now the oldest known fossil of human ancestor; effectively unseating the famous 3.2 million years old Lucy (Dinqnesh) — whose skeletal remains are currently touring the United States.
In order to understand the meaning of this new discovery, we contacted Dr. Zeresenay (Zeray) Alemseged, the paleoanthropologist who discovered Lucy’s Baby, “Selam”, a three-year-old girl who lived and died in Ethiopia 3.3 million years ago. Dr. Alemseged, who was born in the ancient city of Axum, is currently serving as the Director and Curator of the Department of Anthropology at the California Academy of Sciences.
Below is our interview with Zeray Alemseged:
Tadias: Dr. Zeresenay, thank you so much for your time.
Dr. Zeresenay: It is my pleasure and thanks for the invitation.
Tadias: We wanted to ask you few questions about the newly famous Ardi bones from Ethiopia. They are said to be much older than Lucy. How significant is the new discovery in terms of our understanding of human origins?
Dr. Zeresenay: The discovery is very significant and I would like to commend the discoverers and their leader Prof. White on their hard work both in the field and in the laboratory. I know first hand how exigent this endeavor is. After many years of painstaking process, they have provided us with a lot of new information about Ardipithecus ramidus, which existed 4.4 million years ago. This means that it predates the Lucy group (genus) known as Australopithecus by 200, 000 years, since the earliest representatives of Australopithecus are dated back to 4.2 million. If you were comparing individuals however, the difference would be 1.2 million years.
Tadias: Some anthropologists are now humorlessly referring to Lucy as the “former First Lady Australopithecine.” Is that a fair description in light of Ardi’s discovery?
Dr. Zeresenay: I also find this remark amusing. When I announced the discovery of Selam in 2006, journalists had asked me the same question, because Selam is 150,000 years older and more complete than Lucy. My answer was no and still is with the discovery of Ardi. Each of these finds is a great source of scientific information, national pride and heritage for humanity. These skeletons are so rare that each contributes uniquely to answering questions as to what makes us human and how we became who we are. One can not replace the other. Lucy continues to play a comparative role when new fossils are discovered. If some are saying this in reference to the age difference, then Ardi is not the earliest human fossil either; we have fossils that are about 2 million years older than Ardi from Chad, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Tadias: Can you describe to us the difference between Lucy, Selam, the one discovered by your team, and Ardi?
Dr. Zeresenay: What they have in common is that they are all remains of female individuals. The three of them were small-brained, lived in woodland environments, did not make stone tools and were all discovered in Ethiopia, which shows that indeed this country is not only the cradle of mankind but also home to the three most spectacular fossils. But they differ also. Lucy lived about 3.2 million years ago and is an adult who belongs to a species known as Australopithecus afarensis. Because 40 % of her skeleton was recovered, she has played a critical role in helping us answer questions related to body size, stature, differences among males and females and how this ancient species moved around. Selam also belongs to Australopithecus afarensis, a species that researchers think is our direct ancestor. She lived about 3.4 million years ago and over 60% of her skeleton, including an intact skull and face, has been recovered; what is most extraordinary about her is that this skeleton belongs to a 3-year-old child, and finding fossil children is extremely rare. By looking at her still developing skeleton, teeth and brain, one can investigate issues pertaining to growth rate, maturity time, how the brain developed etc. Selam even helps us to ponder the type of voice produced by her species. Ardi is a partial skeleton including the crushed skull of an adult individual and belongs to Ardipithecus ramidus, a species first named in 1994. She dates back to 4.4 million years ago and preserves characters that show that she walked upright like Lucy and Selam but also climbed trees. Important questions pertaining to the social behavior of early hominins have also been addressed based on this fossil. Ardi also shows that the earliest hominins were not necessarily chimpanzee-like. We have learned a great deal about human evolution in general from Ardi, Lucy and Selam. In short the three fossils are great Ethiopian fossils contributing uniquely to science.
Image: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Tadias: The news also highlights Africa and specifically Ethiopia as the location where most of these ancient fossils are found. How important is the Afar Triangle region’s contribution in answering anthropology’s paramount question: “Who are the ancestors of modern human beings?”
Dr. Zeresenay: Anthropological sites in the Afar region and the southern continuation of the Ethiopian Rift to the Omo Valley represent “hotspots” for paleoanthropological studies. Ardi, Selam and Lucy, many extinct hominin species, a huge number of non-human animal fossils and primitive stone tools come from the Afar and other localities around the Omo River in the South. The earliest known Homo sapiens (modern human beings, very much like you and me), dated back to 195, 000 years ago, come from a site called Kibish in Southern Ethiopia. These finds are still ancient, but come from a much later time than do Selam and Lucy. Younger H. sapiens remains dated to 160, 000 years ago were also discovered at Herto in the Afar. Furthermore, DNA evidence shows that every human being living in any part of our planet today can trace back his or her ancestry to a woman who lived somewhere in southern Ethiopia 100,000 years ago. Combining the fossil and genetic evidence we can say that we all are Africans and our ancestors probably came from the present day Ethiopia, hence we are all Ethiopians.
Tadias: How does the new discovery further explain the ancestral chain?
Dr. Zeresenay: The ancestral chain of humans is still being explored and each fossil discovery contributes to fill in a gap in our understanding of the family tree and its different stages. Particularly when you find remains, like Ardi, that are comprised of skeletal elements from the same individual, you are able to look into questions related to limb proportion, stature, body mass etc., which you can not do if you only have fragmentary fossils. Additional significance of the new find emanates from the potential contribution it could make to bridging the knowledge gap between the earliest known human ancestors, such as Sahelanthropus tchadensis (Toumai) and Australopithecus. The new discovery is not the earliest human ancestor known today, since we have Toumai from Chad dated to 6.5 million years, but Ardi’s discoverers suggest that she sheds some fresh light on what the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees might have looked like. She also helps explain questions related to the mode of locomotion and behavior of early hominins among others.
Tadias: What are some questions that we are still longing to answer? Missing links?
Dr. Zeresenay: Over the past three decades, tremendous progress has been made in the field of paleoanthropology. We know that the very first upright walking human ancestors emerged around 6-7 million years ago, the Lucy group appeared just before 4 million years ago, and Homo sapiens emerged only 200,000 years ago. We know that the earliest technology, in the form of stone tools, appeared just over 2.5 million years ago, that most of our evolution took place in Africa, and that human ancestors left Africa for the first time only 2 million years ago. So we have answered many important questions. Only fifty years ago, this knowledge did not exist and it would have been unthinkable for many to see Africa as the birthplace of humanity. Yet, scientific research is a living and dynamic process and new answers spark additional questions. Accordingly, there are many outstanding questions in our field today. First, though we have a reasonably well-established record of the human fossil record the dearth of information on the chimp line is frustrating. Secondly, we do not have solid evidence on what the common ancestor of humans and chimps looked like. Third we do not know much about the babies of these ancient species because they are missing from the fossil record; Selam helps a lot in this regard, but we need more. Fourth, the link between Australopithecus and our genus, Homo, and that between Australopithecus and earlier species is not clearly established. These are among the major issues for which we need further data.
Tadias: Is there anything else you would like to share with the Tadias audience?
Dr. Zeresenay: Ethiopia/Africa is where humanity originated! This was established scientifically. I take tremendous pride in being part of the scientific process that demonstrated this, yet I wonder if we can make this place not just the origin of humanity but also a place where humanity thrives? My answer is a resounding YES! Let me speak a bit beyond the realm of my specific expertise and touch on the scientific process in general. Science changed and will change the world! Suffice to reflect for two minutes on the number of scientific achievements made between 1909 and 2009, and their impact. Science is all about asking a question (often out of curiosity), acquiring tangible data and trying to answer it. This simple logic is applicable to many aspects of our lives. We know the many difficulties our nation and Africa in general are faced with and I am strongly convinced that whatever we do in life, wherever we are and whatever our aspirations and opinions are, if we all attempt to reason based on what is OBSERVABLE to the best of our abilities then we would have contributed enormously to the betterment of our nation, continent and humanity.
Tadias: Thank you so much again for your time, and we wish you all the best.
Dr. Zeresenay: You are most welcome and thanks for letting me share my views with your audience.
— About the Author Liben Eabisa is Founder &
Publisher of Tadias Magazine.
Watch: Dr. Zeray explains the discovery of Selam
National Geographic – The Human Family Tree (Part 1)
Why Girls Gotta Run: Interview with Dr. Patricia E. Ortman
Above:Dr. Patricia E. Ortman, founding member of the Girls
Gotta Run Foundation. (Photo by Michelle Mikki Parrish).
Tadias Magazine
By: Martha Z. Tegegn
Published: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Washington, D.C. (Tadias) – “Why shouldn’t a girl have a pair of sneakers?” That’s the question that Dr. Patricia E. Ortman, a Washington, D.C.-based retired Women’s Studies Professor and artist, posed to herself as she embarked upon the task of raising money for Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF), a volunteer organization she helped establish three years ago to provide new shoes for girls in Ethiopia who are training to be runners.
Dr. Ortman was inspired by a 2005 Washington Post article by Emily Wax entitled: Facing Servitude, Ethiopian Girls Run for a Better Life. The piece highlighted the grim realties faced by young girls in Ethiopia, including having one of the lowest rates of female enrollment in primary schools. Young girls in Ethiopia also face one of the highest rates of childbirth injuries in the world. According to the United Nations Population Fund 1 in 27 mothers in Ethiopia face the risk of dying during labor. In comparison, as The Huffington Post notes in the introduction of World Editor Hanna Ingber Win’s Mothers of Ethiopia series, “In the U.S., a woman has a 1 in 4,800 chance of dying from complications due to pregnancy or childbirth in her lifetime.” Perhaps Wax’s most powerful line comes from a 13-year-old girl named Tesdale Mesele who says: “I also run because I want to give priority to my schooling. If I’m a good runner, the school will want me to stay and not be home washing laundry and preparing injera.”
“After reading that article,” Ortman says, “I was faced with two choices: to go “oh well” and go about my life, or to get involved.”
Getting involved she did; she called a couple of friends and expressed her interest in starting a program to help Ethiopian girls stay in school. “Originally” Ortman says, “I wanted to do this as a project, and as people were coming [up to me] and saying they wanted to help, I started calling a lot of international woman organizations.” But the overall lack of interest by these organizations, whose names she would not mention, left Ortman and her friends with little choice but to start Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF).
Despite the obstacles, there was a light at the end of the tunnel for Ortman. In recent years, running has emerged as a path to success for many girls in Ethiopia. Female athletes, such as double Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba and her colleague Meseret Defar, are blazing a trail for a new generation of aspiring female runners. Today, some of the highest paid athletes in Ethiopia are women.
“It takes a lot of personal gumption,” says Ortman. “Some of these girls have predetermined lives. Nothing is expected of them but marriage, a lifetime of labor.”
Ortman argues that proper running shoes are the most important gear an aspiring athlete can own to remain healthy. “In some cases, girls are forced to give up on their dream of becoming professional athletes due to injuries caused by lack of proper attire and shoes,” Ortman says. “That’s the big reason why GGRF focuses on sending them money to buy running shoes.”
Asked why GGRF sends the girls money instead of shoes? Ortman answers: “Our goal is not just to help girls to have running shoes. By sending them money we avoid the huge shipping cost, and we also help the Ethiopian economy by allowing them to buy new sneakers from local merchants.”
GGRF has developed creative partnerships with artists and athletes to raise money. The organization hosts several exhibitions annually featuring donated art work, and athletes participate in local meets to raise money. Sheena Dahlke, an athlete who also doubles as the foundation’s Secretary, says she finds it personally rewarding to take part in running competitions to support the young women in Ethiopia. “I see the girls that GGRF supports as intelligent, driven and strong. The girls are also very inspiring. They inspired me to raise money for them while I trained for the Boston Marathon in 2009,” she said. “It was motivating to imagine them training for their races and I wanted to help them to have the resources and equipment that they needed. For them, running is a way to escape poverty and avoid early pregnancy. In many cases it also gives them a chance to continue their education which gives them hope beyond their running careers.”
Today, GGRF sponsors forty girls participating in three teams: Team Tesfa, The Semien Girl Runners, and Team Naftech.
Members of Team Tesfa (Photo by Sarah Murray).
The Simien Girl Runners training in July 2008. (Photo: GGRF).
Menna, program head for Team Tesfa, Olympic medalists Meseret
Defar, and Meseret Birhanu, member of Team Tesfa. (GGRF).
The largest team, Team Tesfa, was founded by Tesfa Foundation, an organization that funds early childhood education for disadvantaged children in Ethiopia. We spoke with Dana Roskey, one of the Directors of Tesfa during his recent trip to Washington D.C. Roskey was the first individual to team up with GGRF to create and oversee the team’s activities in Ethiopia. “The situations for some are really extreme, it is not only a matter of running – it becomes a survival issue,” Mr. Roskey told Tadias. “Assisting them means offering them an opportunity to be leaders of their own life.”
And what is his organization’s relationship with GGRF?
“GGRF covers some of the nutrition, coaching and transportation costs,” he said. “And they are our major gear providers.” But Mr. Roskey is quick to note that running alone cannot be the solution. “Girls are more vulnerable to exploitations and misfortune, and their fate is somewhat limited,” he explained emphasizing his organization’s focus in primary education. “Because ultimately running is not their only destiny, there are other options.”
Garrett Ash, Co-Founder and Director of Running Across Borders (RAB), a non-profit that works to bring economic success to East African youth through running, says GGRF sponsors five of its female runners in Addis Ababa, all of whom come from rural parts of Ethiopia and are selected because they show both talent and passion for long-distance running. “Our first project is focused specifically on Ethiopia and we have established a training facility in the Ayat area of Addis Ababa, which has provided 14 Ethiopian youth (9 male, 5 female) with access to opportunities in athletics, education, and vocational training,” he said. “GGRF provides us with donations that cover food and also transport to training venues like Sulutaa and Sendafa (regions in Ethiopia) for all 5 of the female athletes in our program and these are some of the most significant costs that we face when we add girls to the program, so to have a single foundation that covers these costs for our entire female contingent is a huge asset.”
