Growth In Addis Ababa Paints The Urban Poor Into A Desperate Corner

By Jacey Fortin, November 01 2013 (International Business Times)

Traffic flows down a main street in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, where the city government aims to clear 200 hectares of slums and informally inhabited areas each year in order to make way for new construction.  Reuters/Thomas Mukoya

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — For urban areas across the African continent, rapid development has become a double-edged sword.

As economies grow — the IMF projected this week that sub-Saharan Africa’s economic output will expand by five percent this year and six percent in 2014 — urban areas are developing at a breakneck pace. That means plenty of new construction, which creates employment opportunities and raises standards of living. But to make room for luxury hotels, sparkling shopping centers and towering residential centers in already-crowded urban areas, something has to give. And despite governmental efforts to make development work for everyone, the urban poor are increasingly paying the highest price for economic expansion.

Ethiopian opposition alleges killings, abuse

(Globalpost/GlobalPost)

A leading Ethiopian opposition party said in a report Thursday that scores of its members and supporters had been killed, abused or jailed over the past two years.

“The report has information on human rights violations on members of UDJ, on supporters and other political party members and leaders… in different parts of Ethiopia,” said Unity for Democratic Justice (UDJ) leader Negasso Gidada.

Negasso said seven party supporters had been killed in southern Ethiopia and around 150 supporters had faced intimidation, arrest without charge, abuse, abduction and confiscation of property by police and security forces across Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian government said it had not seen a copy of the report, but accused the party of routinely coming up with “concoctions and spurious accusations”, Information Minister Redwan Hussein told AFP.

Ethiopia: When an Economy Goes Wrong – Addis Fortune

ANALYSIS

BY GIRMA FEYISSA, 27 OCTOBER 2013 - The change in the rate of economic growth from one year to the next is approximated by the aggregate values of goods and services adjusted in their current prices. These figures are often understood to be figures representing the annual economic growth of a country.

But this expression of growth is a misnomer to many people who may be taking growth to mean the reduction in the cost of living. One can not blame such folks because they are not aware of what this economic growth concept really means when it translate into what or how much of goods and services they could buy with the money in their pockets.

International Commission of Jurists (ICJ): Ethiopian Leaders to Face a Trial for Genocide

By Betre Yacob

Ogaden2 – The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) reported to have begun to work to bring Ethiopian authorities to justice for having committed a genocide in the Ogaden region. The International Commission of Jurists is a known international human rights organization composed of jurists (including senior judges, attorneys, and lawyers). The commission is known for its dedication to ensuring respect for international human rights standards through the law.

The report came right after different Swedish TV channels showed a movie smuggled out from Ogaden by an Ethiopian refugee, who had been a government official in the region. The 100 hours long movie is said to have many evidences of genocide committed by the Ethiopian government in the region.

Speaking to journalists, Stellan Diaphragm, the commissioner of the Commission, said that he would do everything necessary to bring the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Ethiopia’s jailed journalists seek international support

(thehindu.com) “You may be really surprised by our nonsensical imprisonment,” Reeyot Alemu wrote in a letter recently smuggled out of a prison in Addis Ababa, “The international community should be aware of the objective reality that we are burdened to live a life which is inexplicable to contemplate, let alone easily engage with.”

In 2011, Ms. Reeyot, a schoolteacher, columnist and political activist, was convicted of conspiring to commit terrorist acts across Ethiopia and sentenced to 14 years in prison; her sentence was subsequently reduced to five years. At present she and at least six other journalists remain imprisoned, while at least 49 journalists have fled the country as a consequence of government intimidation according to the Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ).

Ms. Reeyot was awarded the UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in 2013 and the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism award last year, Woubshet Taye, sentenced to 14 years, was recently awarded the CNN Free Press Africa award this year, while Eskinder Nega, sentenced to 18 years on terror charges was awarded a PEN America press freedom award in 2012.

Who’s Having “Nightmares” in Africa? By Prof. Al Mariam

Great African leaders have dreams. The rest have nightmares.

Recently, African leaders, at least those at the helm of the African Union and their flunkies, have been reporting endlessly recurring ghastly nightmares of Lady Justice “race hunting” them with scales in one hand and a sword in the other. President Uhuru Kenyatta, described by Time Magazine as “Kenya’s richest man”, 

last week vividly described  his sleepless nights interrupted by nightmarish naps to his brethren at the African Union:

I do not need to tell your Excellencies about the nightmare my country in particular, and myself and my Deputy as individuals, have had to endure in making this realisation. Western powers are the key drivers of the ICC process. They have used prosecutions as ruses