The Anti-Yara Award Committee in Norway needs the help of concerned Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia around the world in gathering information about Yara International and its anti-Ethiopia decision to give award to the chief tormentor of the Ethiopian people, Meles Zenawi. Please post here any information you may have. To directly participate in the effort, please contact the head of the committee, Ato Ghidey Zeratsion, at: ghzer@online.no

Yara - Executive Committee:

Consider the legitimacy you are bestowing on an illegitimate regime of Meles disregarding the glaring truth and the reality in Ethiopia.

How can you ethically and morally justify your decision to award Meles and his failure in Ethiopia?

The present condition which emanated from the past fourteen years of Meles' failure should speak volumes against your misguided decision to honor Meles Zenawi.

Do the right thing by the Ethiopian people and spare the people of such blatant affront to the Ethiopian people who are languishing in abject poverty and misery.

Beheg

Award to PM is outrageous
By Makeda Tsegaye
July 28, 2005

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My first reaction to the news that the Ethiopian Prime Minister was selected to receive an award for ‘his contribution to improved food security and nutrition’ was utter disbelief and indignation. In fact, I did not even want to ponder the issue let alone write about it. However, I could not ignore the urge in my conscious that such news, if left unchallenged, could bewilder those who genuinely seek the truth. This concern is particularly evident in light of the involvement of ostensibly high-profile individuals in the selection panel, including Dr. Pedro Sanchez (Director of Tropical Agriculture at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York and co-chair of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force), Dr. Marco Quinones (Regional Director of Africa, Sasakawa Global 2000, Ethiopia) and, of course, the presenter of the so-called Yara Prize, Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

Although my intention is far from lecturing, I still find it appropriate to commence my discussion of food security by highlighting some of its principal concepts. Food security is defined as “access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life” (World Bank, 1986). Underlying this definition is that the primary concern of food security is the individual or household. The definition also demonstrates that food security comprises production, economic access and nutritious food for active and healthy life. Conversely, Food insecurity occurs when people do not have physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for a productive and healthy life at all times (Ibid).

The foregoing definitions underscore two important aspects of food security. First, the correlation between increased production and food security is not necessarily linear. In other words, unless households have economic access or purchasing power to buy food, they cannot be food secure even in the face of increased production at national level. Second, unless households are able to consume sufficient food to meet their dietary needs, they cannot have productive and healthy life. Actually, the standard per capita calorie for an adequate diet is 2400 calories a day and the international minimum standard for survival is 2100 calories. Hence, low caloric intake or malnutrition is often used as an indicator of food insecurity. It is instructive to note that malnutrition is one of the leading causes of maternal and infant mortality in sub-Saharan Africa and undermines labor productivity.

In spite of all the potentials to attain food security, Ethiopia currently stands as one of the most food insecure countries in the world. Even by sub-Saharan Africa standard, the level of food insecurity in Ethiopia is unacceptably high. For instance, the 2000 Human Development Report states that in 1997, daily caloric intake in Ethiopia was 1,858, compared to an average of 2,237 across sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, over the last ten years, more and more people have become food insecure and dependent on food aid. For example, in 1994/95 the number of people requiring food assistance was estimated to be 4 million, in 1999/00 this number hiked to 10 million, in 2002/03 it reached over 14 million (UN/OCHA 1995-2003). Over the last fourteen years, the country has received a total of 9.5 million MT of food assistance, or an average of 677,500 MT per year. Moreover, over 5 million is totally dependent on food aid every year irrespective of whether there is good rain or not (ESNP May 2004). Even during the so called ‘bumper harvest’ year of 1996/97, there was ‘emergency appeal’ for five million people, who are now referred to as the ‘chronically food insecure.’ Of course, this figure excludes households that are considered ‘better off’ – those who may own a cow, a sheep, a goat or a pair of oxen, but endure similar economic hardships including lack of purchasing power. Over all, an estimated 52 percent of Ethiopia’s population is food insecure.

Currently, over 12 million Ethiopians are estimated to be ‘drought-affected’, including 5.4 million ‘chronically food insecure’. However, this number represents only those qualifying for ‘emergency assistance’.

Moreover, over half of the children aged five and under in Ethiopia are malnourished with 47 percent of them are underweight and 52 percent stunted (UNDP/HDR, 2003). These figures represent the highest malnutrition rates in the world. On the other hand, reports from the bi-annual crop production and food aid needs assessments reveal that charcoal burning is the most popular copping mechanism for millions of food-insecure and desperate rural population. As a result, an estimated 1.5 - 2 billion tons of topsoil is washed away from Ethiopia every year, seriously undermining productivity while making desertification an apparent threat.

Contrary to the unfounded claims of Yara Foundation, the foregoing facts demonstrate that food security in Ethiopia deteriorated significantly over the last ten years. The level of malnutrition is unheard of anywhere else. Notwithstanding the common belief, food security in Ethiopia is not always prompted by low level of production. In fact, the overall lack of appropriate market strategy in the country is making farmers in surplus producing areas all the more vulnerable, as they are forced to sell their produce at a throw-away price. For instance, the widely-referenced ‘agricultural bounty’ of 1996/1997 did not prevent million of Ethiopians from being food insecure. During this period, farmers had to sell a 100kg of maize for a little over a dollar, unable to recover even their production costs, including huge fertilizer loans. Yet, over five million people were still in need of food aid.

Simply put, the government failed to make coherent and meaningful efforts to ensure food security in the country. Even the multi-year food security program, which targets the 5.4 million chronically food insecure is, in fact, a donor-driven program whose impact is yet to be evaluated. On the contrary, a massive ‘resettlement campaign’ carried out by the government in 2003 turned out to be a complete disaster. Despite strong criticisms from local and foreign experts, the government latched onto the resettlement scheme without adequate preparation and planning going into it. In this campaign, hundreds of thousands of desperate farmers, lured by illusory promises of better school and roads at their ‘new homes’, joined the scheme only to find themselves in areas infested with malaria and other unfamiliar diseases devoid of basic facilities and infrastructure. Regrettably, some died, as they were totally unprepared for the harsh environment. Ironically, among those who survived, many continued to receive food aid in their new settlements.

