What a difference a year can make!

Few observers who saw marathon runner Tsegaye Kebede enter the 2007 Abebe Bikila International Marathon in July last year as an unknown but emerge victorious in a new course record time would have thought that he would be carrying Ethiopia’s hopes for medals at the 29th Beijing Olympics.

But after a 2:06.40 performance en route to victory in the 2008 Paris International Marathon and several solid half marathon and 10km performances throughout the year, the 22-year old is now being touted as a genuine hope for medals in Beijing.

“I never thought that I could make the Olympic team this year,” he says. “I have always known that I am talented, but I did not expect to do well.”

Short career, outstanding success

Kebede’s rise to the top level has shocked the athletics community in Ethiopia. After all, he has only been training seriously for less than two years and competed internationally for less than a year.

Yet he currently has the second best progression for Ethiopian marathon runner in a single year which includes 2:15.34 (2007 Abebe Bikila Marathon), 2:08.16 (Rotterdam Marathon), and then 2:06.39 (Paris). He also has two sub 60-minute performances (59.00 at Ras Al Khamiah and 59.88 at the Zayed Half Marathon) over the half marathon and two 10km victories during this period.

“I am exceeding my own expectations,” he says. “I do not think training is the only reason for my improvement. But I have big confidence in myself and my abilities.”

Desperate upbringing

Kebede has earned over USD 100,000 in prize money this year thanks to his focus on major city marathons and other lucrative road races. He lives a life on relative luxury, a far cry from the days where he says “I had nothing”.

“I know that many athletes say that they started from nothing, but to be honest, I do not think many of them were as poor as I was a few years ago,” says Kebede, who was the fifth child in a large family of thirteen children.

Life was a struggle for Kebede and his family who survived on the earnings of his father’s traditional carpeting work. Because the earnings were not enough to support the family, Kebede collected firewood near his town Gerar Ber, 42kms north of Addis Ababa, for sale in markets. Earnings from this work put him well under the WHO’s poverty barrier of 1USD per day.

“I made about ETB 2.50 (USD 0.30) a day,” he says. “I would buy bread and some tea and would have only one meal a day. After that, I had nothing left in my pocket. I had to wake up the following morning to go back to work in order to survive. If I didn’t, there would be no food.”

In order to survive, Kebede also got a side job as a herder in order to pay for his school and the rest of the family. It was in school that he started showing an interest in sport, but only started running in 1995 after watching kids from the neighbourhood training.

“I was not really serious about becoming an athlete,” he said. “I just run to stay fit and pass time.”

He took part in his first real race the following year finishing 20th in a regional cross country race only to incur the wrath of his angry father who thought his son was wasting his time.

“I never complained about our life and even ate whatever I get,” he recalls. “I did not even told my father that I had started training, but he found out somehow and was upset that I was wasting time.”

Bright beginning

Despite the disapproval of his father, Kebede continued his training part-time and got his lucky break in the most unlikely of circumstances.

“In September 2006, I took part in a half marathon organized on the occasion of the world tourism day in Addis Ababa,” he recalls. “I only finished 21st in the race, but what happened at the end of the race changed my life.”

Although Kebede endured a forgettable time in the race, he caught the attention of Getaneh Tessema, marathon coach and agent. Tessema asked Kebede to come for a trial race with his training group in a few days. He shocked Tessema by finishing second in a 10km time trial only losing out to Deriba Merga, who would go on to win the Great Ethiopian Run 10km less than six weeks later.

Unlikely circumstances open door to international debut

Kebede progressed well enough under Tessema’s tutelage to convince his coach that he was ready to make his international debut. But a week before he was scheduled to race in Holland, he was denied a visa support letter by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) because he belonged to a pilot project not an established athletics club.

“I was upset but there was no choice,” he recalls. “Because I could not go, my coach put me in the Abebe Bikila Marathon.”

However, Kebede’s troubles were by no means over.

A week before race date, Kebede and team mates travelled to Entoto, a popular training venue for Ethiopian runners on the outskirts of Addis Ababa. On their way back, they ‘nearly died’.

“We took a bus on our way down and the driver could not control the brakes,” he painfully recalls. “He did not say a word to us because he was afraid we might panic in fear. He tried to control the car, but when he came up against a steep curve, it was over for us. The bus skidded off the main road and into the forests. We all screamed for help, but we were all crushed.”