Ortman agrees with Mr. Roskey that running alone can’t serve as a one-way-ticket to success. “In most cases the girls would be lured to drop out of school and to join [a professional team], and eventually they will get worn out,” says Ortman. “All of the teams have arranged for the girls to go to school and stay in school,” she adds. “If they don’t make it as runners they will have an alternative plan to fall back on.”
Ortman, who has yet to visit Ethiopia, says that the ultimate goal is to empower these children. “We have a pact with the girls that if and when they become successful we expect them to ‘pay up,’ not necessarily to us, but they need to help people in their country – girls who want to follow in their footsteps.”
– If you would like to help or join GGRF, you may reach Dr. Patricia Ortman at pat@girlsgottarun.org. Click here for the Foundation’s calendar of events. Check out GGRF’s current art exhibition at Friendship Heights Village Center (4433 South Park Avenue Chevy Chase, Md 20815).
Video: Meet GGRF’s sponsored partners and supporters
Video: Training in the Running Across Borders Camp
Above:Haile Gerima, the internationally acclaimed director of
Teza, Sankofa, Adwa, Bush Mama and other feature films and
documentaries. (Photo by Gezaw Tesfaye).
Tadias Magazine
By Martha Z. Tegegn
Updated: Sunday, October 11, 2009
New York (Tadias) – For filmmaker Haile Gerima the travails of life are much like moving images – “a constant journey of restlessness and complexity, until the final rest.”
Haile’s latest film Teza made its U.S. premiere in Washington D.C. last month. The film focuses on the tumultuous years of the Mengistu era, as told by an idealistic Ethiopian doctor who recounts dreams and nightmares.
We spoke with Haile at his Sankofa bookstore, conveniently located across from Howard University where he has been teaching film since 1975.
But first, here is a sneak preview of Teza:
Haile Gerima (Photo by Gezaw Tesfaye)
Teza’s main character, Anberber, experiences nightmares reflecting back to the chaotic years in Ethiopia following the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie. Do you think this painful memory is also collectively shared by Anberber’s generation in the Diaspora?
HG: Oh, Certainly. In fact, a lot of people would ask me, “Is it biographical?” I say, no it is a collective experience. It’s a stolen story of a whole lot of people. So the generation that this film speaks to is an idealistic generation, who were sent abroad by governments or by personal ambition, to bring the tonic that would transform their society. Therefore, you have a generation that was leaving the country as if they were sent to go and bring the medicine and cross the river and comeback. Yet, the journey is more complex. When you cross the Atlantic and the threshold of the so-called modern society, you enter in to a new orbit and your journey becomes more complicated. For me, and especially my generation of Ethiopians of the 1970’s and late 60’s, this is the dilemma that dramatized even their well-intended political dream into a nightmare. So it is a generational, I would say, biography.
What memories do you have of that time? Are they reflected in your film?
HG: Well I would say, how genuine young Ethiopian men and women were about changing Ethiopia. How much they cared, how much they loved their country was unquestionable, but at the same time you know you can destroy the object of love if it is possessively displaced. In other words, the dogmatic nature of that generation was such that they arrogantly thought they had the formula for transforming Ethiopia. It left them a confused generation.
The film was shot in Ethiopia and Germany but the story was based here in America. It was first written for America. I remember long ago weekend meetings (of Ethiopians) at the international student center near UCLA or at UCLA. We left all the priorities of our personal life to meet on the issue of country. That is the most amazing experience, but at the same time, we were also feeding a very dangerous dogma to each other. A dogma that swallowed the very generation in its prime age. I was in these meetings. Of course, I got out at a certain point because I couldn’t digest my own tendencies of disappearing in this generational political culture. When we shot the film in Germany we shot in the actual place where Ethiopian students were meeting. It doesn’t matter where we were, Ethiopian men and women of my generation in Paris, in Rome, in Cologne or Frankfurt or Seattle, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. They were doing the same activity and basically reading almost the same books, and these books were taken as Biblical prophecies to transform Ethiopia. And, in the end, we lost so many powerful Ethiopian young men. Brilliant young men and women were lost in this confusion, in this chaotic period. So I know vividly these people that I dedicate the film to. I remember their eyes and how genuine they were. These are not bad people. They were not selfish. They just disappeared in the chaos.
Do you think the current generation is lost in the chaos of individualistic attitude?
HG: Well, you know I think it is a very different generation. Completely different generation. And I don’t know the historical circumstances. I don’t know what would become of them. But it is a generation that is so disillusioned it has no internal strength. Most Ethiopians are not strong inside, that is why they need external jackets and hair-dos, lipsticks, earrings, cars and TV to say “I am somebody.”
Some people would say well it is that political confusion that created this alienated generation, but I always say every generation has a responsibility to be compassionate to be collective-minded and fair and just. You see it in America – young people marching for poor people or against racism etc..so young Ethiopians at this point, they might have personal experiences to use as explanations, but in my view if I have to say it, I find them very confused and very external-oriented, materialistic-oriented. And to me I am not against hair change or lipstick or earrings, but I think inner strength is more important to say “I believe this and I am somebody inside.”
On the other hand you can see a lot of Ethiopians are very successfully involved in the economic foundation of America — they have restaurants. We never thought about restaurants, we never thought about businesses. We all thought we were sent to bring medicine from abroad and cure our people. There was so much trachoma in my village. When you come from those circumstances you don’t have time for personal ambitions. Instead you start thinking “There must be something I could do before I die” or “what is the purpose of living?”
What is purpose of living? Let me put it this way…what is life in the eyes of a cinematographer?
HG: Life is a cinema, constant journey of restlessness complexity, until the final rest. Life for me is constant struggle to have your say in this world to have your story be presented as a valid story.
What is the main message that you want the audience to take away from this film?
HG:The purpose of Teza is really like childhood morning dew. When I was growing up, I would sense the morning from the water caressing my legs while walking through the grass – the morning dew (English for Teza). This type of childhood experience is being lost, and so I am trying to preserve my childhood and I am trying to preserve my generation. And I am trying to remember the mistakes we made especially when we became brutal toward each other – shooting each other, killing each other. I don’t like killing, I never liked killing I don’t know how my generation made its cultural trademark to kill each other because of political differences. These are the reasons I try to work for myself first. People have to take it and see what it does for them, but for me, I am processing the whole confusion that I was part of.
Is Teza historical fiction or is it based on a true story? What in particular inspired you to make the film?
HG: Let me tell you, every time I go to Ethiopia I find mothers asking me to return their sons from the war. A war between two ‘families’ – Eritrea and Ethiopia. A woman who has ‘clogged’ her eyes crying for the past two or three years will lament “bring back my son to me. Can you give me my son? I don’t want your money, I want you to give me my son.” How does one deliver this woman’s request? You are only a filmmaker, you are not an army. How would you fulfill her request? This is the challenge that I face every time I go to Ethiopia. I am faced by the reality of peasants, working people, servants in homes – they all confront me. And so for me the film is like vomiting toxic. In doing so you exorcise your own.
I don’t have the power to make people see my movie, I have no other agenda. If they see it I am grateful. To me, the primary task of this movie is to vomit it, now the inspiration is really my helplessness. Teza’s main character, Amberber, felt completely helpless in one scene when soldiers come to take a son, and the mother was saying give me back my son, he is not armed, he is just confused scholar who got back to his country to his mother, to his umbilical cord in search of his childhood. He is always walking in the landscape because that is where he grew up but the reality kept coming in front of him like a stage play. So, my inspiration is my inability to do something about what the Ethiopian people are going through, then and now. This is what my helplessness is. Other people have a more dramatic source of inspiration. My inspiration is me being helpless, powerless, not having enough resources.
Haile Gerima (Photo by Gezaw Tesfaye)
Teza said to have taken 14 years to make, why did it take so long? And what were the challenges in executing it?
HG: Many Ethiopians in my view do not understand the power of culture. When Westerners make film they know it is about their collective culture. We, on the other hand, don’t see how significant it is to preserve our people’s culture, from day one, as it is invoked by descendents. As it resonates through the younger generation. We don’t invest on culture. For instance, Ethiopians in America, if they put twenty dollars a month aside for the transformation of Ethiopian art, for the preservation of Ethiopian culture and tradition, Ethiopia would also have a population that is mentally restructured and confident and capable of making its own history. To create a critically brilliant society you have to have a dramatic cultural transaction.
Can you say a bit more about the leading actors in the film? How you found them and cast them?
HG: None of the characters had acted before. Most of them came to me raw, but they had amazing potential and gift that I was able to say ‘Oh! This person will give me what I want.’ Some of the actors in the village, like the woman who plays Amberber’s mother, has never acted. She doesn’t even know what acting is, but she knocked people out because she was so genuine, truthful, and most of all she understood and felt the story. She lived in the era and I was able to work with her to get what I wanted. So, for me there is what you call ‘gift,’ and in filmmaking half of it is luck. You know, you try and sometimes you mis-cast. I am proud of the cast in Teza, and I didn’t care if they didn’t know acting because I was very confident of making sure that I don’t paralyze them by mystifying acting. I know how to demystify acting, that is part of my education my orientation. I practiced a lot even during Sankofa, Bush Mama, I made movies with non-actors and actors too. The non-actors have done amazing work, so for me when auditioning people I am looking untangle a range of talent, and get the best out of what I want rather than cast corrupted actors who will not be genuine.
Actresses Araba Evelyn Johnston-Arthur, Veronika Avraham, director Haile Gerima
and actors Abeye Tedla and Aaron Arefe attend the ‘Teza’ photocall at the Piazzale
del Casino during the 65th Venice Film Festival on September 2, 2008 in Venice.
(September 2, 2008 – Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe)
In what other cities besides D.C. do you plan to show the film?
HG: We will be in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and creep towards New York by October or November.
What is your favorite film? Why?
HG: The problem with this question is that it is flawed. Favorite film doesn’t exist but what happens is, films inspire me. One of them is ‘The Hour of the Furnaces‘ from Argentina, but the most powerful film that resonates with my childhood experience is a Japanese film called The Island and another Swedish film called My Life as a Dog, and an Italian film called The Bicycle Thief. So it is a range of films – kind of like puzzle work. There are a lot of films that animated my life and resonated with me.
I’m sure fans would be excited to see the director of Teza at the premiere in D.C. Do you plan to be there?
HG: Oh yes! Not only at the premiere, but I will be at every showing for twenty minutes to be part of a rational discussion with the audience. And we are also planning to have town meetings here [at Sankofa] every Saturday. We will host discussions with people who have seen the film over coffee. These opportunities will be announced at the premiere also.
You talk about the influence your parents had on you growing up and how it inspired you to become a storyteller, can you talk about that?
HG: You know, when I was growing up we sat around the fire and my grandmother would always tell a story. And to me that is the foundation of film – storytelling. My father was a playwright and he wrote plays and I participated in different capacities in my father’s plays. And my mother was always full of stories and most nights we had no television, no film to go to. Our TV and TV dinner was fireside chats. Hearing stories from the elders played a major role in my development, as well as kept alive my continued quest to connect to their lifestyle, their aesthetics. I didn’t know it was important to do so then, but now I go out of my way to preserve it. To me, Ethiopia has a lot to offer to an artist. It is a country that has the audacity to invent without imitation. The storytelling is the kind of orientation that I am very blessed and grateful about.
What advice do you have for young aspiring Ethiopian filmmakers? Or anyone that wants to prosper in the artistic world of cinematography?
HG: One is to give your heart fully — to jump and get into it all the way. Not to apologize, not to be inhibited by going to school or not going to school. Or by ‘knowing’ film or not. If you have the urge to tell a story just jump with everything within you. But once you jump in, it is not enough to jump in, now you have to kick if you don’t want to drown, and so the hard work is the process of learning more by yourself through your work.
Every film that I make is my university. I learn so much from my mistakes and I consider my films the most imperfect films because I am always learning to do better from film to film. The kind of filmmakers that young people should aspire to be is to consistently learn from their own films. Watch movies, study paintings and color. Color as simple as it sounds is complex. Understand culture that is fundamental. Film in the end is built in this powerful development of your sensory organs to light, to shadows. This doesn’t come just by wanting to be a filmmaker. You have to go out of your way. Young people should know that one doesn’t become a filmmaker individually but, rather from a collective view. Don’t forget not only to learn what to do but also learn what not to do as well.
Many of your films are financed by independent sources outside the U.S or the community….what makes it easy for you to find funding outside but challenging in the U.S?
HG: I got tired of asking people who don’t value my story to fund my films. In Europe, I found individuals who said ‘Let me join this guy.’ Yes, it takes me years to convince people. that is why it took fourteen years to find the money I needed to start filming in 2004. The first shooting took place in Ethiopia for eight weeks. Then it took me two more years to find the German part – six day shoot. In the end it is luck that I found intellectuals who were predisposed to my right to tell my story and that they want to be part of the storytelling. Mostly because I prefer low budget, I have more freedom to control my film. Even by American standards, I am the freest independent filmmaker who owns his own films. And if I enter into a relationship I never relinquish the power of the filmmaker where other people come to decide for me. I would rather have less money and more freedom.
Where do you find the time and energy to do all this?
HG: From the story, the story keeps me charged.
Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?
HG: Thank you to Tadias. I know how you guys insist to exist. And I know how difficult it is for magazines to exist. I hope you guys continue to sustain, to struggle to be innovative, to find an alternative way of making sure that you don’t disintegrate and close and collapse. I am impressed that you are at least here in the cyber world – you exist. I am very impressed with that.
Thank you so much Prof. Gerima and we wish you continued success!
HG: Thank you!
— If you go: Showing at the Avalon Theater 3 times daily: 1:30, 4:45, & 8:15pm, starting Sept 18th -Oct. or longer…according to audience demand. Avalon Theater (5612 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20015). Tickets can be purchased at the venue. For more info call 202-234-4755 or for group sales info you may call 202-232-4729.
New York (Tadias) – Sirak Seyoum, an Electrical Engineer living in Nevada, has bold plans for 2010. After hiking over 27 peaks in the U.S., some more than twice, he has set his heart on becoming the first Ethiopian to climb Mount Everest. His website firstethiopianoneverest.org states “No peak is too high or too rugged for an Ethiopian man who discovered a passion for hiking.” Seyoum is taking 12 weeks off work and is currently raising funds to cover expenses for the Mount Everest Expedition, scheduled from March 23rd, 2010 to June 5th 2010. We caught up with him and asked a few questions.