Clearly, food insecurity in Ethiopia is a major battle, but it cannot be won without bringing a radical change to the country’s development strategy. Among other things, it is imperative to have a strategy that ensures synergy between rural and urban development to create income and livelihood diversification while generating real economic growth. Needless to say, the complexity of the problem necessitates competent, committed and visionary leadership that is capable of harnessing existing human and capital resources in order to create wealth and equitable distribution of income among hard working citizens. As a matter of fact, it is this realization that inspired millions of Ethiopians to participate in the elections of May 15 and still demand justice for their stolen votes. The last thing Ethiopians can tolerate at this stage is anyone rewarding those criminals who have inflicted massive sufferings and humiliations upon them.

I am curious to know what kind of food security criteria Yara Foundation and the selection panel applied to award ‘the first African Green Revolution Yara Prize’ to Prime Minster Meles Zenawi. Interestingly, the press release made by the Foundation appears to have recognized the link between food security and nutritional status and environment. What is perplexing, however, is how they arrived at their decision. Indeed, the status of food insecurity in Ethiopia is so apparent that it does not leave any room for ambiguity. So, what was the award for?

Frankly, this appallingly ludicrous decision is an insult to millions of Ethiopians who are facing undeserved and unacceptable level of sufferings in the hands of incompetent and egocentric leadership.

In all fairness, those who are involved in this scandalous act owe an apology to Ethiopians who are bearing the brunt of food insecurity and are struggling to end this misery.

Is it the way the Nobel Prize selection process also working as the yara foundation is? We don't believe, you people are trying to score your secret agenda using a legally recognized organization in order the misery in Africa continues. It is a shame to you, when you selected a criminal to give him award. You have clear criteria to select the winner. Is Meles Naziawi matching even single criteria to be selected? Why don't you say openly the reason why you are giving him the so-called Yara award.

God Bless the weak, defenceless, poor, sick and hungry Ethiopian mothers and children. God keep Ethiopia which is affected by erosion and deforestation with very alarming environmental consequences for the last 14 years.
Yara, what for foundation for real it is? Is it to support and award criminals such as meles Zenawi of Ethiopia? I hope this kind of foundation will wash away by the tears coming from the Ethiopian defenceless people caused by your first yara award winner.
Congratulation for achieving this kind of crime against the defenceless people. No real person or organization would do as you have done while there are thousands worldwide working hard day and night for the sake of the world. Why don't you give them at least recognition for their good job to the world if you have the truth rather than choosing a criminal his record is known to the world?

Email: Tola@hotmail.com

Peace, famine and Ethiopia's 'Green Revolution'
By Abebe Gelaw
"Money and friendship break the arms of justice"--Italian proverb

A few days ago, a dubious news story circulated among local and international news outlets. It says: "The Board of the Yara Foundation has chosen to award the first African Green Revolution Yara Prize, to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, for his contribution to improve food security and human nutrition in ways that also protect the environment."

At first it appeared a hoax story that goes like: "Osama bin Laden has received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his extraordinarily outstanding contribution to world peace and stability." Why not? Anything can happen these days!

Three years ago, the TPLF-comandeered public media had excitedly delivered another amazing story about a Korean inspired Christian peace council that heaped a mountain of accolade on Meles for "ending the Ethio-Eritrean conflict." At a cermony held at the National Palace in Addis, the World Peace Prize Awarding Council Inc., presented a 'global' peace prize, accompanied by an "honorary doctoral degree", from a Korean university, to one of Africa's notorious despots. Known amongst his subjects as an openly atheistic archenemy of peace for nearly three decades, Meles must have been flabbergasted to be told that he was also honoured by the council with the position of a "roving ambassador for peace and human cultural assets." However, through its motto the Council conveyed to him one of the most monumental and humbling messages, i.e. "Jesus Christ is the only King of Peace."

Clad in Hannam University’s silk gown and proudly clutching his peace certificate, Meles delivered an angelic speech, though he failed to make a single reference or acknowledgement to Almighty God. "I am proud to state with clear conscience on behalf of our government that we have never let our people down and we have tried as much as humanly possible not to lose any opportunity for peace…. Making a choice between bullets and a loaf of bread for the hungry child, is not always that simple…. It is not enough for one to seek and desire peace in order to be able to achieve it. Peace requires partners for its achievement. The possibility for protecting and securing peace is made all the more difficult when, on top of not having partners for peace, those who have to make the painful decision discover that diplomacy is made to seek a false middle ground," he said, to the delight of his loyalists and worshippers who gathered at the opulent palace to witness the glorification of a peacemaker.

On the contrary, his speech did not strike a cord with reality in the ears of ordinary Ethiopians due to the fact that his track record depicts quite the opposite of what was claimed. Yet, looking at it from a different perspective, the WPPAC has discharged its Christian duty by trying to mellow and exorcise the spirit of violence that has possessed our atheistic leader for over three decades with the powerful spirit of peace. Even if it was not as effective as expected due to the relapse of PM’s violent mood and caprice, the effort was quite commendable.

At a time when Meles was desperately seeking uplifting stories in the aftermath of an overt and covert vote rigging scandal, the massacre of more than forty civilian protesters, the maiming of over one hundred fifty poor people and the mass arrests of over five thousand opposition supporters and sympathizers, another prize arrived with a tag of ‘Green Revolution.’ This time round the awarding body turned out to be a foundation formed and financed by a Norwegian multinational corporation called Yara International ASA, that sells over six billion dollars worth of fertilizers annually in over one hundred thirty countries including Ethiopia.

The chemical company shamelessly claimed that the first African Green Revolution Yara Prize 2005 is awarded to Meles Zenawi, for his dedication and inspirational leadership, for the results achieved in improving food security for his people, and for Ethiopia’s response to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s call for a uniquely African green revolution for the 21st Century. The praise and eulogy did not in any way match any of the dark records of Meles.