While others sustained heavy injuries, Kebede was lucky to escape with just a small leg wound. Many of his team mates were ruled out of the marathon the following weekend, but Kebede got the all-clear to compete.

“I do not wish something like this to anyone,” he says. “All the time I was praying ‘God, I came to Addis to change the life of my family. Are you going to end my life here? Please save my life.’ My prayers were answered. I thought I would die for those few minutes, but I think I was given another life.”

Securing Olympic berth

Kebede did not waste his ‘new life’. He easily won the marathon prompting the EAF to give him the all clear to race overseas. He ran two successive 10km races, but his lucky break when he was entered in the Rotterdam Marathon.

“I was excited about running a full marathon outside Ethiopia,” he recalls of his experience. “In fact, I was so excited about being part of the leading group that I forgot to even look at the kilometre marks during the race.”

“When the top runners just took off at 35km, I felt that it was too early and just held back to conserve my energy. I knew something was wrong when I saw the stadium from a near distance. But at the finish, I was shocked to see 2:08 on the clock. I knew that no one apart from Haile [Gebrselassie] had run 2:08 in Ethiopia that year. I was so happy.”

Confirming rise

With many more autumn and spring marathons coming up, Kebede knew that his 2:08.16 might not be enough for a place in the Ethiopian Olympic team.

“Many people did not know me in Ethiopia because I had not run for my country,” he said. “Even after the 2:08, only some coaches and people in athletics knew about me.”

He sealed his place in Ethiopia’s Olympic team in Paris propelling him from fourth to second place in the 2008 Ethiopian lists. Because Deriba Merga run two seconds faster in London the following week, Kebede dropped down a place to third during the Olympic qualification but returned back to second following Gebrselassie’s decision to skip the marathon in Beijing.

“I am living in a dream,” he says. “This is so big and so important for me. I did not obsess about it all my life, although I wanted to run for my country in the Olympics. I am just surprised that it has come early.”

Hopes for Beijing: Nothing but gold

Given his lack of experience in championship-styled marathon racing, one would expect Kebede to be cautious about his chances in Beijing.

But the youngster does not hold anything back when saying he is going for gold. “I am not experienced and it will be my first time running under our national colours,” he says. “But I am confident about my chances. I will be going for gold.”

Kebede’s marathon ambitions do not end there. “I have two big ambitions,” he says. “Apart from Haile, Ethiopia has not had many big marathon runners. I want to become a better marathon runner than I already am.”

How about popularity and the love his people?

“Every time I train at the Addis Ababa stadium, I look at the images of our Olympic champions on Olympic rings. There is a question mark [or a space open for future Olympic champions]. I want my photo instead of the question mark.”

Elshadai Negash for the IAAF

AFP — As Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup finals for the first time in South Africa, not very much is there for a continent where managers and players share an equal dose of problems.

With the rest of Africa making progress, football in East and Central Africa faces threats to its very survival.

A combination of corruption, fan apathy and government disinterest has weighed down the once thriving enterprise, leaving it at the mercies of feuding coaches and managers.

Save for Sudan, which has bounced back over the last year after making it into the semi-finals of two recent African tournaments, others are languishing under a welter of woes.

“Ethiopian football is getting worse by the year,” said sports journalist Hussein Abdulkeni after attending a top league match between champions St Georges and Adama City that attracted only a handful of fans in the capital.

Ethiopia has seen a big drop in attendance figures with only 8,000 fans attending matches in the 35,000-seater national stadium.

One main factor to blame is the growing popularity of foreign leagues relayed live by satellite feeds.

The clamour for the English, French, Italian and Spanish leagues has throttled interest in local football and is likely to slay the popular game.

According to official figures, the majority of matches played during this current season attracted only a few hundred spectators.

Football analysts here blame low fan numbers on lack of competition that stems from poorly-arranged fixtures.

In Kenya, matches are played in front of near-empty stadia, sometimes only match officials, including referees, are the only ones to watch.

Over the past years, feuding Kenya Football Federation officials have exchanged fisticuffs in public amid unending court cases.