Sirak Seyoum (Courtesy Photo)
Tell us a bit more about yourself. Where you grew up? Who are the main influences in your life?
As a toddler I grew up in Gondar, When my parents came to the states for school, I moved with my aunt in Addis and was enrolled in St. Joseph kindergarten class briefly before moving back to Gondar. I remember visiting my grandparents every weekend. They resided a few blocks away from the castles and the church Abajale where my grandfather was the head “Aleka.” As a teenager I grew up in Addis before coming to the United States. My main influences growing up as a kid were my parents who taught me always to strive for a goal no matter how hard. My aunts and uncles also played an important role in my teenage to adulthood transformation and I always looked up to them during my teenage years. Growing up as a kid I have always idolized Abebe Bikela, considered as the greatest marathon racer in the history of marathon, and Pele, the Brazilian soccer legend. I also have great admiration and pride for all our Olympic heroes, like Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele.
You blogged a bit about the role of education in your life? Can you tell us more about your outdoor endeavors and academic/work?
Academic work always took precedence above any activities like sports, music or any outdoor activity. Without my parents knowledge, I took up playing the Kirar (traditional Ethiopian harp). As a kid, I picked it up easily from a neighborhood musician who would play the Kirar near our home where I grew up in Addis and had the pleasure of performing at Yared Music hall along with my late cousin Leul Fikre who also played the Kirar. In college, I was active in all outdoor related endeavors events including soccer. My university didn’t fund soccer as the selected inter-mural sports. My South African friend, Godfred Webster and I organized the Michigan Technological University (MTU) soccer team, soliciting American soccer players to join the team. We were good enough to travel around Michigan at our own expense and earn the respect to play Division-A universities located in Duluth, Wisconsin and surrounding cities.
What was your reaction after climbing your first peak?
My first reaction was, “GEEZ, What have I been doing all these years?” What I was feeling I just can’t put in words. It felt nothing like any sport I have ever participated in. It was different because it seemed so easy at first but yet so difficult once I started. Team work and helping others is also one of the rewards of climbing, I remember a fellow hiker telling me to take deep breaths as we ascended to higher elevation. During one of my first hikes, I decided to wear a jacket weighing 22-pounds. A rookie with a weight jacket was pushing it for most of them, but everyone encouraged me. To my surprise the 22lb jacket was becoming heavier and heavier as we gained altitude and the effort it took to wear it was beyond my expectation. I was literally leaving a trail of sweat as I went to the top and never knew a human could sweat this much. The thought of removing the weight jacket was never an option. I wore it all the way to the top. After getting to the top I felt exhilarated more complete than ever and at peace. I knew right away that I have developed a burning desire to do it more and more. Throughout the years, I was lucky enough to participate in various sports and challenges other than soccer. On my second day of ever putting on ski boots, I was skiing down the steepest slopes instead of the bunny hills. Windsurfing was one of the hardest things to learn. On the very first day when I didn’t wipe out I went across Lake Lansing in Michigan without turning back. I participated in lots of other sports like cliff diving, tennis, racquetball, biking, volleyball and swimming. I knew after climbing my first peak, I have found my passion. A passion similar to life itself, life doesn’t stop if the going gets hard, we simply rise up and keep moving.
Tell us about what prompted you to seek climbing Everest. Who will be accompanying you on your March 23-June 5th expedition?
The main player who prompted me to climb Everest is my friend Abate Sebsibe, a PhD student currently so busy, he spends all his free time buried in the library. I wish him success. He has been very positive and supportive throughout this mission, he would always say, “Of all the people I think of, that can make it to Mt. Everest, I know YOU will make it to the top.” I will be one of the nine or ten people with Peak Freaks Expedition Team. Once the mission was born, I started researching expedition companies on the internet and various sources. Peak Freaks Expedition Company had a crew that valued quality rather than quantity. They have flawless record of safety and are the only expedition company that sign on less than ten clients. More information of the expedition can be found on Peakfreaks.com. In 2008, the first Saudi who summited Mt. Everest teamed up with Peak Freaks and successfully made it all the way to the top.
What’s your daily routine?
I have been following the training schedule set up by my Mountaineer Expedition expert. I will post it on my website on the blog section. Though I would love to train full time, I still have a career to follow during the day. My professional work takes up my days Monday through Friday. After 5pm I shoot for a 45-60 minutes of running, and about 30 minutes of weight training. On days that I don’t run I substitute with swimming. In the next few months I will include cycling as an alternative to running and swimming. On the weekends I hike between 6-7 hours with a weight pack of 25-30 lbs or more. My goal is to ascend to 2,000 meters with a pack weighing between 22-30 kg in 2-3 hours period. I will strive to make improvements beyond the required goal so that I will be able to climb Mt. Everest.
You’ve completed hiking 27 peaks (some more than twice), and you plan to complete 2 more before Everest Mission, what thoughts are running through your head at the moment?
Well, it’s hard to believe that I am actually doing it. I will be hiking throughout the year until it’s time to go. I am looking forward to climbing Mt Rainier located in Washington, in late September. Mt Shasta has been a favorite by the locals as well. I will feel more confident after climbing Mt. Rainier. I feel I will be well prepared by staying on track on my training and focusing on my goals. As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” Practice will be my top priority until the day comes for me to do this mission.
How can the Diaspora Ethiopian community assist with your fundraising?
Since I started talking about my plans I have gotten lot of encouragement from people I know and from people that came across my website. I have been interviewed by Admas radio and VOC, when I told a friend I was nervous, she said, “A certain someone is climbing Everest and he’s nervous from an interview?!” I have received unparalleled support from various Ethiopian websites for which I am grateful. I believe this endeavor will benefit other Ethiopians in terms of publicity and attention to circumstances in Ethiopia at present and in the future. Any kinds of support, be it donations or words of support means a lot to me. I would also like to take this opportunity to say that any remaining funds from the mission donated above the required goal will be used to support water.org projects in Ethiopia (http://water.org/Ethiopia ). When I was employed by US-filter Corp. one of my projects was to design a programmable logic controller (PLC) controller for water purification and distribution system to support irrigation usage for farming and potable water usage to a remote village in Venezuela. The controller I implemented was accessible via English and Spanish languages. I remember thinking back then, how a project such as this would be helpful for our country and wishing someday that I might do the same for Ethiopia.
Any plans to climb some peaks in Ethiopia?
Upon my return from Everest, I am planning to summit Ras Dashen located in Simien Mountains, 4,620 meters elevation, the highest peak in Ethiopia. I plan to do this around second week of June 2010. I would love to summit along with my Ethiopian brothers and sisters, provided that they’ve had all the training necessary for such a task.
Sirak Seyoum (Courtesy Photo)
Sirak Seyoum (Courtesy Photo)
Sirak Seyoum (Courtesy Photo)
Do you ever listen to music while hiking?
I do listen to music often while hiking, low volume. Its critical to listen to your surrounding at all times, climbers ahead of you might yell ” ROCK” which means one needs to avoid a possible rock coming down the slopes heading straight at anyone on its path. The same principle in snow areas as well, heads up for “Avalanche”. One cannot ignore the true nature’s music as well. The calmness of the area and the wind at those altitudes is like music by itself if one listens closely.
And your favorite foreign movies with subtitles?
One of my favorites is Black Orpheus. This superb retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice Greek legend is set against Rio de Janeiro’s madness during Carnival. Orpheus (Breno Mello), a trolley car conductor, is engaged to Mira (Lourdes De Oliveira) but in love with Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). A vengeful Mira and Eurydice’s ex-lover, costumed as Death, pursue Orpheus and his new paramour through the feverish Carnival night. Black Orpheus earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Superb Movie about Brazilian culture and history.
Thank you Sirak for doing this interview and best wishes with your training and climbing Mount Everest!
Ethiopian American Named 2009 World Food Prize Laureate (Video)
Above: “A Purdue University Professor has received the World
Food Prize, an honor that is considered by many to be the Nobel
Prize of agriculture.” (WLFI) – The 2009 World Food Prize will be
awarded to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia, whose sorghum hybrids
resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed have
dramatically increased the production and availability of one
of the world’s five principal grains and enhanced the food
supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan
Africa.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., USA) – Dr. Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia has been named winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for his monumental contributions in the production of sorghum, one of the world’s five principal cereal grains, which have dramatically enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was the featured speaker as Dr. Ejeta was announced as the 2009 Laureate at a ceremony at the U.S. State Department on June 11 that also featured Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, World Food Prize President Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, and World Food Prize Chairman John Ruan III, among others.
Dr. Ejeta’s personal journey would lead him from a childhood in a one-room thatched hut in rural Ethiopia to the height of scientific acclaim as a distinguished professor, plant breeder, and geneticist at Purdue University. His work with sorghum, which is a staple in the diet of 500 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa, began in Ethiopia in the 1970s. Working in Sudan in the early 1980s, he developed Hageen Dura-1, the first ever commercial hybrid sorghum in Africa. This hybrid variety was tolerant to drought and out-yielded traditional varieties by up to 150 percent.
Dr. Ejeta next turned his attention to battling the scourge of Striga, a deadly parasitic weed which devastates farmers’ crops and severely limits food availability. Working with a colleague at Purdue University, he discovered the biochemical basis of Striga’s relationship with sorghum, and was able to produce many sorghum varieties resistant to both drought and Striga. In 1994, eight tons of Dr. Ejeta’s drought and Striga-resistant sorghum seeds were distributed to Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. Yield increases were as much as four times the yield of local varieties, even in severe drought areas.
“By ridding Africa of the greatest biological impediment to food production, Dr. Ejeta has put himself in the company of some of the greatest researchers and scientists recognized by this award over the past 23 years,” said Vilsack. “The Obama Administration is inspired by the tireless efforts of Dr. Ejeta has demonstrated in the battle to eliminate food insecurity and is committed to employing a comprehensive approach to tackle the scourge of world hunger.”
Dr. Gebisa Ejeta
Dr. Ejeta’s scientific breakthroughs in breeding drought-tolerant and Striga-resistant sorghum have been combined with his persistent efforts to foster economic development and the empowerment of subsistence farmers through the creation of agricultural enterprises in rural Africa. He has led his colleagues in working with national and local authorities and nongovernmental agencies so that smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs can catalyze efforts to improve crop productivity, strengthen nutritional security, increase the value of agricultural products, and boost the profitability of agricultural enterprise – thus fostering profound impacts on lives and livelihoods on broader scale across the African continent.
“Dr. Ejeta’s accomplishments in improving sorghum illustrate what can be achieved when cutting-edge technology and international cooperation in agriculture are used to uplift and empower the world’s most vulnerable people,” added Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, founder of the World Food Prize. “His life is as an inspiration for young scientists around the world.”
The 2009 World Food Prize will be formally presented to Dr. Ejeta at a ceremony at the Iowa State Capitol on October 15, 2009. The ceremony will be held as part of the World Food Prize’s 2009 Borlaug Dialogue, which focuses on “Food, Agriculture and National Security in a Globalized World.” Further information about the Laureate Award Ceremony and Symposium can be found at www.worldfoodprize.org.
Clinton Speaks at 2009 World Food Prize Announcement Ceremony Young Gebisa Ejeta as a grad student at Purdue in 1974
Born in 1950, Gebisa Ejeta grew up in a one-room thatched hut with a
mud floor, in a rural village in west-central Ethiopia.
His mother’s deep belief in education and her struggle to provide her son with access to local teachers and schools provided the young Ejeta with the means to rise out of poverty and hardship. His mother made arrangements for him to attend school in a neighboring town. Walking 20 kilometers every Sunday night to attend school during the week and then back home on Friday, he rapidly ascended through eight grades and passed the national exam qualifying him to enter high school.
Ejeta’s high academic standing earned him financial assistance and entrance to the secondary-level Jimma Agricultural and Technical School, which had been established by Oklahoma State University under the U.S. government’s Point Four Program. After graduating with distinction, Ejeta entered Alemaya College (also established by OSU and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development) in eastern Ethiopia. He received his bachelor’s degree in plant science in 1973.
In 1973, his college mentor introduced Ejeta to a renowned sorghum researcher, Dr. John Axtell of Purdue University, who invited him to assist in collecting sorghum species from around the country. Dr. Axtell was so impressed with Ejeta that he invited him to become his graduate student at Purdue University. This invitation came at a time when Ethiopia was about to enter a long period of political instability which would keep Ejeta from returning to his home country for nearly 25 years.
Ejeta entered Purdue in 1974, earning his Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics. He later became a faculty member at Purdue, where today he holds a distinguished professorship. Read more at worldfoodprize.org
Yared Tekabe’s Groundbreaking Research in Heart Disease
New York (Tadias) – Dr. Yared Tekabe enjoys doing most of his reflections while sitting anonymously with his laptop at cafés in Harlem. When he’s not there, Tekabe is busy running studies in cardiovascular disease detection and prevention at his lab in Columbia University’s William Black building in upper Manhattan. Last November, Tekabe’s groundbreaking work on non-invasive atherosclerosis detection and molecular imaging was published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation, along with an editorial citing its clinical implications.
Dr Tekabe’s success has helped his laboratory, headed by Dr Lynne Johnson, to receive another $1.6 million four-year grant from the National Institute of Health to continue his research, and Tekabe hopes that in a few years time his work can help heart disease prevention efforts and early detection of atherosclerosis in humans.
“What is atherosclerosis in layman terms?” I ask him, trying hard to correctly pronounce this tongue twister. He breaks it down to its linguistic roots. “Atherosclerosis comes from the Greek roots athere which means gruel, and skleros which means hardness or hardening,” he explains. Further research in Wiki reveals that atherosclerosis is a condition affecting our arterial blood vessels, which transport blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Atherosclerosis is the chronic condition in which inflammation of the walls of our blood vessels lead to hardening of the arteries.