Nonetheless, the outrageous claim was quickly diminished by a commonplace news story from Ethiopia. It was reported the next day, 20th July 2005, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that at least 18 million people are facing hunger in the greater Horn of Africa, with more than half of them in Ethiopia. The grim news overshadowed the excitement among his followers. How come all these people face the fangs of hunger in a green empire ruled by Yara’s first African king of the Green Revolution?

According to the World Food Summit, food security means that all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. UNICEF warned, less than a week before the announcement of the Yara Green Revolution award, that up to 170,000 children could die of severe malnutrition this year. "Severely acute malnutrition among Ethiopia's children has reached alarming levels across the country," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, Ethiopia representative of the U.N. Children's Fund. He said UNICEF urgently needed $42 million to quadruple the number of feeding centres it runs in Ethiopia, provide more vitamin A, de-worming and anti-measles care and food for 6.8 million children and extend emergency water and sanitation to 1.2 million people. "Emergency health and nutrition programmes have only 25 per cent of their funding," said Mr. Ljungqvist. Under such circumstances, Yara should have contributed the $200,000, which it allocated to glorify one of Africa’s merchants of hunger, to the efforts being undertaken by the unsung heroes—UNICEF and many under-funded charities, which are struggling hard to avert the hovering threat of humanitarian disaster.

In its 22nd November 2002 edition, The Economist published an article headlined, ‘Bad weather, and bad government’. It indicated that Ethiopia faced a famine worse than the catastrophe of 1984. “Bad weather is partly to blame. But, as elsewhere in Africa, so too is bad government,” it said.

Analyzing the chronic suffering that Ethiopians have been facing for far too long, The Economist blamed the government, referred by some as Africa’s merchants of hunger, for making political and financial capital out of the appalling disaster of starvation. “Bad weather is rarely enough, on its own, to kill large numbers of people. Famine usually requires bad government, too…. In Ethiopia, the food crisis has been aggravated by the legacy of a senseless border war with neighbouring Eritrea between 1998 and 2000. It killed tens of thousands, forced 350,000 to flee their homes, blasted both countries' infrastructure and prompted foreign donors to freeze a lot of aid. In all, it cost Ethiopia an estimated $2.9 billion—almost a whole year’s output for every farmer in a country where 80 per cent of the population lives on farms. Such a monumental man-made disaster has made it harder for the country to cope with a natural one.”

The conclusion of the article has not been different from that of numerous analysts and writers. Bad governance, as opposed to good governance, is the source of our misery. The main responsibility of any government is not to beg around for food aid, as merchants of hunger do. It is rather to mobilize the nation and resources at its disposal to produce enough food to feed the people. The duty of a government is not to declare to the whole world that Ethiopia is the bread basket and water tower of Africa without devising mechanisms to utilizing and harnessing our water resources to enable farmers to be less reliant on food aid and rain-fed agriculture. Because of bad governance, the most visible growth registered during the last decade and half is the increase in foreign aid, which now accounts to over 40 per cent of the Gross National Product (GDP). This is probably a potent piece of evidence that shows the incontrovertible failure of a government.

There is little doubt that the luxurious Ethio-Eritrean conflict, or rather the Meles-Isayas war, has brought disaster to both poor nations not only in terms of the huge human and financial cost, but also in aggravating famine and poverty. After Meles awarded Isayas a large chunk of land including all Ethiopia’s 1000-km long coastline, Meles claimed he caught Isayas stealing a tiny stony village. To restore the nation’s ‘honour’, a bloody war was fought over Badme, which a Financial Times reporter, Michela Wrong, referred to as, “the kind of one-hotel, two-bar village in which yellow-eyed goats wander through the front rooms.” The tragic war was fought with one of the most deadly and cruelest military tactics. Eritrean soldiers dug trenches and planted lethal mines along their stronghold areas while Ato Meles, ‘commander-in-chief’ of the Ethiopian army, decided to launch human wave assaults. Over 80,000 people perished in the senseless and unjust war. After paying such a cruelly high human cost, but to the relief of Isayas, Meles declared that he was much more worried about Eritrean sovereignty than a conclusive victory and pulled out the army from key strategic positions. The Algiers Peace Pact was signed by the co-authors of the war. In spite of all that and the decision of the boarder commission, the military standoff still continues costing both poor nations hundreds of millions of dollars annually while massive scale famine permanently looms over these earthly purgatories, where human suffering seems endless.

Drought is an unavoidable natural disaster and can happen anywhere in the world. However, in countries where leadership has failed, drought compounded by already existing civil strife and poverty, creates and perpetuates famine. According to Melaku Ayalew, an expert in disaster management, famine does not strike unexpectedly, but builds up slowly and provides a lead time before it occurs. The predictability of famine makes it possible to prevent it. If a food shortage develops to the scale of famine and mass starvation, it must be blamed on the failure of society in general and government in particular. In other words, famine is a man-made disaster that can be prevented by a responsible government.

It seems unnecessary to list down the inadequacies of the Meles regime to prove to Yara its well documented misdeeds and misguided policies. Unlike the Norwegian fertilizer giant, we Ethiopians know the grim realities facing our nation. We have never seen Meles planting any trees or flowers. If Meles is a green revolutionary for Yara, so be it. However, he may do justice if he shares the prize with Mengistu Hailemariam and Isayas Afeworki. The trio merchants of hunger and destruction have done a great deal of damage to affect every household in Ethiopia by scorching the earth with artillery shells and bombs while millions have starved to death. Why doesn’t Yara hail them collectively as ‘the great pioneers of Green Revolution in Africa?’

Come September, we will see whether Meles shares the prize money with anyone or import millions of seedlings to start a Yara-sponsored Green Revolution in Ethiopia where almost everything is at stake. I bet the Prime Minister will make a wonderful speech about peace, democracy, human rights, election, poverty alleviation, food security, green revolution and will laugh all his way to the bank, rather than donating the money to charites or wasting his time planting trees.