Many factors, mainly being financial hardship in many African countries, where almost half of the population live on a less than a dollar a day, have helped bury the sport.

In Kenya and Ethiopia, where private investment in sport is almost non-existent, self-reliant community-based clubs have always struggled to stay afloat, let alone compete in local fixtures.

In the last five years, Kenya has seen nearly ten community-based clubs fold due to lack of money to for players salaries.

Lack of consistency in African football is also to blame for falling African standards. “Look at Burundi, they won the East and Central Africa junior and senior titles but where are they now,” Oyugi lamented.

Oyugi, who coached former African cup winners cup champions Gor Mahia in the 1990s, explicitly blames the Cairo-based African Football Confederation (CAF) for the present woes.

He said the 50-year-old continental governing body has ignored the region when it hands out its development incentives to its affiliates, saying the Cairo-based body has the tendency of favouring only West and North Africa teams.

“It is time Africa was split into two for the sake of development, with South Africa in charge of the eastern and southern African region and Egypt in charge of northern and western Africa,” said Oyugi.

Nonsense, protested Nicholas Musonye, the general secretary of the Association of East and Central African Football Associations (CECAFA).

“It is not the responsibility of CAF or CECAFA to administer the running of the national federations,” he said.

Musonye said it was only in Rwanda and Tanzania where football was growing because of political backing from Presidents Paul Kagame and Jakaya Kikwete who have helped to hire foreign coaches and funded the national team.

“That is a motivation that makes players feel honoured and proud playing for their country. Football is a powerful weapon to rally the masses and generate national spirit,” he added.

Efforts to regionalise football in Mauritius have not succeeded after years of playing the game on ethnic lines.

The introduction of a regional competition, which started in 2000 after football was suspended following violent street scenes which marred a league, are yet to take root.

Football watchers conceded that unless a remedy is found, much of the African continent is in danger of being left out, once again.

Where: University of Minnesota Mayo Memorial Auditorium
425 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

When: Thursday, July 31, 2008 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Contact: Oromo American Citizens Council
651-917-0430 (w) or 612-275-0970 (m)
or oacc@oromoamerican.org

Distinguished panel members include

Bulcha Demeksa, Member of Ethiopian Parliament and Chairman of Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement (OFDM)

Asfaw Beyene, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, San Diego State University

Alemayehu G. Mariam, Professor, Department of Political Science, California State University-San Bernardino

Guled Kassim, Institute for Global Civic Empowerment

Obang Metho, Director of International Advocacy, Anuak Justice Council

August Nimtz, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota

Special Invitation to Media:

All media are invited to attend the conference; a separate press section will be provided. Any advance publicity, calendar or event listings, and media coverage is welcome. The OACC would be happy to arrange interviews with the conference speakers.

For additional information please contact the OACC or visit the OACC website: http://www.oromoamerican.org/whatsnew.html.

Former US president William Jefferson Clinton on Tuesday announced an upcoming trip to Africa and Mexico to promote new programs by his Clinton Foundation to fight AIDS and malaria.

“This year, I am excited to take our work to the next level with new projects that will make a tremendous difference in turning the tide of the HIV/AIDS, improve lives, and help people work toward a brighter future,” Clinton said in New York.

He said his trip will begin next Tuesday with visits to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal, where he will meet with local officials and Clinton Foundation staff and members.

On his way back to the United States, Clinton said he would stop in Mexico to attend the August 3-8 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

The Clinton Foundation in 2002 launched an anti-AIDS initiative and this month has reached an agreement with several pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of the top anti-malaria treatment by 30 percent.

Capital

President Bill Clinton also visited Ethiopia on July 2006, where he met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and launched a new health programme to help children suffering from AIDS.

Clinton had said during his last visit that his Foundation would further enhance its support to health development programmes in Ethiopia in the years ahead, while Meles assured Clinton that the government would do everything possible to help the Foundation realise its goals.

The two also visited ALERT (All African Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Centre) Hospital, which provides healthcare services to children and AIDS orphans, and where Clinton laid a corner stone of the new Children Treatment Centre, which is being built with the assistance of the Foundation.

According to media in the United States, the news of Clinton’s trip comes at a fairly innocuous time in the election cycle. While both campaigns have waged an aggressive political war, the real drama (when Clinton’s help may be most needed) will come as November approaches.