“Atherosclerosis is the underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD),” Tekabe says. “The result is progressive closing of the blood vessels by fat and plaque deposits, which block and further restrict blood flow. In more serious cases it may also lead to clots in the aorta (main artery coming out of the heart) or carotids (arteries supplying blood to the brain) that may dislodge and travel to other parts of the body such as the brain, causing stroke. If the clot is in the leg, for example, it can lead to gangrene. Deposits of fat and inflammatory cells that build up in the walls of the coronary arteries (supplying blood to the heart muscle) can rupture leading to blood clots. Such clots in an artery that supplies blood to the heart muscle will suddenly close the artery and deprive the heart muscle of oxygen causing a heart attack. In the case of very sudden closure of an artery a clot can cause sudden cardiac death.”
“It’s the Tim Russert story,” Tekabe says, providing a recent example of what undetected levels of plaque formation in our bodies can lead to. EverydayHealth.com, an online consumer health portal, had described the famed former MSNBC ‘Meet the Press’ host’s sudden heart attack as being caused by a plaque rupture in a coronary artery. Russert had previously been diagnosed with heart disease, but his atherosclerosis was asymptomatic. He had not experienced the common signs of chest pain and other heart attack symptoms to warn him or his doctors of his true condition. The undetected inflammation in his vessels and the subsequent rupture of plaque led to his sudden heart attack and untimely death. This is not uncommon, however. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease “is the leading cause of death for both women and men in the United States, and women account for 51% of the total heart disease deaths.” There is even more grim news: United States data for 2004 has revealed that the first physical symptom of heart disease was heart attack and sudden death for about 65% of men and 47% of women with CVD.
The risk factors for atherosclerosis are well known and Tekabe runs through the list with me: “diabetes, obesity, stress, smoking, high blood pressure, family history of CVD, and diet” he says. “But of all the factors that I have mentioned, I would say diet is the most important one to change,” he adds. Food items such as red meat, butter, whole milk, cheese, ice cream, egg yolk, and those containing trans fat all put us at higher risk for plaque formation. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish such as salmon, herring and trout instead of red meat, as well as eating food that is steamed, boiled or baked instead of fried. It is better to use corn, canola, or olive oil instead of butter, and to eat more fiber (fruit, vegetables, and whole grain). Notwithstanding that March is deemed National Nutrition Month by the American Heart Association, changing our diet is largely emphasized in CVD prevention. We should also be exercising at least 30 minutes each day.
“Early non-invasive detection of the presence of inflammation and plaque could save lives,” Tekabe points out. “But the problem is two-fold: those who suffer from atherosclerosis do not display warning signs until it’s too late, and for doctors, a non-invasive method of detecting atherosclerosis is by and large not a possibility.” Research by Tekabe and others may soon change the way doctors can detect atherosclerosis.
Using molecular imaging techniques that were previously popular in cancer biology research, Tekabe and his colleagues have discovered non-invasive methods of detecting RAGE, a receptor first discovered in 1992 and thought to have causative implications in a host of chronic diseases ranging from diabetes to arthritis. Tekabe, collaborating with Dr Ann Marie Schmidt who has shown that RAGE receptors play a key role in atherosclerotic inflammatory response, notes that these receptors can be detected non-invasively in mice that have been fed a high-fat, high cholesterol diet.
“In the past, although we knew about the RAGE receptor, especially in the study of diabetes, we were not able to detect it without performing an autopsy of the lab mice. Clearly, in the case of humans it would be pointless if we said that we detected atherosclerosis in the patient after the patient had died,” Tekabe explains. “Therefore, it was imperative that our research showed a more non-invasive method, detecting RAGE receptors and locations of inflammation while the subject was still alive. The first step would be to test it on mice, which we have, and then perhaps on larger animals such as pigs, so that this research could be successfully translated to help non-invasively detect atherosclerosis in its early stages in human beings.”
Left Image: Atherosclerotic aorta – This image is from a mouse
fed a Western type of fat diet (high-fat, high cholesterol diet) for 34
weeks. It shows complete blockage of the aorta and the branches that
supply the brain. The plaque is made up of fat and inflammatory cells. Right Image: Relatively normal aorta – This is from 6
weeks old mouse fed a normal diet.
Tekabe’s recently published research showing detection of RAGE receptors responsible for arterial inflammation was funded by a grant from the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology as well as from an American Heart Association Heritage Foundation award.
The November Circulation editorial entitled “Feeling the RAGE in the Atherosclerotic Vessel Wall” highlights the significance of Tekabe et al’s findings and the necessity for early detection of atherosclerosis. “This is an exciting development that adds an important marker of atherosclerotic disease that can now be assessed non-invasively,” write Drs. Zahi Fayad and Esad Vucic. “Tekabe et al demonstrate, for the first time, the noninvasive specific detection of RAGE in the vessel wall.” They concur with Tekabe that “noninvasive detection of RAGE in the vessel wall could help define its role in plaque rupture, which has potentially important clinical implications.”
Tekabe came to Boston in 1990 and subsequently completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology and his Masters and PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on CVD and drug development. His academic choices have inevitably led him to his career as a scientist, but he has personal reasons for choosing this path as well.
“I was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. I have 1 brother and 8 sisters, and my parents had no formal education. But my father always encouraged me to seek higher education. While I was completing my studies I witnessed my beloved father suffer from Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) and he underwent triple bypass surgery. He passed away in 2004, and I promised myself that I would step up to the challenge of finding a way to prevent heart disease” Tekabe says in a somber and determined tone. “Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the developed world, and I am motivated by that challenge, but this research is also deeply personal.”
Tekabe hopes that his research will be applicable to other areas where RAGE receptors have been hypothesized to play a central role. Circulation editors who follow Tekabe’s work have noted that “in addition to its role in atherosclerosis and the development of vascular complications in diabetes, RAGE possesses wider implications in a variety of diseases, such as arthritis, cancer, liver disease, neurodegenerative disease, and sepsis, which underscores the importance of the ability of its noninvasive detection.” Tekabe, as part of Dr Ann Marie Schmidt’s team, has already filed U.S. and international patents and has plans to jump-start a drug development arm of the pharmaceutical industry in Ethiopia. “I’m looking for interested sponsors in Ethiopia who can see the potential of this research and its global implications,” he states.
Now that Forbes has apprised us of the billionaire status of an Ethiopian-born businessman, we hope this news may peak his interest in helping to start scientific research initiatives in Ethiopia.
Cover photo by Kidane Mariam for Tadias Magazine.
—- About the Author Tseday Alehegnis the Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine. She is a graduate of Stanford University (both B.A. & M.A.). In addition to her responsibilities at Tadias, Tseday is also a Doctoral student at Columbia University.
The Art of Peace, Tesfaye Tekelu’s Journey & Ethiopia’s First Aikido Dojo
New York (Tadias) – For the past three years, Tesfaye Tekelu, Co-Founder and Manager of the Awassa Youth Campus (AYC), has been training at Aikido dojos around the world. Last month, he completed leadership training courses and took his Black Belt exam under renowned Aikido instructor Richard Strozzi-Heckler Sensei in Petaluma, California. On February 11th, 2009, Senator Mark Leno awarded Tesfaye with the State of California Senate certificate of recognition in honor of his becoming the first Ethiopian Aikido Black Belt and Sensei of the Awassa Peace Dojo. The certificate highlighted Tesfaye’s “participation in the Aiki Extensions Training Across Borders Middle East Aikido Peace Conferences in Cyprus and in Zurich; developing the Awassa Youth Center and dojo program; and culminating in intensive Shodan-Ho training with senior instructors across America.”
Tesfaye Tekelu (Photo by Tadias/Chicago, November 2008)
Aikido, a non-competitive martial art was developed by its Japanese founder, Morihei Ueshiba in the 1920s. The term “Aiki” can be translated as “harmony” while “do” means “the Way.” Hence, Aikido is the way of harmony, a way of blending your energy with the energy of the universe and your fellow humans. Encompassing the power of breath, form, and awareness, Aikido techniques are used to protect both the attacked and the attacker from harm. Since its official registration in Japan as a martial art form in 1942, Aikido has spread to the West, and modern instructors, such as those affiliated with Chicago-based non-profit Aiki Extensions (www.aiki-extensions.org), use the art to nurture and develop social support and social networks. Aikido ideas have also been applied in areas such as education, psychotherapy, bodywork, mediation, and social conflict resolution.
The Awassa Youth Campus (AYC) was founded in February 2006 through the collaboration of Aiki Extensions non-profit group and the Awassa-based Debub Negat Circus, now known as AYC’s One Love Theater AIDS Education program. Since then, AYC’s program has expanded. It now offers a recording studio with instruments for learning music, a library (free and accessible to the community), an art studio and sports venues including a paved basketball court, a volleyball court, a soccer field, as well as the aikido dojo, recently built by students using bamboo and other local materials. It currently has an enrollment of 75 students, and classes are offered seven days a week.
As the main instructor at the Awassa Peace Dojo at AYC, Tesfaye has toured throughout Ethiopia to give Aikido demonstrations both to the general public and on Ethiopian national television. He has provided Aikido workshops to Addis Ababa Ministry of Education officials, inspiring them to move toward requiring aikido training for secondary school Seniors.
Tesfaye first met his mentor Donald Levine Sensei who was visiting the Awassa Children’s Center with his wife Ruth after receiving an honorary Doctorate from Addis Ababa University in August 2004. After watching a show by the children that incorporated gymnastics, martial arts, and street theater, Levine asked if anyone there knew about Aikido. When requested to demonstrate this art, Levine looked around for a volunteer and pointed to Tesfaye.
As Tesfaye recalls, “He [Levine] asked me to grab his hand and as I did so, at that moment, I felt something different than what I have known before from my practice in martial arts.” Tesfaye immediately asked Levine to teach him Aikido; lessons began every day when Tesfaye served as tour guide for the couple in remote parts of the Southern Region.
Tesfaye’s first tenkan with mentor Donald Levine
“My life journey started 200 km from Awassa, in a place called Amaro in Korate Village before I moved to Awassa,” Tesfaye shares. “I was born in a traditional house called a gojo bet (tukul), where there was no electricity, no telephone, and no running water.” There are several aspects that he loves about Awassa. “The town is surrounded by mountains and by a lake,” he enthuses “and the city is flat and leveled. If you want to see the town you have to hike up to one of the mountains surrounding Awassa. And once you’re up there you see the carpet of forest, and Awassa is nestled in that forest. It is a town where we grow up swimming in the lake, fishing, floating on boats, hiking in the mountains, and playing football. It’s a vacation place. For me it’s like Ethiopian California” he says comparing it to places he has discovered on his most recent training tour to the United States.
Awassa, serves as a capital for 56 southern tribes and Tesfaye admits it’s inspiring for him to see the town people living “in harmony, peace and respect” among such diversity. “It should be a model for our continent Africa,” he reminds us. He conjures up an image of us stepping out of a box or getting over a fence, demolishing the notion that color, politics, borders, religion, and tribe can divide us. “We have to reach out of that box and see each other as people and come together as one Africa. Then we can have a little Awassa in Africa,” he concludes. He believes that Ethiopia’s interfaith history, for example, is a model for the rest of the world. He points to his own family as an example and says “More than three religions are practiced within my family, and we are living together with love and respect.” He uses his life lessons to promote community programs such as the HIV awareness circus group and theatre. He describes AYC as “a place where street children and adolescents come to learn and share their awareness with each other.” AYC has an open-door policy and all community members are welcome to participate as members. Under his guidance the Awassa Peace Dojo is providing youth with an alternative to involvement in gang-related violence.
Tesfaye participates in training across borders program in Cyprus focusing on
reducing social conflict
Recently, Tesfaye embarked on an extensive dojo tour and training program in various U.S. cities in pursuit of a Black Belt in Aikido. “I have trained with one of O Sensei’s students, Saotome Sensei as well as with Levine Sensei, and Kevin Sensei in Chicago,” he says. He has also trained with various instructors in dojos located in Berkeley, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Seattle. He took his Black Belt exam in Strozzi-Heckler Sensei’s Two Rock Dojo in Petaluma last month and awed his audience. Tesfaye was especially touched by the nature surrounding Two Rock Dojo, which reminded him of his own growing up experiences in Ethiopia.
Tesfaye took his Black Belt exam at Two Rock Dojo in Petaluma, California (Feb. 2009)
His trip to America also involved participating in a theater festival in New York City entitled “Performing the World” with two other AYC staff members. He also worked to raise funds for AYC projects. Among some of his most favorite moments he cites training and assisting Levine Sensei’s University of Chicago students in their Aikido class, as well as taking the Strozzi Institute Leadership course, which he felt was ‘”very powerful, and something everyone should get a chance to study.” Levine had also assisted Tesfaye in furthering his Aikido practice by sending him to training summer camps in Zurich prior to his training in America.
With such an intensive schedule, was there any time to unwind? He assures us he has had plenty of sight-seeing. He lists a plethora of U.S. cities that he has visited during his stay. “I have toured New York, Chicago, Colorado, Boston, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Petaluma, Santa Cruz, and San Diego,” he reports. “I don’t even remember all the names of places that I have seen.” He is excited to share that he also participated in a music video promoting Obama’s presidential campaign. “I had a chance to meet Obama in Pittsburgh,” he says happily. “I had a chance to fly a helicopter in California and went skiing for the first time in Seattle.”
“Now I understand what one means by the term “Western,” he says. He reflects on it and thinks aloud about what he can learn from the West. It makes him also pay closer attention to what he deems are “tremendous opportunities around us” in Awassa. “We have to see what we already have around and believe that every thing we dream is possible. It starts with us and is evident around us,” he urges. “That is what I am interested in: to work with youth and bring that awareness to my country and beyond.”
“Finally I am grateful for the people who understand the challenges we face, and those who help and support me in their action,” he says. He gives special thanks to Levine Sensei and all the instructors that he trained with in the U.S. and Europe. “I feel lucky to meet and know these great people across the country and to train with them, and I am very grateful” he adds. “I would like to thank them for their wonderful help and support.”
Tesfaye with students in Awassa.
“My wish,” he says “is to open more centers in Ethiopia, and within two or three years my mission is to have a Pan-African network.”
Within five years? “An African Youth Campus” he replies. “My vision is to work at the grassroot level across the continent and beyond to bring change and awareness to the next generation.”