Dr. Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan pioneer of the ‘green belt movement’, an Africa-wide movement that empowered women, challenged corrupt officials and planted millions of trees in ravaged lands, including Ethiopia, deservedly received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004, in Oslo, Norway. With Yara’s sponsorship Meles may even double his prize with the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, for his “exceptional contribution to peace and development not only in Ethiopia but also the world at large.” Nothing is impossible for him! A few weeks ago we saw Meles in disbelief on TV tucked behind leaders of the G8. Ethiopians who camped at Gleneagles to demand the G8 leaders to help them bring the tyrant to justice were bitterly disappointed to be ignored by the most powerful politicians on earth. After all, Blair and Bush prefer to condone his misdeeds simply because he is a key partner against “the war on terror,” and keeper of the balance of terror in the Horn of Africa. As an Italian proverb goes, “Money and friendship break the arms of justice.”

Director of the United Nations Millennium Project, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, is expected to present the Yara prize to Meles in Oslo on 3rd September. For most Ethiopians the PM’s leadership is disastrous and depressive. Still we cannot wait for the great speeches that the first Yara’s African green revolutionary, his agents, promoters and sponsors will deliver at the award ceremony…. It will be a glorious day not only for Ethiopia but also for the whole of Africa. The hungry people of Africa are watching their ‘inspirational’ green revolutionary with great expectations!

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Poor rains and high crop prices have left more than 18 million people with serious food shortages in 10 African countries.
Diminishing water supplies and dry pastures are also fuelling conflict among rival tribes, and child malnutrition is reportedly rising in parts the Greater Horn of Africa region.

The warnings come from the U.S.-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

The food shortages are concentrated in Ethiopia, where more than half of the 18 million affected people live.

At least half of neighbouring Eritrea's population of 4.5 million is in peril, as are the 2.69 million people in Uganda.

Other countries affected included Sudan, Djibouti, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Somalia.

"Yara International tries to make the world green -- and, in the process, make a little green of its own. The manufacturer of fertilizers and industrial gases is among the world's largest plant nutrient companies and ammonia producers and marketers, selling more than 20 million metric tons of fertilizer per year. It is also a top supplier of CO2 and nitrogen chemicals to industrial markets and of nitrates to the explosives industry. Environmental operations include manufacturing products to improve the taste of drinking water and reduce nitric oxide pollution. Formerly known as Hydro Agri, the company was spun off in early 2004 by Norwegian alumnium maker Norsk Hydro. Yara markets its products worldwide."
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/132/132754.html

THE YARA PRIZE AND CORRUPTION: MELES ZENAWI WITH A PURSE OF TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS ONLY? WHY NOT A MILLION DOLLARS!

By Tecola W. Hagos Printer Friendly


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I. Introduction and background

This article is a criticism and open accusation of wrongdoing and of criminal activities by the Yara Foundation and its Board in declaring Meles Zenawi as its first “African Green Revolution Yara Prize" winner with a purse of $200,000.00 and an art work of undisclosed value. American corporations, such as Dupont, Lucent, Motorola et cetera, often acclaimed for their business practices, are directly affected by any corrupt practice by their European competitors in the chemical, fertilizer, and telecom businesses worth trillion of dollars in Africa or elsewhere in the world.



It is of great importance that the American Government as well as those of the governments of European countries to look into corrupt business practices by executives of leading corporations in their respective countries in order to ensure a healthy business atmosphere and fair competition that will benefit everyone. We are dealing now with a system of global economy and with a more transparent role of multi-state corporations in that economy, which is drastically different from the Nineteenth Century and most of the Twentieth Century “anything-goes” form of business practices. All governments need be vigilant and courageous enough to move against corporations and executives who corrupt and spoil the business atmosphere in the present global economy.



The corruption of African leaders is the most serious problem in Africa’s struggle for survival and economic development. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria informed his peers in a conference over a year ago that over 140 billion dollar was embezzled in the period after independence i.e. since 1963 by African leaders. [Ayittey, AFRICA UNCHAINED: The Blueprint for Africa’s Future, Palegrave, 2005, 406] without the participation of Western corporate executives (bankers, manufacturers, builders et cetera), no African leader would have been able to steal a single dollar or equivalent. The ill effect of corrupt business practice has dramatically retarded development in Africa and had lead to the present dire situation in most of the nations of Africa. Corruption added to natural disasters of several major famines, and man-made civil war, ethnic conflict, et cetera has led us to the present state of Africa.



Already, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and close associates have been accused of major corruption schemes of monopolizing the Ethiopian economy with their sham corporations, supposedly established for the interest of their local ethnic region of Tygraei, where they have invested in their own names in several international as well as domestic businesses. The investment amount is mind boggling even by the standard of developing nations. It is estimated that the investment controlled by Meles Zenawi and close associates is in the billions of dollars or equivalent. With this background in mind, it is not hard for me to understand why so many Ethiopians were very much incensed with the recognition by Yara Foundation of Meles Zenawi as its first “African Green Revolution Yara Prize" winner with a purse of $200,000.00 and an artwork of undisclosed value.



The official citation for the award posted in Yara's own Website states shamelessly the following about Meles Zenawi: "The Yara Foundation Board recognizes Prime Minister Meles' decisive steps towards increasing food production and reducing poverty in one of the poorest countries of the developing world. He has brought about political change in Ethiopia, and placing the rural poor first in the country's development strategies." It is public knowledge that Ethiopia is worse off now than ever. A nation of seventy million people is now languishing without access to its historic coastal territory of the Red Sea. Due to the political program implemented by force by Meles Zenawi and associates since 1991, the people of Ethiopia are on the brink of breaking apart on ethnic based federal structure that was aimed at destroying Ethiopia as one nation and to allow ethnic enclaves to become nations on their own. The economy is in shambles due to corrupt monopoly by the corporations controlled by Meles and associates. Prostitution and epidemic of AIDS has devastated Ethiopia’s urban centers as well as the rural Ethiopia. In the fourteen years period Meles Zenawi and his political party were in power, Ethiopians have been devastated by war, famine, and oppression worse even than the time of the brutal dictator Mengistu Hailemariam was brutalizing Ethiopians.