The former president also announced that his foundation had signed pricing agreements with suppliers working on malaria-fighting drug in an effort to stabilize the cost of that medication.

Now a member of the Ethiopian team for the Beijing Games intends to fight his way onto the podium, against overwhelming odds.

Molla Getachew is Ethiopia’s only Olympic boxer, an anomaly in a country known for its superstar distance runners. His opponents are the last in a long line of problems standing between him and a gold, including a lack of equipment, no professionals to train against and a disapproving mother.

But when the Beijing Games open in August, he will represent Ethiopia in the 112-lb. flyweight division, a weight class dominated by well-equipped fighters from Mexico, Thailand and Japan.

“I feel sad because I’m the only boxer representing my country at the Olympics,” said the 22-year-old, who spends four hours a day training at an airless, grimy gym in the Ethiopian capital.

Boxing is popular elsewhere in Africa - neighboring Kenya is full of boxing clubs and boasts several champions - but Ethiopia’s poverty makes the sport’s equipment inaccessible to many.

Professional fights are nonexistent, so boxers have to leave the country to make a living from the sport. In a country of 77 million people, there are only 300 amateur boxers at the country’s four boxing clubs, yet even that small number strains the available resources.

“The boxers are good,” said Fasil Keita, who heads the Ethiopian Boxing Federation. “The problem is money. The federation doesn’t have money.”

Molla’s intense morning workout is an exercise in resourcefulness. He bobs and weaves between five lumpy heavy bags that hang from the ceiling, peppering them with punches. His trainer, Salamon Zinna, takes him through speed and footwork exercises, as there are no bags designed for speed or coordination, no medicine ball, and only one jump rope between Molla and his partner.

There is no boxing clock to ring the bell between 3-minute rounds, so Salamon keeps time with an old wristwatch. The dilapidated ring, the only regulation ring in the country, is so warped and uneven that fancy footwork would be foolhardy. Instead, Molla and his partner spar on the hard gym floor.

Molla does not even own a pair of gloves, or ankle-supporting boxing shoes. He fights in sneakers and borrows training gloves from the gym’s meager supply closet.

Even Molla’s track record is modest. With just six fights under his belt he is 4-2, with no knockouts. He’s woefully unprepared to meet better-funded, better-trained fighters.

But what he lacks in equipment and experience, he makes up for with sheer determination.

The right-handed fighter throws textbook-perfect punches with lightning speed, never seeming to tire as he jabs at his opponent, ducking before throwing a jaw-crushing uppercut. During breaks, he paces, not stopping to drink water.

“He’s good, strong,” Fasil said. “But he lacks experience. He went with me to Egypt, to Algeria. He lost in the first round. But he keeps fighting on. He has courage. He has fire.”

Molla said he was inspired by his neighbors to pick up boxing six years ago. Molla’s mother, he said, was always wary of the sport, even after he beat five other boxers to qualify for the Olympic team.

“My mom doesn’t know anything about boxing,” he said. “She thinks it’s violent and doesn’t want me to continue with this career. She doesn’t know anything about the Olympics. She only accepts it because she knows it’s a source of income.”

He earns about $70 a month from the boxing federation, which he gives to his mother for the care of his four younger siblings. In the unlikely event he wins a gold medal at the Olympics he hopes to pass on any rewards to his mother.

Aside from a medal, the normally quiet fighter has just one other wish.

“My father used to give me a lot of moral support, but he passed away,” he said. “I wish he could see the level I am at now.”

Ethiopians in need of emergency food aid have had their rations cut by a third because of food shortages.

The number of people in need of help has almost doubled because of a drought earlier this year. The government relief agency increased its estimate of those requiring urgent assistance to more than 4.5 million.

The local head of the United Nations’ World Food Programme said each person would get 10kg this month, down from 15kg previously. By early June it was clear that Ethiopia was in the grip of a severe food crisis. (…Continue Reading)

Irish Times - The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) is to make an official complaint to the Garda Síochána today about the publication of what it considers to be a racially offensive article that appeared in the Irish Independent last week.

The ICI said it believed the publication of the article, “ Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS ”, which was written by columnist Kevin Myers and published last Thursday, breached Section 2 of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.