Worldwide, change is definitely the word of choice this year.
—- About the Author Tseday Alehegnis the Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine. She is a graduate of Stanford University (both B.A. & M.A.). In addition to her responsibilities at Tadias, Tseday is also a Doctoral student at Columbia University.
Ethiopian CNN Hero Meets Supporters in New York (Video)
Tadias TV Above photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias Magazine
Updated: Saturday, January 3, 2009
New York (Tadias) – Here is an updated video of Yohannes Gebregeorgis, one of the Top Ten CNN Heroes of 2008, at Cafe Addis in Harlem, NYC. The event took place on Saturday, December 13, 2008.
By Tadias Staff Above photo by Jeffrey Phipps for Tadias Magazine
Published: Tuesday, December 9, 2008
New York (Tadias) – We recently spoke with Yohannes Gebregeorgis, one of the Top Ten CNN Heroes of 2008. He was recognized for his remarkable efforts to bring free public libraries and literacy programs to thousands of children in Ethiopia, including the country’s first Donkey Mobile Library. Mr. Gebregeorgis, 59, was born in Ethiopia and came to the United States as a political refugee in 1981. He eventually put himself through college, earning a graduate degree in library science and worked as a librarian in San Francisco for nearly two decades before embarking on his current project.
Here is our interview with Yohannes Gebregeorgis:
Yohannes Gebregeorgis
Tadias: Yohannes, congratulations for being selected as one of CNN’s Top 10 Heroes of 2008!
Yohannes Gebregeorgis: Thank you. I appreciate Tadias Magazine for consistently covering Ethiopia Reads and making it possible for a lot of Ethiopians and other people to know our work. It’s very helpful when media like Tadias give coverage to such works. Thank you again.
Tadias: CNN’s Anderson Cooper said: “Our Top 10 CNN Heroes are proof that you don’t need superpowers — or millions of dollar, — to change the world and even save lives.” Please tell us about your organization, Ethiopia Reads, and your efforts that led to this recognition.
YG: It’s very true that one doesn’t have to be a superpower or a millionaire to change the world. Even though Ethiopia is not a super power, we know that there are millionaires in Ethiopia. However, they are not using their wealth to make an effective change or to save lives. I think the recognition that Ethiopia Reads has received is primarily for the recognition of the importance of literacy to the development of a country’s future; for it’s power to change individuals and society. What we’ve accomplished in the last six years is a drop in the ocean compared to the need. It’s a good beginning that needs to be kept alive and going until we cover all regions of Ethiopia. We’ve established two free public libraries for children and youth; one in Addis and one in Awassa. We’ve established one donkey mobile library and adding three more by January 2009. We’ve established 16 school libraries and adding another 18 in the next 6 months to one year. We’ve published 8 children’s books and distributed over 30,000 books freely to children with another 75,000 to be distributed freely in the next six months to a year.
Children reading in Awassa, Ethiopia.
We have over 100,000 children that make a visit to all our libraries; We’ve instituted an annual Ethiopian Children’s Book Week, a children’s book award – the Golden Kuraz Award, we’ve provided basic library and literacy training to about 120 teachers and assistant librarians, we’ve taken thousands of children on a march to parliament, and in our annual Book-A-Thon, we’ve made it into the local news media many times advocating reading and literacy. We’ve been widely featured in international media. We’ve created a solid foundation from where we can launch massive campaigns to cover all of Ethiopia given that we have the resources.
Tadias: Among your projects that has received the most press attention is Ethiopia’s first Donkey Mobile Library. What inspired you to come up with this creative concept?
YG: The Donkey Mobile Library was conceived because of the need to reach out to children in rural communities.. The idea of portable and mobile libraries existed in other countries. For example, there is a boat library in Colombia, south America, a camel library in Northern Kenya, a bicycle library and other forms of book delivery methods. The donkey mobile library is similar to a book mobile, a bus that carries books to different communities in developed countries. I’ve seen a donkey pulled satellite station in Zimbabwe several years ago and that has given me the idea of the donkey mobile library. I designed the whole donkey mobile cart with the shelves and storage areas. A very experienced Ethiopian metal engineer built the units from sketches and guidance I gave him. An artist made the necessary logos and designs on the cart and it turned out to be the best.
Donkey pulls mobile library.
Yohannes with the donkey mobile library.
Tadias: Can you share with us an anecdote describing some of the experiences children had when they first visited one of your libraries? How did it change his or her life?
YG: When we first opened our first library in Addis Ababa and the Donkey Mobile Library in Awassa, we noticed several children who were holding books upside down. This children had never held a book before. One of these children, who was nine years old at the time is now a Star Reader, one of many children who are chosen annually for their reading skills and for reading out loud to other children. We select 12 Star Readers from thousands of children who come to our library annually. Robel has visited the library everyday since he first came six years ago. He’s participated in every program that we offer at the library such as English lessons, theater, art and crafts and the sanitation program. Robel is also doing very well in his school as his grades have improved significantly.There are others like Robel who are part of the library family as we’ve known them for as long as the library’s existence.
Tadias: Eighteen years ago, you gave Mammo Qilo (the popular Ethiopian children’s story) its American debut. You are the author of “Silly Mammo”, which was the first bilingual Amharic-English children’s book. Why Mammo Qilo?
YG: I’m so glad that Kilu Mammo has become famous in America! When I first thought about producing a book for Ethiopian children, Kilu Mammo was the only story that came to mind which appealed to me. Many Ethiopians remember the story from their childhood as I did. It’s a very simple but nice story. Children like silly stories to begin with and Mamo Kilu amuses not only children but also adults.
Tadias: We understand that you hold a graduate degree in library science and you served as Children’s Librarian at the San Francisco Children’s Library. How big, would you say, is the pool of trained librarians in Ethiopia that can assist with new library projects?
YG: There aren’t many Ethiopians who have a library training. There is no institution that has a training program as the Addis Ababa University folded its library science program some five or so years ago.I don’t think Ethiopian education authorities think of libraries as something very essential. Besides, there are no library policies in the educational policy of the country that I know of, therefore it makes it hard to have training programs where no one would hire the people that are trained. We have difficulty finding trained librarians. We’ve been hiring librarians ever since we started our program in Ethiopia. We’provide basic library training program for the school libraries that we establish.
Tadias: What are your long term plans to expand your program across the country? And what kind of help do you need?
YG: Our plan is to expand our projects and programs to all regions of Ethiopia by expanding to at least one region every two years. We now have projects in place that can easily be duplicated. In order to accomplish this ambitious goals we need, first and foremost financial support, then other material support such as books, computers, etc., and then any other kind of support such as volunteers.
Tadias: How can your U.S.-based fans help to further your organizational goals?
YG: There are so many ways that our fans in the US can help. For example, we’re about to embark on a membership drive that is geared towards Ethiopians. We’ve seen how enthusiastic Ethiopians have become when they discovered the work we do in Ethiopia. We see a very positive attitude and desire to help by a large number of Ethiopians. We’d like Ethiopians to support our work by becoming members and donating ten, twenty or whatever amount of money they could. Every book week has a theme around which we can raealy afford on a monthly instalment. We’d like to get a few thousand Ethiopians signing up for this monthly donation. Those who can afford can sponsor a library in memory of someone they love, sponsor a Donkey Mobile Library, sponsor publishing of a book, etc. There are so many ways our fans could be involved. People can find more information on our web site ethiopiareads.org.
Tadias: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Since 2003, Ethiopia Reads has organized an annual Ethiopian Children’s Book Week, an annual celebration of books, reading and libraries. During our first book week, we took more than a thousand children on a march to the Ethiopian Parliament with a petition asking the government to provide libraries and boks for children. We’ve special programs everyday of the week such as Read-A-thon, Book-A-Thon, Bread and Books Day, International Children’s Book Day, Book Launch, Golden Kuraz Award, the Star Reader Award, Art Day and many other activities take place during the one week. Every book week has a special theme as a focus. Readers are Leaders, Libraries for Rural Development, Bread and Books for Children, Those who read Bloom, Ethiopia Stretches her Hands, are the book week themes of the last six years. Special posters that reflect these themes are made and distributed. The next book week is the Sixth Ethiopian Children’s Book Week to be held April 1-7, as it always is, with a theme “Ethiopia Reads” (Ethiopia Tanebalech). What we want to share with Tadias readers is to celebrate book week with us by reading to children, by making books available to your family, support Ethiopia Reads and other organizations that work in Ethiopia.
Tadias: Thank you so much for your time, Yohannes, and good luck with your work.
YG: Thank you Tadias for your interest in the work of Ethiopia Reads and for supporting us by writing about our work.
— Yohannes will speak in Harlem (New York)
Saturday, December 13 at 2:00 PM at Cafe Addis (435 West 125 Street, NY, 10027). Phone: 212-663-0553 (Mekonen or Negus).
Yohannes in Maplewood, New Jersey
Yohannes will appear at the Maplewood Public Library in Maplewood, NJ on Thursday, December 11 at 7 pm
Yohannes in Silver Spring, Maryland
Wednesday December 17 – 7:00pm Abol Restaurant, 8628 Colesville Road (across the street from the AFI Silver Theater) Silver Spring, MD 20910 (RSVP: Matt Andrea 202-232-9085, Maureen Evans 301-386-5610).
How to Buy Real Estate in Ethiopia: Interview with CEO of GojoSuites
New York (Tadias) – We recently spoke with Valerie Steele, CEO of GojoSuites – a brokerage firm that sells property in Ethiopia – about the current real estate market in that country.
Prior to her current position, Steele served as the Director of International Development for the Organization of Rehabilitation and Development in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.
Here is our interview with Valerie Steele:
Valerie Steele: CEO of GojoSuites
Tadias: Please tell us about GojoSuites.
Steele: GojoSuites is a subsidiary of African First Real Estate Finance LLC (AFREF) and was developed to serve the Ethiopian diaspora who want to buy homes in their homeland. AFREF is currently developing additional companies that will serve diaspora from other African countries. GojoSuites has an exclusive contract with Ayat Share Company, Ethiopia’s real estate pioneer.
Tadias: We understand that you recently relocated to Washington D.C. from Bahir Dar to become the CEO for GojoSuites. What attracted you to get involved in the real estate business in Ethiopia?
Steele: The Ethiopian real estate market, as the diaspora knows, is booming and it’s an exciting opportunity for Ethiopians around the world. When I lived in Ethiopia, I saw firsthand the development of new homes and neighborhoods with amenities only previously available in western countries. I know that the diaspora has a desire to be reconnected and I see the lack of connection between the developers and the home seekers and feel I could make a difference in bridging the gap.
Tadias: You’ve mentioned that you have an “exclusive contract with Ayat share Company” in Ethiopia. Why only Ayat?
Steele: We chose to partner with Ayat because they are so well established and have gone through the learning curve to figure out what works and what doesn’t. With 12 years of experience and the fact that they have built and delivered more than 4,000 houses, they are truly the experts.
I spent a month with Ayat to understand the way they operate and to build the relationship with them so that we can effectively represent them in the US.
Tadias: Why should people purchase a home in Ethiopia?
Steele: That’s a very personal decision. For some people, it is about providing a beautiful home for family members who live in Ethiopia. For others, it’s about making sure there is a place for them to return to live when they retire. And others recognize what an incredible investment it is since the Ethiopian real estate market has been hot for several years and is expected to continue to be in the foreseeable future.
Photo: Villa – single family house – in Ethiopia (courtesy of GojoSuites)
Single family villa in Ethiopia (photo courtesy of GojoSuites).
Tadias: Who is legally eligible to buy property in Ethiopia from overseas?
Steele: Anyone who meets one of the following criteria:
1. Has Ethiopian citizenship and lives abroad
2. Foreign nationals of Ethiopian origin
3. Has Ethiopian parents
Tadias: How affordable is a new home or apartment? What is the average price in your market?
Steele: Ayat is working hard to make housing affordable for those who have been unable to buy in the past. They are offering mortgage financing (50% financing for villas and 40% or 67% financing for apartments). And they are offering a unique plan where the buyer can lock in a price today and delay delivery of the home for up to five years. This gives the buyer more time to save money so that they can finance less of the cost of the house and save interest.
Ayat apartments start at $42,951 for a two bedroom 62m2 home. Villas (single family houses) start at $144,941 for a two bedroom, 72m2 home. These prices include the 15% VAT and land lease. Also, Ayat is offering 5% discount off the base price (not including VAT) of a new apartment home in Ayat Mender until October 31. The prices for all Ayat homes will increase November 9 so, for people who are ready to buy, now is a good time.
Apartment building illustration (Apartments are currently under construction).
Some people tell us the prices are high but those are individuals who have not been to Ethiopia for many years and do not realize how prices have changed since they were last there. In fact, the customers who buy Ayat homes are quite satisfied with the prices and, to our knowledge, Ayat homes are actually priced below market rates.
Tadias: Are there are any U.S. taxes, fees or penalties that potential customers would need to pay Uncle Sam for owning land in Ethiopia? Also are there any hidden fees from the Ethiopian government that we need to know about?
Steele: We are not aware of any taxes, fees or penalties that would be owed to the US government for owning property in Ethiopia but we always advise people to check with their tax person or accountant on matters such as these.
As far as fees from the Ethiopian government, there is value added tax (VAT) which is 15%. VAT is included in the published price of all Ayat homes. There is also the title deed transferring fee of 6%, which is not included in the published price.
Tadias: How does financing work for U.S. residents?
Steele: Prospective buyers have several options. They can pay cash as a lump sum or on an installment basis as their home is built. The final payment is made at the time the home is turned over to the buyer.
Or, as I mentioned above, they can select from Ayat’s financing options. Ayat lets the customer choose the length of the mortgage for up to 30 years. We are not aware of anyone else offering a financing option this long.
5% will lock in the price of any villa or apartment for up to 90 days after the expiration of that price. 10% is needed to get a contract on a specific property.
Tadias: One of the biggest complaints we hear from Diaspora homeowners and investors is that new houses are never completed within the time frame that clients are promised. Is that a problem that people should expect?