Before deciding on any award for Meles Zenawi, the Yara Foundation Board should have taken into account the gross violations of human and political rights of millions of Ethiopians by Meles Zenawi and his government for the last fourteen years. The violations of human and democratic rights of Ethiopians for the last fourteen years have been meticulously reported by respectable organizations and agencies. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United States State Department Country Report, The Ethiopian Human Rights Council, and numerous journalists and academicians in articles and books have all informed the world community the atrocities and human rights and democratic rights violations perpetrated by Meles Zenawi and his government on tens of thousands innocent Ethiopians.



The fraud and manipulation of ballot counting by Meles Zenawi’s government of the recent May 15, 2005 general election has demonstrated to us all that Meles Zenawi and associate are not fit to run any government. Because of such corruption, we are heading into a political bottleneck and showdown. No one knows what would happen next. Already in an effort to silence the struggle of Ethiopians for democracy and economic development, Meles Zenawi had promulgated a state of emergency without constitutional observance. In the subsequent demonstrations by University students and later by citizens, his police and security forces murdered over forty Ethiopians and detained under horrible conditions tens of thousands of people some of whom are still in detention or have completely disappeared. Every European government and executive officers of major European corporations must be aware of the situation in Ethiopia. There is no justification to reward Meles Zenawi, who has the worst record of atrocities and gross human rights violations of any current African leader, any reward. Because of Meles Zenawi’s horrible record as a corrupt and violent individual, I question the motive of Yara Foundation in deciding to award its first prize to such an individual.



I contend that there is nothing hopeful or encouraging about the situation in Ethiopian at this point that warrants awarding Meles Zenawi the first “African Green Revolution Yara Prize" with a purse of $200,000.00 and an artwork of undisclosed value. I contend further that the whole shenanigan is a well-camouflaged “bribe” by companies and their officers buying favorable treatment either with their ongoing businesses with the Ethiopian government or possible future favorable business relationships. I believe Yara International, Inc. and its Executive Officers, Yara Foundation and its Board Members, Telenor SAS and its Executive Officers, as well as Jeffery Sachs as a co-conspirator, have committed crimes under the following laws and ought to be tried for their crimes either in the United States or Norway:


1) The United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) of 1977, 15 U.S.C §§ 78dd-1, 78d-2, and 78m, as amended; and

2) The Norwegian Penal Code, 22 May 1902, No. 10, Section 128, amended October 27, 1998; Council of Europe Criminal law Convention on Corruption in 1999, further amendment of the Penal Code, by Act No. 79 of 4 July 2003.

To the above national laws may be added several international and regional instruments, such as:

3) Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions, United Nations General Assembly, December 1996.

4) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transaction, OECD, December 1997.



II. Untangling the Gordian Knot: Yara and its Spawn


A. Yara International Inc., (Yara) a chemical (Fertilizer) company, Thorleif Enger, President and CEO. Yara International, Inc. is traded on the Oslo Stock Market. Its beginning was at the turn of the last Century 1900-1905 [it just celebrated its anniversary] as the world first nitrogen fertilizer facility. According to its President, Thorleif Enger, Yara is an internationally managed company with global operations in fifty countries and selling its product to over 120 countries. Yara North America, was established in 1946, and was opened to business in Tampa, Florida. Specifically, it is responsible for Hydros fertilizer activities in the USA and Canada. Enger stated, “We serve the U.S. agricultural community through a network of nearly 50 terminals with a capacity of over 600,000 tons, located mainly on the East and the West Coasts.”



According to Yara’s official publication, it is one of the largest fertilizer producing or manufacturing company in the world with billions of dollars investment asset. “Yara manufactures a wide range of fertilizers to help farmers grow crops such as grain, fruits, vegetables plus other products in a cost effective and environmentally friendly way. Through scientific product development, advice to farmers on nutrient applications, and resource-conscious production with efficient distribution channels, Yara plays an important role in food production for the world’s growing population. Developing more environmentally friendly applications in the use of fertilizers is one of the main tasks for our researchers and agronomists. The Ammonia Department is responsible for marketing 1.3 million tons of ammonia from the Trinidad operation into the United States and Caribbean. This accounts for 24% of the total amount of ammonia traded worldwide. Logistics are handled through Yara’s own fleet consisting of 15 vessels.”



B. Yara Foundation Thorleif Enger, Chairman of the Board

Yara Foundation was established only recently. Yara International ASA announced that in 2005 this year it has launched a Foundation for the Green Revolution in Africa and an international prize, which focus on food production and the fight against poverty in Africa. Through the Yara Foundation, Yara International ASA is the first enterprise to make a financial commitment linked to the United Nations' Millennium Villages Project and Kofi Annan's call to support a green revolution in Africa. Who are the Board Members of Yara Foundation?

1. Thorleif Enger, Chairman of the Board of Yara Foundation, Financed by Yara Corporation

President and CEO of Yara International Inc., a fertilizer chemical company, he is also and also

Chairman of Telenor ASA another huge Norwegian mobile telecom corporation;

2. Pedro Sanchez, the Earth Institute, Columbia University (USA), colleague of Jeffery Sachs;

3. Marco Quinones, Regional Director for Africa, Sasakawa Global 2000, Ethiopia;

4. Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, USA, a small nonprofit organization, and

5. P. Hartmann, Director General of IITA, Nigeria.



The members of the Board of Yara Foundation, except for Mr. Quinones, Regional Director for Africa, Sasakawa Global 2000, Ethiopia, seem to be tied to Yara International ASA or to Jeffery Sachs in some form of dependancy on Yara and related corporations for their financing. The individuals all seem to be either heads of private non-profit organizations or lower level mangers of international non-profit organizations. I believe the Chairman of the Foundation is the key to the elaborate corruption scheme that is unfolding right in front of our eyes in the award of the "First African Green Revolution Yara Prize" to Meles Zenawi. The award is a well

Camouflaged bribe, the working of at least two for profit Norwegian and one Finish Corporations.