Section 2 of the Act says it is an offence to publish or distribute written material if it is threatening, abusive or insulting and intended to, or having regarding to all of the circumstances, is likely to, stir up hatred.

In the article, Mr Myers questioned whether it was moral to save an Ethiopian child from starvation, given that it could grow up to face poverty, hunger, violence and possible sexual abuse.

He also described Africa as “almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.”

The ICI said it also intends to lodge an official complaint about the article with the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.

“We believe the published article does not just overstep the boundary of common decency – it triple jumps right past that – but it also crosses the legal boundaries,” said the council’s chief executive, Denise Charlton.

“The issue at stake here has nothing to do with freedom of speech or expression. It is about respect for, and the upholding of, Ireland’s laws.

“Journalism, like any other profession, operates within the framework of the rule of law in Ireland,” added Ms Charlton.

Read Kevin Meyers’ hate article
“Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS”

Professor Mesfin Woldemariam is an Ethiopian peace activist and founding member of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO). Professor Mesfin Woldemariam has won numerous awards for his struggle for equality and justice; in 2006, he was nominated for the Sakharov Prize, European Union’s highest prize for human rights defenders.

On Wednesday, July 9, 2008, UDJ submitted 358 pages supporting documents alongside the accreditation request letter signed by Chair Birtukan Medeksa.

The support documents include founding members’ signature which amounts to close to 5000 and party bylaws. UDJ’s program, which is among submitted documents, explains that amendments in the nation’s constitution are due in order to realize the goals stated. UDJ’s Chair Birtukan had explained that such moves will only come in accordance with the constitution itself.

Similar to most Ethiopian opposition groups, UDJ too says it follows individual rights led, constitutional based democratic ideals. It also says that it reserves some room for philosophies that may result from social democracy and consensuses if it finds it to be in the best interests of the nation.

In UDJ bylaws, similar to that of the former CUDP, major responsibilities are in the hands of the National Council [Supreme Council in case of CUDP] which has 60 permanent and fifteen alternate members. This council can fire top party officials including chair and the four vice chairs with two third votes when it finds it appropriate. The executive committee which includes the chair, vice chairs, and secretary has a total of eighteen members.

The top job that went to Birtukan doesn’t empower much authority over party dictat, which is according to UDJ’s first press conference a few weeks ago, in accordance with the collective leadership the party would like to introduce.

Among vital wining areas the divided former CUDP parts are fighting over, UDJ claims a strong hold in the support chapters established by diaspora Ethiopians. The last step for UDJ before it can position itself in Ethiopian politics is accreditation from NEBE.

In the last few months UDJ and NEBE engaged in discussions which weren’t very smooth. UDJ had sought support letters from NEBE to collect the signatures it needed while NEBE saw no legal grounds to respond to the request. When police reportedly aborted the scheduled June 14, 2008 founding congress, UDJ was again seeking NEBE for a rescue but top NEBE officials were reported stating that pre party formation assistance doesn’t fall under their jurisdiction. Finally, UDJ held its founding congress and elected leaders on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 and last week, submitted an accreditation request to NEBE.

“OiLibya has formally entered the Ethiopian market, after signing an agreement on July 10, 2008, to acquire 100 percent of Shell’s Ethiopia and Djibouti petroleum retail business,” Shell Ethiopia official Bahru Temesgen told Reuters.

He declined to reveal the amount of money OiLibya, owned by Libyan holding company Libyan African Portfolio (LAP) Greenco, paid. OiLibya has bought other retail petroleum dealers in Africa, including taking over ExxonMobil’s (XOM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)’s business in Kenya.

Bahru said the sale was consistent with Shell’s global strategy to focus on oil exploration and get out of retail business.

Shell’s operation in Ethiopia started in 1929 and had built 200 retail service stations across Ethiopia and was covering about 30 percent of Ethiopia’s petroleum needs, Bahru said.

Bahru said the agreement between Shell Ethiopian and Djibouti and OiLibya also included retaining all Shell employees.

Two local petroleum distributing companies, the National Oil Company and Yetebaberut Beherawi Petroleum (YBP) plus Kenya’s Kobil and Nile Petroleum are in the Ethiopian market.