Steele: Ayat and other builders experienced delays in the past due to limited availability of raw materials, such as cement, steel and other imported construction items, lack of access to construction financing and outdated construction techniques. GojoSuites and Ayat are aware of this issue and are creating solutions to overcome it. For example, GojoSuites is partnering with Ayat to identify new approaches to construction that can speed up the process. And Ayat is researching the potential for building their own cement factory so they will be less reliant on external vendors. Initiatives such as these are giving Ayat the confidence to guarantee us there will be no delays.
Tadias: What advice would you give to someone who is considering acquiring a primary or second home in Ethiopia?
Steele: We are not in a position to give advice to prospective buyers but we can reiterate what we know from those who have chosen to buy a home. It’s a wonderful way to connect with your homeland and help or be near to the people you love. Having lived in Ethiopia, I have a deep appreciation for the closeness of families and the beauty of many local traditions, so I understand why people who grew up in Ethiopia want to reconnect. And it’s a great investment opportunity.
Tadias: What is the most challenging issue you face as a Real Estate Professional for property in Ethiopia?
Steele: Helping customers overcome the negative stigma that was associated with home real estate development in the past. Real problems occurred and, though Ethiopia has not reached the level of speed and predictability that exists with home construction in the US, it’s come a long ways and we expect that improvements will continue over time.
Tadias: Tell us one of your client success stories or an interesting moment in your profession.
Steele: A woman who recently visited our office has been helping out an older woman and a young orphaned girl who live in Addis Ababa, both of whom have no families. Her dream is to buy a home for them where they can live together and become a family for each other. Another couple has children that are nearly grown and they want to buy a home in Addis so their sons can visit and become more connected with their Ethiopian heritage. These are examples of the fun part of my job of making people’s dreams come true.
Tadias: How do you expect the housing market in Ethiopia will be affected by the global meltdown in real estate?
Steele: So far so good! The Ethiopian real estate market continues to grow at an astounding rate, despite all of the unprecedented and shocking situation in home real estate in the US. In fact, we wonder if it will make buying a home in Ethiopia even more attractive because people feel safer investing there than they do in the US right now.
Tadias: How do you advertise and how can potential buyers learn about your company and the services you offer?
Steele: We are advertising in Ethiopian media in major US cities where Ethiopians live. In October, we are having free seminars every Sunday afternoon in our DC headquarters to provide detailed information about the opportunities available. In 2009, we will go on tour to the major US cities where Ethiopians live.
For more information, call us at 202-234-gojo [4656] or visit our website at: www.gojosuites.com.
Tadias: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Steele There are many Ethiopians from the diaspora moving back to Ethiopia for several reasons. These include medical doctors, IT experts, engineers and entrepreneurs. They don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying houses from Addis Ababa brokers (“delalas”) so they come to us for a hassle free experience.
We are very excited about the opportunity to meet you and get to know you so that we can help make your dream of owning a home in Ethiopia come true!
— Publisher’s note:GojoSuites advertises on Tadias Magazine.
Conversations with an Ethiopian-American Obama Organizing Fellow
New York (Tadias) – We recently spoke with Washington, D.C. resident Kedist Geremaw, a health care administrator and one of the 3,600 individuals who were selected and trained as an Obama Organizing Fellow this summer.
According to the Obama-Biden campaign website, the Fellows are “trained on the basics of organizing & campaign fundamentals and then placed in a community to carry out grassroots activities.” Their purpose? To encourage “a new generation of leadership that believes, like Senator Obama, that real change comes from the ground up.” Individuals who pass the highly selective process end up working a minimum of 30 hours per week alongside other grassroots leaders and the Obama campaign staff.
Kedist Geremaw (whose daughter Naomi Senbet, a 2004 Kids-Week Jeopardy contestant, also featured on Tadias along with Naomi’s father Professor Lemma W. Senbet) says she was sold on the idea of becoming a Fellow after reading Obama’s memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.
Geremaw hopes Obama will become the next President of the United States. She recounts her initial introduction to the man. “Some time ago, someone suggested a book called Dreams From my Father, and after I was done reading, I went out and purchased Obama’s second book: The Audacity of Hope. I was hooked!! When he declared his intention to run for the presidency, I jumped on the bandwagon and joined the D.C. for Obama group,” she says. She took a road trip to Denver to hear Senator Obama’s historic acceptance speech on August 28th at Invesco Field.
“It was a historical and unbelievable experience,” she recounts with excitement. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium; there was hugging, high fiving, flag waving, cheering. There were people of all backgrounds, colors, ages. It was unlike the other campaign.” “In Denver,” she concludes, “people were unified under one cause and a future President.”
Kedist Geremaw at Senator Obama’s historic acceptance speech on August 28
at the Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver, CO.
Geremaw had worked for Ethiopian Television prior to immigrating to the United States. “As a Washington, DC resident I have been troubled by the lack of representation in both Houses – the Congress and the US Senate. This started my journey to greater political involvement. I have been part of a community of grassroots organizers for many years” she says.
“‘No man is an island entire of himself’,” she adds quoting John Donne, “so I come to this campaign with the spirit of enthusiasm of a grassroots organizer hoping to make a contribution to my community, my country and my world.” As a health care worker, Geremew sees health disparities every day. “And as an informed citizen,” she says, ” I see an unnecessary war which has alienated our country from the rest of the world.”
Asked about the possibility of Ethiopian Americans swinging the vote in states like Virginia, where the election is expected to be close, Geremaw’s answer is an emphatic ‘yes.’
“If we go back and look at what happened in 2000 the gap between the two candidates was so minimal, with the high number of Ethiopians living in Virginia, the swing vote is a reality within our reach. The answer is yes, yes, and yes,” she says confidently.
Does she have time to collaborate with the swelling Ethiopians for Obama movement?
“I am very much familiar with the effort of Ethiopians for Obama,” she replies. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for choosing me as person of the week for my involvement in the campaign. They are working tirelessly doing voter registration by going to where our Ethiopian community congregates including churches and restaurants.”
She also mentions the annual pilgrimage to the Ethiopian soccer tournament which took place in early July.
“There was a lot of work done at the Ethiopian soccer tournament early this summer. These young energetic Ethiopian Americans are working hard, day in and day out” she adds.
And about the recent McCain-Palin surge in the polls?
“You know what? I am the most optimistic person. I have this belief in what is at hand. It is like a wave and nothing will stop it. But the reality is between now and November things can happen which may change the course. Our obligation is to stay focused in our work and commitment,” she says.
Geremew then quotes Eleanor Roosevelt: “‘The future belongs to those who believe in beauty of their dreams’. To make the dream a reality we as citizens need to register and VOTE.” “It is our civic duty,” she emphasizes, ” that is the only way to bring profound change.”
Geremaw, who tells us that she has incorporated the American culture of volunteerism into her lifestyle, believes that getting involved is the only way to make a difference. “A lot of my close friends complain at times about the little time I spend with them. Every time I am away from my professional duties my time is spent on volunteerism. I love it and it is rewarding. Your horizon, your network, your knowledge is enhanced by these experiences,” she concludes.
“When the founding fathers wrote the masterpiece that is our constitution, they did not foresee the great influx of new citizens, like you and I, that have arrived from every corner of the globe, and that now make up the beautiful fabric of this nation. As we assimilate and enjoy its many benefits we must also assume our share of the responsibilities of civic duty and volunteerism.”
There is much for Geremew to accomplish as an Obama Organizing Fellow, and the creativity, dedication, and optimism that she and her colleagues are displaying is inspiring, commendable, and contagious.
New York (Tadias) – The presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama has hired Selam Mulugeta, an Ethiopian American, who formerly served as a Congressional Staffer and Special Assistant to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), founder and Chair of the Congressional Ethiopia and Ethiopian American Caucus.
“I will be a Field Organizer in the Northern Virginia region”, Mulugeta told Tadias Magazine. She joined the Obama for America campaign in Virginia.
“This means that I would be doing community organizing at the grassroots level to increase the number of registered voters, and most importantly, to increase voter turn-out in November.”
Members of the Democratic support group Ethiopians for Obama (E4O), which is active in Virgina, often say that the November election may be decided by a few thousand votes, and the robust Ethiopian American presence in the state may end up being a deciding factor.
Mulugeta agrees.
“In states like Virginia, Ethiopians are in a unique position to swing the vote. If all of us who are eligible to vote do so, then we could potentially win the state. The responsibility is tremendous, but doable. We can accomplish this by investing more time in the campaign and fully extending the reach of our influence”, Mulugeta says.
“I am a member of the steering committee for E40. I have always supported the organization, even from its days as a loose discussion group formed in someone’s living room. I am so proud of the work that has already been done, and even while I was on the Hill I was quite adamant about engaging its leaders. My role in E4O will be to empower Ethiopians to realize that they can support the Obama campaign by volunteering.”
Selam Mulugeta with Capitol Hill Backdrop
Asked about the high level of excitement within the African immigrant community particularly about the prospect of electing the first African American President, Mulugeta says the candidate’s background is attractive to Africans in general.
“African immigrants can identify with Barack Obama because he himself is a second generation African American. More than that, he identifies with his own African heritage in a way that we all can be proud of”, she said. “He was able to achieve a level of success that our parents or first generations dream of for their children.”
Mulugeta points out that Obama, because of his African background, will be in a strong position to advocate for better governance in the African continent.
“We also believe that his shared appreciation for Africa makes him the ideal President” she said. “He will not be afraid to engage and confront the challenges of achieving political stability and economic independence throughout the African continent, while preserving the dignity of its people. It is all the more reason that Diaspora Africans in this country should remain visibly involved in the campaign.”
The gregarious and young former Congressional staffer landed her gig on Capitol Hill fresh out of college and says she was attracted to the job by her former boss’s dedication to advocate on behalf of his Ethiopian American constituents in San Jose, California.
Above:Selam Mulugeta Campaigning on behalf of Congressman Michael M.
Honda for Keith Ellison for Congress. September 2006.
“I interned for Congressman Honda during the summer after college graduation. I had the opportunity to work on building the Caucus because of the open-mindedness and dedication of the Congressman to the Ethiopians in his District. There was a clear need to create a voice for Ethiopian Americans in the legislative process, and I was hired to exercise that potential. The Congressman wanted to create an institution that could maximize that potential, so there was a clear need for someone to develop this institution on a full time basis”, she said.
“The Caucus is an organization of Member of Congress who all believe that the Ethiopian American agenda is a priority, or that Ethiopia is a strategic ally in Africa. Members of this Caucus usually have a strong relationship with the Ethiopian community in their districts, or believe that Ethiopia can play a leading role in achieving peace and economic stability on the continent.”
Asked to name what she considers as the significant achievement of the Caucus, Mulugeta says: “The most significant achievements are passing language in Appropriations Bills on Ethiopia, and organizing a huge effort to recognize the Ethiopian Millennium. On Appropriation, Congressman Honda was able to pass language to encourage the Administration to fund development programs in Ethiopia that are led by Ethiopian Americans. He consistently advocates for the support of Ethiopian American NGOs because he believes that they should play a role in guiding US development policy toward Ethiopia. On the Millennium, the Caucus was able to seize the moment by organizing a festival on the Hill and passing legislation that would draw attention to the development concerns of Ethiopia. The Caucus hosted a festival with live cultural performances, art exhibit, and food from the best Ethiopian restaurants in Washington DC. It generated a crowd of over 500 people among whom were Members of Congress, USAID and State Department staff, NGO directors, grassroots leaders, diplomats, etc. It was a joyous occasion that drew a lot of attention, so the Caucus was able to promote its development priorities most effectively. Rep. Honda introduced a Resolution honoring the Millennium that passed a few months later. This was significant because it was truly the work of several Ethiopian American organizations – the Caucus made a concerted effort to seek the input of community leaders across the country, and it was the first project that proved how strong the community can be when leaders cooperate with one another.”
And her personal role in this achievement?
“I was the lead staff on the Appropriations related to Ethiopia in my office. I also proposed and implemented the planning for the Millennium event on the Hill. And with the guidance and mentoring of Ted Dagne (CRS, Africa Policy Director), I helped to draft the Resolution. I thought that it would be much more meaningful to have the endorsement of several community organizations before seeking co-sponsorship.
Equipped with Capitol Hill experience and youthful zeal, Mulugeta has embarked onto her next challenge. “Most Ethiopians are registered to vote, but their responsibility to electing the new President does not end there…they will have to join the movement by registering their family members, their children, their friends at church or mosque. Our strength is in volunteering,” she reminds us. Mulugeta has joined the ranks of thousands of like-minded and optimistic young professionals who have answered Senator Barack Obama’s call for change.
New York (Tadias) – It was announced in Geneva last week that Ethiopian-born Bekele Geleta, 64, has been appointed as the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Mr. Geleta is currently the general manager of international operations for the Canadian Red Cross. He spent five years in prison in Ethiopia, and later served as a Cabinet Minister and the Ethiopian Ambassador to Japan.
According to The Ottawa Citizen: “Geleta came to Canada as a refugee in 1992, settling in Ottawa with his wife, Tsehay Mulugeta, and four young sons. He soon started building a new career in humanitarian work, serving with Care Canada, the Red Cross and other organizations,” which eventually led to last week’s announcement of his new prestigious post.
Here is my interview with Bekele Geleta.
Above:Bekele Geleta. Photo Courtesy of Canadian Red Cross.
Tadias: Mr. Geleta, congratulations from all of us at Tadias on your new position. How does it feel to be named the Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies?
Mr. Geleta: Well, good, firstly. There’s a bit of anxiety around taking over a huge challenge with great responsibilities. We’re seeing more disasters with increasing frequency and intensity; conflicts around the world are creating worsening vulnerability. There’s desperation, famine, insecurity, urban violence – the world of humanitarian work is becoming more and more challenging and therefore I’m coming into the Secretary General position at a very critical time. I feel very determined to make a difference in the lives of the vulnerable going forward.
Tadias: How do you imagine your typical work day would be like in Geneva?
Mr. Geleta: Well, it will be very interesting. I’ll start very early in the morning, attend and lead meetings, take time to reflect, conceptualize and give guidance. I like to walk around and talk to staff in their offices, motivate them, and I’ll respond to requests and issues raised by national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies from around the world.