Yara Corporation is in the fertilizer business. Yara stands to gain tremendously with its Foundation awarding a Prize and a $200,000.00 dollar purse to Meles Zenawi. It stands to gain from close association with Meles Zenawi as the leader of a country that is earmarked to benefit greatly from the billion of dollars being pledged by developed nations. Moreover, the President of Yara Corporation is also the Chairman of Yara Foundation. Yara has nothing by way of Fertilizer business in Ethiopia; however, it is the leading company in the African Market as a whole. The fertilizer business is quite volatile since it depends to a great extent with the price of oil and gas. Nevertheless the European corporations involved in the fertilizer business are weary of the stiff competition coming from the United States and China.



"Yara aims to play an active role in enabling a green revolution in Africa. Based on the UN's recommendations, we want to demonstrate hat it is fully possible to combine a commitment to sustainable development and the fight against poverty, with commercial objectives." says Yara's President and CEO, Thorleif Enger. For a change, the President of a corporation openly admitted that it is business that motivates the establishment of the Foundation. "Fighting poverty and hunger in Africa is one of the most important issues of our time. If we want to succeed, it is crucial that all parts of society are involved and share the responsibility. Yara is showing the way with its commitment to a green revolution in Africa. We hope that many other companies will follow its example," says Pedro Sanchez, Board Member of theYara Foundation. It is quite ironic that the first individual the Foundation’s Board chose, as a matter of fact, happens to be the most vehemently hated individual by his own people.



C. Telenor, ASA

Telenor ASA was incorporated in 1994 as a result of Norway’s restructuring of its public telecommunications carrier. Norway at that time converted its public telecommunications carrier into a company limited by shares owned 100 percent by the Kingdom of Norway. The Applicants state that on June 15, 2001, the Norwegian parliament authorized a further offering of

Shares held by Norway’s government in Telenor ASA which in effect will permit the dilution of the Kingdom of Norway’s majority ownership in Telenor ASA to a minority stake of as little as 34 percent. As we shall see later, Telenor did divest about 21% to private investors decreasing the Kingdom of Norway’s interest to 79%.



Even more importantly, the same individual who is President of Yara International ASA and Chairman of Yara Foundation is the Chairman of Telenor ASA, a leading mobile telecom company. However Telenor had as yet no business in Ethiopia’s huge wirless mobile phone market. Telenor has had extensive business relationship with another leading Finish telecom company called Nokia. Nokia had won about four months back a 23 million euro (about 30 million US dollars) network expansion deal from Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. [See Expert Views, http://www.wireless.expert-views.com] Nokia and Telenor, as I stated earlier, have had an ongoing business relationships, for years, for example, they signed an agreement (through the subsidiary) in January of 2005 for equipment dealing with Hungary telecom, and in May they extended the agreement for telecom equipment et cetera. What we have here is overlapping of business interests between several Nordic companies from Norway and Finland with the government of Ethiopia, and interlocutory executives of different companies and a foundation created by one of such companies that serves all of the companies involved with each other and third parties.



There is no doubt in my mind that Yara Foundation promotes the business interests of all the companies involved in such preexisting longtime business relationships. Even though on paper Yara Foundation is created by Yara International ASA set up by one of these companies with possible funding from the other too, awarding a Prize that caries a 200,000 US dollars purse. Telenor ASA has so far no direct business in Ethiopia’s large and fast growing telecom market. By associating itself on one hand with Nokia already well established in Ethiopia, and Yara, it will stand to gain in acquiring new business in Ethiopia The award will definitely influence Meles Zenawi to favor those companies connected with Yara than those who are not. If this is not a case of influence peddling and corrupting the leader of a poor nation, show me what is. The larger picture of the situation in Africa shows the fight between these European corporations trying to monopolize the possible huge wireless market by themselves edging out such corporations such as Motorola and Lucent. Ultimately, the African nations and people are the ones who will suffer the most due to such collusions. The undesirable effect of allowing few corporations to be providers of both technical and structural services will simply result in poor service, price hiking, and dependence on few corporations for such vital flow of goods and services in African nations. As we can see from the data provided below, the telecom business is a cut-throat business companies that are in constant and long standing relationship with Telenor ASA and Yara International ASA are in serious competition [See: Statistical data included herewith for market shares of such companies in the wireless mobile phone business.]



III. Legal Issues and Criminality

The United States enacted the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in 1977 (as amended), presumably the first anti-corruption law in the world, to stop at least discourage bribing foreign officials by executives of United States corporations. There was an outcry from several members of the community believing that U S corporations would be at a disadvantage competing with their counterparts elsewhere in the world. The world has finally found its way and has come around to the farsighted position of the legislators and the Government of the United States on such issues of corrupt business practices. What effect such statute and other national laws may have in a situation where an award of a well-publicized Prize with substantial purse is given to a national leader by a private foundation established by a corporation with other corporations behind in the shadow?



We need to take into account the principles developed by regional as well as international organizations in combating corrupt business practices. We must consider the principles contained in the Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in International Commercial Transactions, United Nations General Assembly, of December 1996, and that of the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transaction, OECD, of December 1997.



The principal architect of the scheme seems to be Thorleif Enger, the Chairman of the Board of Yara Foundation; President and CEO of Yara Corporation, and also Chairman of Telenor ASA another huge Norwegian mobile telecom corporation should be held as a primary defendant under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The other Board Members of Yara Foundation: Pedro Sanchez, of the Earth Institute, Columbia University (USA), colleague of Jeffery Sachs; Marco Quinones, Regional Director for Africa, Sasakawa Global 2000, Ethiopia; Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, USA, a small nonprofit organization and P. Hartmann, Director General of IITA, Nigeria. May be held accountable to varying degrees under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).



Although his intentions may be for the benefit of the poor and dispossessed people of the Planet, Jeffery Sachs has an uncanny ability to turn something promising into something disastrous. Our memory of the collapse of an aspect of the economic program in Russia in the 1990s that he headed as officer of HIID is still fresh in our mind. Nevertheless, it is sad to realize that the first notable act in connection with the United Nations Millennium Project that Sachs is involved with is to promote the awarding of the first Yara Prize to a brutal dictator, who has just massacred over forty Ethiopians peaceful demonstrators in Addis Ababa and imprisoned thousands others under the most deplorable condition on June 7, 2005. How does such award serve the interest of the poor brutally oppressed people of Ethiopia? Jeffery Sachs has lost his mind; he is acting as a headless turkey spinning aimlessly in the void. Now he is involved in a more serious criminal conspiracy possibly violating the laws of the United States and that of Norway. Already the corruption of the United Nations Millennium Project is here. This is truly a sad day for all.



As to the issue of jurisdiction and applicable law, FCPA is fully applicable to hold accountable the chief executives of Telenor ASA, Yara International ASA and Yara Foundation. The nexus is already established by the United States Agencies in previously as indicated herein dealing with the Telenor Satellite Services Holdings, Inc. (TSSH). Telenor was wholly owned by the Kingdom of Norway until it divested 21% (of that holding of that shading of interest, 14% was bought by non-Norwegian entities and individuals) in order to satisfy the requirement of the United States laws in order to qualify as a successor to licenses assigned to a US company it was buying. In the order given by the Federal Communications Commission, in FCC 01-369, of 14 December 2001, allowed the assignment of US license to Telenor ASA [Telenor Satellite Services Holdings, Inc. (TSSH)]. Thus, it is absolutely clear that Telenor ASA, and its CEO are subject to the FCPA.



Under FCPA, a crime is committed if a United States person, which would include also anyone deemed to do business in the United States, pays of anything of value to influence the discretion of a foreign official any where in the world to obtain or retain some business advantage. The issue here, as indicated above, is whether a payment designated as a “Prize” to the leader of a country by a foundation affiliated or created by a company that does business in such country could be deemed as a corrupt payment. In other words, the Prize purse of $200,000.00 dollars awarded by Yara Foundation to Meles Zenawi could be seen as a camouflaged bribe, a prohibited payments or promise of payment. The packaging of the illicit payment should not hide the true nature of something of great value given to a leader or to any person with power who can affect the future or current business relationship of a company or an individual. The FCPA statue is not specific enough to make it absolutely clear that “prizes” in all instances are included in such prohibited payments. However, it is within the reach of a court or a commission to interpret a term in a statue consistent with its purpose and intentions (spirit) to include related activities.
more...
www.tecolahagos.com

This is execellent info. Can anybody produce similar info on the commercial bank corruption and the monies deposited by Woyane officials in overseas banks. I am sure it would read like a sci-fiction thriller.

Yara regrets decision to award Meles Zenawi

By Dr. Rakel Ingvar
August 1, 2005

After a series of pressure campaigns and bad publicity following the decision of the Yara Foundation to award “the first African Green Revolution Prize” to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, known more for his brutality than his commitment to development, the parent company is considering to revise the award criteria.

A senior executive at one of Norway’s biggest international companies, Yara International ASA, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted: “ We regret this has happened. There was a mistake somewhere in the selection process. It is embarrassing the board ended up awarding a despot who has been killing and torturing his own people. That was never the intention of the award.

“I understand there was a successful bid on the part of pro-Zenawi lobbyists, who went at a greater length to influence the selection committee. In the future a thorough examination of records of nominees should be put in place to prevent tyrants, who are obstacles for human development, from being considered for the prize,” he said.

However, he dismissed as unfounded an allegation that linked the African Green Revolution Yara Prize to commercial bribery aimed at luring corrupt African leaders to award multi-million dollar contracts to the company in the lucrative fertilizer business.

It was announced two weeks ago that the Board of the Yara Foundation had chosen to award the first African Green Revolution Yara Prize, to the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi for his contribution to improve food security and human nutrition in ways that also protect the environment.

According to the executive, the decision caused a lot of disquiet among many Norwegians and the Ethiopian Community in Norway who inundated the company with emails, letters and phone calls to express their anger. “It is a really awkward situation that we never anticipated. I personally found it seriously damaging for the reputation of the company. In the future, we should never associate ourselves with any tyrants who have blood on their hands,” he admitted.

A refugee from Ethiopia, Yared Tesfaye, who showed me a letter he wrote to Yara International ASA, said: “It is a great shame that the company decided to award Meles Zenawi, who has been killing, injuring, torturing and jailing thousands of Ethiopians. Millions of Ethiopians are facing starvation and hundreds of thousands of others die of hunger each year.

“I am sure the people who have decided to give him an award have no idea of what a green revolution look like. Are they awarding him for his crimes against humanity?” he asked.

Tesfaye wrote to Yara that the company should make an official apology not only to Ethiopians but also to the whole of Africa for insulting their dignity by awarding one of Africa’s murderous tyrants who condemn their people to endless cycles of suffering and oppression.

A Norwegian human rights campaigner, Erika Birger, suggested the award money, worth $200,000, be given to a charity that is truly committed to improving the fate of Ethiopians. “Norwegians are decent people. We are equally offended and insulted by the ridiculous decision to award an African dictator as a ‘green revolutionary,” she said.

According to Mr. Tesfaye, Ethiopian immigrants in Norway have already formed an anti-Yara prize campaign group to oppose the company’s wrong decision to give this year’s prize to Zenawi. “The award to Meles must be called Yara’s Green Revulsion Award,” he said.

Askale Dama,
Commercial Bank has a history of being robbed not only by Woyanes even by other higher administration for years. Some of them are educated by the sweat and blood of Ethiopian taxpayers and they have turned around and robbed their country. I hope the truth comes out.