The days for the Red Cross chief executive are extremely busy. There is no down time. I know this from my days as head of the Africa Department in the late 90s and early 2000. My days were extremely busy so, I can imagine that for the Secretary General it will be full and busy days.
Tadias: In all of your years building a career in humanitarian work, what do you consider your finest achievement?
Mr. Geleta: Every effort in the humanitarian world is an achievement. Every life saved is an achievement. Every livelihood contributed to or improved is an achievement. It’s really difficult to say, this is better than that. In the Red Cross – even when I was in prison – I considered every contribution to be a good contribution.
Probably the most sustainable contribution is what I was able to do in building the capacity of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in Africa and South East Asia. That’s extremely important because when disasters happen the early hours are the hours in which the most lives are saved; the period before international support arrives. So, the more capacity that’s been built-up internally and the more sustainable it becomes, the more effective it will be in saving lives in those early hours after a disaster and reducing vulnerability. Capacity is extremely important. Capacity of indigenous organizations and capacity built-in to the community factor largely in the humanitarian world and I’ve done quite a bit in this area in the countries I have worked in.
Tadias: We have learned through press reports that you spent five years in prison in Ethiopia, and later served as a cabinet minister and as the Ethiopian ambassador to Japan. How have your experiences in Ethiopia helped you in your career serving as a humanitarian?
Mr. Geleta: I have known vulnerability first hand. I come from a poor family. I worked myself out of it.
I have lived in a prison where for the first two years, at five o’clock, nearly every day, buses arrived, names were called, they were taken away and those people never came back. No one would see them again or know what became of them or whose turn would be next. It was very difficult life in prison and a terrible kind of vulnerability to live through.
I have also been a refugee, in Canada, which also brings its own kind of vulnerability. Not in that you don’t have food or a place to stay. Not that your children won’t be able to attend school. It’s a vulnerability based in the feeling that you are a burden on a society that you have not contributed to. It’s a different kind of vulnerability.
But that actually makes one feel very strongly about supporting the vulnerable. I identify with the vulnerable and feel very strongly in my heart that I must work to support them.
On the good side of life I have been a deputy minister and ambassador to Japan. These positions exposed me to management skills, to the workings of diplomacy and enabled me to gain a certain comfort when dealing with heads of state and people at all different levels of government. And it enables a person to feel comfortable in any situation – from the lowest point in prison to the imperial palace – I feel able to contribute at any level.
It prepares a person to be useful at all levels and has prepared me well to quickly assess situations, I can easily enter into dialogues with people at the highest levels and I can also work with volunteers and staff to most efficiently respond to a disaster or other situations.
Above:Mr. Bekele Geleta, General Manager, Canadian Red Cross
International Operations hands over a symbolic key to Mr. Siasat Baeha,
Head of Village of Hilihati, Lahewa, Indonesia.
Photo Courtesy of Canadian Red Cross.
Tadias: We understand that you came to Canada as a refugee in 1992, settling in Ottawa with your wife and four young sons. What are your reflections regarding your Canadian home?
Mr. Geleta: I often tell my Canadian colleagues, I’m a Canadian by choice, not by accident and there’s a big difference in that. If you are a Canadian by birth, you’ll probably only start to really feel it when you are outside the country for the first time. But if you are a Canadian by choice, you come here and you realize how important it is to your life. And then you realize that this country, the Canadian people have done a lot of good. They take you in, they help you to establish a home, ensure that your children can attend school, it’s tremendous. So, I feel really great about choosing Canada as my adopted home.
There is some difficulty when people like me come, having been educated at one of the best universities in the world and having worked in your home country at a certain level but you come out of your country and become a refugee. They can’t fit you in at a senior level in your new country because you don’t know the system. They can’t graft you somewhere in the middle because there are those who have been working their butts off to achieve those positions and so it’s very difficult for organization to graft a refugee into what they might consider a suitable level. But we can’t be taken as beginners either. We’re not beginners. So essentially we become misfits. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s simply what we are. That’s the reality
Therefore it’s up to us. At whatever level of experience, whatever level of education, we must find a way to access the new country’s systems. That’s what I did and I’m not alone.
There are a great many refugees who have attained certain levels of education or experience and come to new countries and I hear them complaining and I say, complaining is not enough. One has to do the work, one has to make a major effort to find a way to access the system and it does not depend on the new country. It depends on you.
And once you realize it’s up to you and you make the effort you will come to see that great opportunities are available.
So, my message to other refugees is, find a way. Canada is a great country and we are lucky to live here.
Tadias: What’s your vision for the Red cross for the following years under your direction?
Mr. Geleta: Well, this interview comes a bit early to fully answer that question, just at the very beginning of this assignment, before I take over the position.
The one thing I can say is that the Red Cross has an excellent strategy called Strategy 2010 which was formulated in 2000, revised four years ago in Seoul and articulated the direction of the Federation going forward. This strategy will hopefully go a long way toward making the Red Cross, the largest humanitarian movement, the most efficient and most reliable civil society organization in the world.
One should always remember is that the Red Cross has a special relationship not only with the community but also with governments around the world. This makes the Red Cross unique because there is no other civil society that has established a permanent presence in every country and community. Only governments or faith-based organizations have permanent presences in every country. The only civil society entity that has come to that level is the Red Cross. It’s known everywhere by everybody and it’s challenge, my challenge, is to make it the world’s most efficient humanitarian organization; an organization that everyone feels comfortable with, an organization that people feel they can turn to and know they can rely on.
So that’s what I’ll be working on and from the lessons of Strategy 2010, I will look forward to 2020.
Tadias: There has been recent press reports that famine is once again imminent in Ethiopia. According to BBC: “Six million children in Ethiopia are at risk of acute malnutrition following the failure of rains, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, has warned. More than 60,000 children in two Ethiopian regions require immediate specialist feeding just to survive.” Does this concern the Red Cross? and if so what are your plans to act to prevent this disaster?
Mr. Geleta: The Federation has already issued a preliminary appeal for 2 million Swiss Francs but that is preliminary. Assessments are being done and following the assessments, there will be further appeals for funding to support the Ethiopian Red Cross Society in the work they will be doing to help the vulnerable, the children.
Ethiopia has a strong Red Cross Society. I worked very hard to make it a sustainable organization and it is a strong society with many volunteers and good leadership. So the Federation has good and reliable partners in the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and we will be doing a full assessment around the issue of food security and as necessary increasing the level of expertise sent into the country to support the national society.
Tadias: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Mr. Geleta: The message I have for Ethiopians in the Diaspora: please do less politics; more development. And participate and contribute to the humanitarian endeavours which will help lessen the vulnerability of Ethiopians. You can always take the Red Cross as your partner. You can support your people in Ethiopia – including the children – by supporting the work of the Red Cross. The Ethiopian Red Cross or, if you like, the Canadian Red Cross, because you can be certain that there you have a partner in lessening the vulnerability of people.
Tadias: Mr. Geleta, once again our warm thanks for taking our questions and best wishes in your endeavors.
—- You can read more about the Red Cross Strategy 2010 at: www.ifrc.org
New York (Tadias) – It all started with a boring job that left graphic designer Nolawi Petros itching to do something artistic.
Designing test booklets for No Child Left Behind at his day job did little to satisfy Petros’ appetite for artistic creation.
“The truth is, I was at a job where I didn’t have a lot of creative things to do,” Nolawi says.
So he decided it was time to launch Bernos, an online t-shirt vending company that now doubles as a sort of virtual Ethiopian community center through an active blog.
He had been kicking around the idea of starting a t-shirt designing and making venture for some time.
“If it works, it works; if doesn’t, it doesn’t,” Petros said at the time, but he thought it was at least worth a try.
It did work.
In May 2005, launched Bernos with three designs: Addis Ababa Classic, a red shirt with the words “Addis Ababa” written in a font resembling Coca-Cola’s, an Abebe Bekila shirt, and a shirt featuring Desta Keremela, the staple candy brand found in pretty much every souk in Ethiopia.
Above:Bernos shirt with the words “Addis Ababa” written in a font resembling
Coca-Cola’s. (Photo: Bernos.org).
Above:A shirt featuring Desta Keremela, the staple candy brand found in pretty
much every neighborhood shop in Ethiopia. (Photo: Bernos.org).
The business is named after the heavy wool cloak that became a status symbol after being introduced to Ethiopia by the Arabs.
“Wearing the Bernos in Ethiopia was a lot like wearing a sheriff’s badge in the American West,” Bernos says on its website.
“Today, anyone can capture and celebrate some of Ethiopia’s history and the status of the Bernos by wearing one of our unique t-shirts.”
And if the fact that they’ve sold out of many of their designs is any indication, the Bernos t-shirt is a status symbol that more than a few people have bought into.
Petros says that for the 13 designs that the website has now, he’s probably designed another 30 that he’s decided to toss out or hold on to for later.
While Petros handles much of the design work, he has business partners handle the other elements of running a business: Dawit Kahsai handles finances, Meron Samuel is the head of marketing and sales, and Beshou Gedamu is Bernos’ t-shirt model and photographer.
So far, the venture has been built on volunteer labor—the partners view their time as their primary investment in the business, Petros says.
The Bernos site gets about 500 hits a day, mostly Abeshas on the East Coast, Petros says, but although the Bernos team are Ethiopians (Dawit Kahsai is Eritrean), they don’t see their venture as an “Abesha” or even an “African” brand.
Most orders do come from major U.S. cities with big Abesha populations: Oakland, Seattle, Washington, DC, and New York City, some order have popped up from more far flung locations—everywhere from Fargo, North Dakota to Mississipi.
Even though they’ve cornered the internet-savvy Abesha market that likes hip T-shirts, Petros says a little number-crunching reveals that market is still pretty small.
“Let’s say there are 500,000 Ethiopians in the U.S.—out of those, 20 percent use the internet, (and of those, some) are into fashion or T-shirts. So, when you think about it, we don’t have a big market,” says Petros.
About 30 percent of the T-shirts go to non-Ethiopians, and Petros says they’re trying to expand that number. That trend has been reflected in the shift in designs from the “Addis Ababa Classic” that launched the site to more recent designs named “Roots,” and “d’Afrique,” which have more pan-African appeal.
Above: “d’Afrique”, a more recent Bernos design. (Photo: Bernos.org).
Above:Another recent design named “Roots,” which has a more pan-African
appeal. (Photo: Bernos.org).
But Petros says he wants to branch out of that niche too.
“These t-shirts have mass appeal for all black people but also for white people,” Petros said.
With t-shirts that garner a broader following, Bernos hopes their line will eventually be carried by a national clothing chain like Urban Outfitters.
Above: Photo taken in 2004 when Henok left the Brooklyn
Chamber of Commerce. To the left and right of him, the
president and vice president of the chamber at the time
respectively.
By Liben Eabisa
New York (Tadias) – We recently received a press release from Addis Ababa by Precise Consult International (PCI), a business consulting group managed by Henok Assefa, a former Director of iBrooklyn, the flagship home site of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.
PCI organized (with financial support from The World Bank, USAID, and The Embassy of the Netherlands) the first annual Ethiopian Diaspora business conference, which took place in Addis Ababa on September 19, 2007 at the UNECA conference center.
In the press release sent to Tadias Magazine, the group announced that it has partnered with Access Capital Services, a local Ethiopian investment firm (founded by a former member of the New York Wall Street Ethiopian community), to offer attractive equity investment opportunities to the Ethiopian Diaspora.
We reached Henok Assefa, Managing Partner at PCI, at his office in Addis Ababa
Henok Assefa
Tadias: Henok, this is Tadias calling from New York, your hometown. Where in New York did you grow up and when did you move to Ethiopia?
Henok: How’s it going in Harlem, Tadias? How is the best city in North America treating you all these days?
You know I was always meant to be a New Yorker. Even in Addis, I grew up around Arada Giorigis (piazza) or more specifically Dejach Wube Sefer (Wube Bereha) which is like the New York of Ethiopia.
In New York, I spent most of my years in the Bronx and Manhattan. I did both my first and second degrees at Fordham University in the Bronx. I also spent a considerable amount of time working in Brooklyn. I have a special attachment to New York as it has given me so much and helped to create the person I am today. Everyone who knows me expects me to visit the city at least twice a year. I never seem to be able to stay away for too long. New York is in my blood.
By the way, I want to take this opportunity to say hello to all my friends and family in New York….and of course, big up to Brooklyn and the Boogie Down Bronx!
Tadias: We understand that you were quite an athlete while growing up in New York. Or are you still an athlete?
Henok: I did well enough in Athletics. In addition to teaching me so much about discipline and team work, Athletics scholarship actually got me through college and graduate schools. I ran Division I track and field and cross country for Fordham University where I finished off my career as captain of both teams. I no longer compete. However, I have hardly been out of shape for more than a month since 1992. Luckily, Addis Ababa now has some really high class gyms and I manage to stay in shape. It is a way of life for me.
Tadias: Your company organized the the first annual Ethiopian Diaspora business conference. How did that go?
Henok: It was phenomenal! The conference exceeded our expectations in many ways. We packed up the UN Conference Center and there took place a genuine and very sophisticated discussion. Ethiopians from virtually everywhere in the World were in the audience and they wanted to hear about doing business in Ethiopia from those that are already doing it on the ground. They were certainly not disappointed.
Our panelists, all of whom had enjoyed high levels of success in corporate America and Canada were there sharing their business experience in a land much less developed but offered many opportunities nevertheless. Between Ermyas Amelga, Tadiwos Belete, Yoseph Kibur, and Mohammed Umer, these guys were responsible for the direct creation of almost 2000 jobs. In addition, as outspoken leaders in their respective industries, the dynamism the four are bringing into the Ethiopian economy is incalculable. It was clear that the audience left seriously inspired and we felt that it was truly history in the making.
But we didn’t simply leave the audience inspired. We wanted to start planting some business ideas in them. In the afternoon, we had interesting presentations from the Ethiopian Investment Commission, the Privatization Agency, and USAID’s Agribusiness development program.
We have since committed ourselves to keeping the Ethiopian Diaspora well informed of business opportunities in Ethiopia that offer reasonably high returns while helping the country to grow.
Tadias: We hear that you have partnered with Access Capital to do even bigger things. Tell us about Access Capital and your new project with them.
Henok: As a development and business consultancy, we at PCI have great faith in the potential that exists within the global Diaspora community (we call it Greater Ethiopia) to help change Ethiopia for the better.
There are 1-2 million of us overseas and pretty much all of us are die hard well wishers for our country. After doing months of studies, we have concluded that there are about four very effective ways for the Diaspora to contribute economically to the country while making money at the same time. These are through remittances, direct investments, importing Ethiopian products, and by making equity investments in local companies. We are partnering with Access Capital precisely because it offers the latter mechanism.
Set up by a former member of the New York Wall Street Diaspora, Access Capital Services is a local finance advisory and investment firm which helps companies raise capital to take advantage of investment opportunities in different sectors of the Ethiopian economy. In essence, it is helping to build well capitalized and globally competitive Ethiopian businesses based on well crafted business plans. What is unique and pioneering about Access Capital is that the companies it advises raise their capital by selling shares to the public. Outside of the banking and insurance industries, this does not happen very much in Ethiopia.
Most businesses here are weak and under capitalized because they lack precisely the mechanism Access Capital offers to raise equity. On the other hand, there is something close to 50 billion birr in the vaults of local banks. The public is keeping all this money in the banks, earning only 4% return in an environment with up to 20% inflation.
They are doing this because there are few safe opportunities in which they can invest to earn positive returns. Access capital is now helping to offer alternatives to simply keeping money in the bank.
Our partnership with Access Capital is simply designed to extend these equity investment opportunities to the Ethiopian Diaspora. We feel that much higher rates of return are possible by investing in Ethiopia’s emerging market than in stocks, bonds, and savings accounts in the West that yield very low single digit returns. The few share companies in Ethiopia today, the banks, regularly bring in return on investment (ROI) of 50 to 60% annually. But the best part is the knowledge that your money is now creating jobs and helping to build your country. This is why we’ve set up the website www.DiasporaInvest.com to keep everyone overseas informed of such opportunities.
Tadias: What exactly is the “emerging” equity market in Ethiopia? Give us specific examples.
Henok: It is actually a little known fact that Ethiopia had one of the earliest stock markets in Africa during the time of the Emperor. At the time, well capitalized share companies were built in the agriculture and other sectors and performed very well. Unfortunately, that era ended with the advent of communism in the 1970s.
Starting in the mid 90s, we started to see share companies being built in the banking and insurance industries even though there existed no stock market. Companies like Awash Bank and Dashen Bank have been turning in attractive returns for their shareholders ever since.
With the advent of Access Capital, you are now starting to see non-bank share companies. It appears also that this is slowly becoming a trend. A recent presentation by Access Capital on the launch of Access Real Estate Share Company (under formation) attracted over 1000 prospective investors.
There are other examples as well. For example, I just read in the paper today that Ato Abinet Gebremeskel, a close confidant of Sheik Al Amoudi, bought a big chunk of shares in East Africa Bottling, the company that produces Coca Cola in Ethiopia.
Tadias: We recently attended the meeting of the Abyssinian Baptist Church delegation to Ethiopia here in Harlem. Tadias actually did a story on it. At the meeting, they were talking about sending another delegation to Ethiopia soon. And interestingly, this time around, the group will be made up of business people looking for investment opportunities. We also had a discussion with a gentleman, an executive at BET, who told us that he was already in process to buy a house in the Old Airport area and starting a flower farm business with Ethiopian partners. So the question is: Are you targeting only and specifically the Ethiopian Diaspora? Or are you looking at the bigger pie?
Henok: Yes, I have followed the story on Tadias.com and also read about the members of the Abyssinian Baptist Church here in Addis. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to meet with them. The African Union identifies African Americans as part of the greater African Diaspora. I think this is very appropriate. However, we are looking at things from an even bigger perspective.
You know what Ethiopia needs to develop economically is a dynamic productive sector that is well capitalized both financially as well as technologically. As a company, we have aligned our business objectives and services to help create and support such a productive sector.
In essence, we are also banking on the fact that Ethiopia will increasingly move in this direction thus creating more business opportunities for us. Therefore, even if our present immediate focus is specifically on the Ethiopian Diaspora, the services we are developing will serve anyone interested in doing business in or with Ethiopia. We are not only looking to attract and service our brothers and sisters in Harlem but also anyone looking to add value to the Ethiopian economy.
Tadias: What are the safeguards in place in terms of rules and regulations to assure safe investment and minimum red tape?
Henok: The Commercial Code of Ethiopia, produced during the time of the emperor, is a surprisingly well crafted piece of work that is still applicable today. It provides for the rules and regulations to oversee share companies. In addition, it is truly important that companies offering shares to the public have in place transparent and effective corporate governance structures.
Tadias: What is the minimum required to invest in these share companies?
Henok: It depends on the company that is offering shares. For example, the current offer by Access Capital is Access Real Estate Share Company. The minimum required investment is 25 shares or 25,000 birr payable in four installments over one year.
But it is also important to mention that there is maximum amount of shares one can buy which is 2000 shares. The idea is to make it hard for an individual or a group of people to control these share companies.
Tadias: How much money does the Ethiopian Diaspora send to family and friends in Ethiopia?
Henok: I have seen many different figures for this. However, the National Bank of Ethiopia figures suggest that the Diaspora annually sends in about USD $1 billion home. Of course, if you count in the money being transferred into the country unofficially, that is through people carrying cash and other informal means, the amount can be as high as USD $2 billion.
Tadias: Is it true that the Diaspora’s earning is much bigger than Ethiopia’s annual GDP?
Henok: Ethiopia’s GDP in 2006 was reported to be USD $13 billion. If you figure the low estimate that the 1-2 million Ethiopians overseas earn USD $10,000 a year per person, you are looking at an income of anywhere between USD $10 and $20 billion for the Diaspora as a whole. So in all likelihood, the Diaspora is probably earning even more than the home country is with its 80 million people.
Tadias: Do you know how much of that comes from the Ethiopian-American community?
Henok: We know that the Ethiopian-American community sends home significant amount of money. However, we don’t have that breakdown readily available. We hope to be making in-depth studies in the near future on the topic.
Tadias: Great chatting with you, Henok. Good luck.
Henok: Thank you! And keep up the good work at Tadias.
Interview with an Ethiopian American Obama volunteer
New York – We contacted a volunteer for Senator Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign and sent our questions via email. Here is our interview with Adey Fisseha, law student here in New York and Harlem resident.
Tadias: Adey, thank you for agreeing to do this interview. We understand that you attend law school here in New York. Please tell us a bit more about yourself.
Adey: Before going to law school, I worked in DC in a number of policy positions but had never participated in politics until the 2004 Presidential elections. I was so disillusioned by the results of the 2000 election that I volunteered to go to Florida and “get out the vote” in the week immediately before the election. It was another disappointing result.
Tadias:How did you get involved in the Obama campaign?
Adey: Like many, I first heard Senator Obama speak when he gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I was impressed by Senator Obama’s oratory skill and was moved by his message – that we have to redraw the political map by appealing to the many issues on which a large cross section of the population agree. I decided to get involved because his candidacy is drastically reshaping how Americans view and practice politics. His vision moves us away from politics rooted on false divisions based on race, gender, ethnicity, and region towards one based on shared goals.
Adey Fisseha
In his first book, “Dreams of My Father,” Senator Obama recounts his experiences organizing among the low-income residents of Chicago’s South side. It is the skills developed working among disenfranchised people – of seeing complicated issues from multiple vantage points, bringing people who were on opposite sides of the spectrum together that I think are critical for the next President. The next President will have the monumental task of re-establishing civil and Constitutional Rights dismantled during this administration. Who better for the task than Senator Obama who taught Constitutional law and practiced as a Civil Rights lawyer.
Tadias:What is your role as a campaign volunteer?
Adey: This is a grassroots campaign. Volunteers can create their own events or participate in events that have been organized by other volunteers. For instances, on Thursday a classmate and I created a post on the Obama website that we planned to stand outside of the Union Square subway and hold up signs and hand out materials. At least 10 other Obama supporters signed up through the website and joined us. On Friday, I joined a group of people who had decided to do a visibility event outside of the 145th street subway station.
Tadias:We also understand that you have been active trying to reach Ethiopian Americans. How are you doing that?
Adey: There is a massive outreach scheduled for this weekend in Harlem. As a part of that effort we have asked Ethiopians’ who support Obama to pass out literature at the two churches based in Harlem.
Tadias:A significant number of older Ethiopian Americans, at least those that we have talked to, say that they will vote for Hillary because Obama will not win the general election. How do you answer that?
Adey: In the general election, the Democratic candidate will not only need the support of the democratic base but will also need to attract the independent vote. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Senator Obama picked up a significant portion of the independent vote. Further, he has also shown the ability to appeal to republicans. These indicate that he would make a strong contender in a general election.
Tadias:There was a high profile Harlem endorsement recently that was widely covered by the media. Reverend Calvin Butts, head of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, who led a 150 member delegation to Ethiopia this fall, has endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. How serious a blow is that to your efforts?
Adey: I believe that Senator Obama has strong support among the residents of Harlem.
Tadias:The media is split on the question of whether Harlem is for Hillary or Obama. But a recent article by the New American Media had a headline that declared “Obama Has Harlem Locked.” Is Harlem really Obama country?
Adey: I believe that Senator Obama has strong support among the residents of Harlem.
Tadias:How can people get involved?
Adey: There are a number of ways that people can help. One: Vote. New York’s primary is on Tuesday, February 5th. Polling stations are open from 6 a.m. – 9 p.m. You must be a registered Democrat to vote in the Democratic primary in New York. Every vote counts — the New York primary is not winner-takes-all. Delegates are awarded proportionally so it is critical that everyone go out and vote. If you are registered, you can vote now at the Board of Elections’ Borough Offices. The Manhattan office is located 200 Varick St., 10 Fl. Borough Offices are open this weekend and on Monday 9:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m. and on Election Day until 9 p.m.
Two: Recruit. Talk to at least five additional people about why you support Senator Obama. Call and remind those people to vote on Tuesday.
Three: Contribute. 22 states are voting on Tuesday and buying ads, airtime, posters etc costs a tremendous amount of money. The race for the Democratic nominee is unlikely to be a decided on Tuesday as the race continues the campaign will require funds to continue to get its message out to voters. The purchase of T-shirts, sweatshirts and other items from the Obama Campaign website is also another way to donate to the campaign. To contribute go to the Obama website. To purchase T-shirts etc go to the Obama online store.
Four: Volunteer. Even if you only have an hour there are plenty of volunteer opportunities. The website lists volunteer opportunities throughout the country. New York residents can find volunteer opportunities at http://newyork.barackobama.com. Residents of other states should go to the main website www.barackobama.com and click on state.
In 2004, during a cover interview with Tadias Magazine, while discussing the pros and cons of being an indie filmmaker, Wondwossen had described his personal experience by providing a hefty list of pros.
“The freedom of artistic expression, the ability to take risks on new ideas that would otherwise be deemed ‘un-sellable,’ the pleasure of working with other equally passionate people,” he told Tseday Alehegn, Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine.
“Magic happens when the group has a common goal and understands that it could not get any worse but rather better.”
Fast forward three years later, and the distribution deal for Journey to Lasta just got sweeter.
Tadias: Wondwossen, thank you for taking your time to speak with us. It’s good to hear from you again.
Wondwossen: It’s good to be back with Tadias. I miss getting my hard copies
Tadias: Tell us about the deal with Vanguard Cinema.
Wondwossen: We were approached by Vanguard about half a year ago after an executive saw a screener copy of the film and got in touch with us to get the film a distribution deal in the US and international video / DVD and TV market. I was very excited and pleased with the proposal since they have a great reputation in the industry for distributing independent and foreign films that include titles by cinema giants such as Andre Wajda, Jacques Rivette and Michealangelo Antonioni to name a few. Their library is very unique, and the interest and passion they showed about the film gave us enough incentive to get the deal done. We are also very proud that an Ethiopian film has received a major distribution deal from a powerhouse such as Vanguard, and that the film will find an international audience that it would not have been able to reach otherwise.
Tadias: Just so you know, we just requested a rental from Netflix
Wondwossen: Thank you. Make sure to rate, and write a review on it , and add me to your friend’s list. Me and Writer / Director Yemane Demisse send each other recommendations, so we would love it if you join the madness. I am also curious to see what the Tadias rental queue looks like:)
Tadias: How do you think your partnership with Vanguard Cinema will impact the future of the budding Ethiopian and Ethiopian-Diaspora film industry?
Wondwossen: I think it will bring us one-step closer to having our stories being able to reach audiences of all kinds, despite the geographical and other cultural barriers. I don’t think distribution will be an issue for our artists and our industry, if we made films and told stories that really matter. The market has been saturated with so much “fast-tracked” products for a quick buck. That attitude needs to change, and change very quickly.
Tadias: How do you define success as a filmmaker?
Wondwossen: These days, just waking up and being able to do what you love to do is a success, and i have been blessed as far as that is concerned. Obviously, having our work out there so that it can be seen is a pivotal part of the process in our profession, but i am also looking forward to working on the next thing, and the next, and the next.
Tadas: What are you working on these days?
Wondwossen: I have been working as a producer for a few Network shows on Television and getting experience in that world, which is a different beast all together. I have also been writing my next film, and seeing it come alive has been very exciting. I do not like to be comfortable, and always try pushing myself and my own creative limits. What you will be seeing from us in the next few years will be a series of assaults on the senses, and i mean that in the best sense of the term. And I will share that when the time is right.
Tadias: Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Wondwossen: I would like to thank everyone who has supported “Journey To Lasta” for getting us here. For those who have not seen it yet, the film will be out Nov. 20th.
If you have any interest in film-making, writing, or would like to send your questions and comments, feel free to e-mail me @ wdikran@yahoo.com. I always make time to connect with audience from all over the world.
BTW, What Director Yemane Demisse has been cooking up in the kitchen is going to blow everybody’s minds away. I was very lucky to see many scenes from his upcoming film, and it looks fantastic. Look out for it.
Tadias: Great chatting with you, as always. Good luck.
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