Ethiopians in Norway should keep on the pressure on Yara. What about organizing a one-day demo infront of Yara's headquarters in the presence of the media? It will make a huge difference.

This is a very excellent way of revealing the true profile of PM Meles Zenawi to the World! So Proud of you all!! May God bless you all! I am still doing the research, but in the mean time here is the information I found so far that could be used as evidence:

UN warns of food stocks running low in Ethiopia
Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2005


UNITED NATIONS, Cereal stocks could run out by next month in Ethiopia where 2.4 million people are in immediate need of food aid, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Some 11 percent of the emergency food aid required in March has been provided by donors, leaving a shortfall of 39,000 metric tons of cereals, the U.N. Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported.

While only a quarter of the scheduled food assistance could be distributed last month, the number of needy people is expected to increase from the current 2.4 million to 2.9 million in March and 3.1 million in April, OCHA said.

Quoting the World Food Program, OCHA said that for the full year, less than a quarter of the 387,500 tons of food requested has been made available.

Sporadic fighting between ethnic groups over who would control the Meisso district, about 310 miles (500 km) east of the capital Addis Ababa, has left a growing number of people homeless and in need of food, the agency said. After a costly war with neighboring Eritrea between 1998 and 2000, Ethiopia, with no seaports and poor communications, is struggling to feed its 67 million people.

About 70,000 people were killed in the border war with Eritrea. Some 4,000 U.N. peacekeepers still police a contested 600-mile (1,000-km) frontier. The average income is $100 a year, a fifth of the average of sub-Saharan Africa, and 75 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, according to U.N. figures.

The website could be located: http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=125382

Greetings all again. Let me just go directly to the point, here is another article to look at. I found it at the "International Press Institute" home page http://www.freemedia.at/watch_list.htm
As you look, Ethiopia is currently on the IPI's watch list, meaning: government is found to be for media violations. Although, this link is not directly related to our subject, it is indirectly. Here is what I found:

Countries on the IPI Watch List

Ethiopia

Ethiopia was placed on the IPI Watch List at a board meeting on 15 May 2004. A press release announcing the decision quoted IPI Director Johann P. Fritz as saying, “While I acknowledge the severe problems in the areas of poverty, education, health and food production in Ethiopia and the pressures these place on the government, the IPI Executive Board felt that the forthcoming elections could lead to greater difficulties for press freedom and access to information and, with this in mind, it was decided that IPI should pay careful attention to the Ethiopia media environment in order to support journalists."

(Read the Report on Ethiopia)
http://www.freemedia.at/r_wl_ethiopia.htm

ABC Online

Ethiopia food stocks running low, UN warns. 23/02/2005. ABC News Online

[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200502/s1309349.htm]


Last Update: Wednesday, February 23, 2005. 3:28pm (AEDT)
Ethiopia food stocks running low, UN warns
The United Nations (UN) is warning cereal stocks could run out by next month in Ethiopia.

The UN says 2.4 million people are in immediate need of food aid.

The UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports only 11 per cent of the emergency food aid that is required in March has been provided by donors, leaving a shortfall of 39,000 tonnes of cereals.

The OCHA says the number of needy people is expected to increase from the current 2.4 million to 2.9 million in March and 3.1 million in April.

Quoting the World Food Program, the OCHA says that for the full year, less than a quarter of the 387,500 tons of food requested has been made available.

Sporadic fighting between ethnic groups over who controls the Meisso district, about 500 kilometres east of the capital Addis Ababa, has left a growing number of people homeless and in need of food.

- Reuters




© 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
Privacy information: http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm






"Ethiopia happens to have a history of being a multi-ethnic nation for longer than any country on Earth. EPRDF politicized the ethnic voices and insisted on controlling the ethnic politics. In order to vote, Ethiopians are required to declare their ethnic identity. Can you imagine Americans, before they are entitled to vote, being required to say "I am Irish, I am Spanish, I am Nigerian, I am Indian" This was offensive to most Ethiopians who have this long history of a mutil-ethnic nation with intermarriage etc ..." Professor Donald Levine, (Professor of Sociology), University of Chicago. (Interview on Chicago Public Radio, July 30, 2005. Professor Donald Levine, emphasized on the interview that the core issue behind the political divisiveness in the country right now is the ethnic policy of the ruling government (EPRDF).


.

Fine, Refer Freedomhouse (http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/062905.htm)

Include Amnesty International, UNHCR, UN, Freedomhouse, NGOs from Ethiopia etc, for their contribution how unfair decision took place at this critical moment for all Ethiopians. The famine, starvation, suppression, racism, discrimination are increasing for Ethiopians. Some citizens/groups are considered as a refugee at their birthplace.

It might not be clearly visible for foreigners his brutality. He is doing it underground by his Cadres and Security Forces. That is his difference from Mengistu because Mengistu was killing officially.

May be Ethiopia is heaven for his loyalists. Meles regime is bitter than Feudalism for Ethiopians. Look higher officials especially for key places are from his group. It was the same during feudalism. But that was not during Mengistu.


Hence, even Meles was not absolutely eligible to be included in the short list for competition let alone for award. As acknowledged by the Yara his close friends lobbied strongly.

God Bless Ethiopia!

Email: duga_t@yahoo.com

City: Jima

YARA Organization nominated PM Meles Zenawi, for starving his people!! Children are not sure of their next meals. Children are attending schools on empty stomach. Let the world knows this savage act!!

Here is Christiane Amanpour's Recent Visit in Ethiopia. Taken from CNN. (Transcript Section)

Ethiopia is a country where majority of its people are not sure of their next meals!!! Yet, YARA foundation nominated PM Meles Zenawi for starving his people. Let the world knows this!!!! Here is one recent evidence, children are striving, children are going to school on empty stomach, Yet YARA foundation nominated PM Meles Zenawi to receive $200,000, as a winner. Let the world knows, this savage act!!





Christiane Amanpour, CNN Chief International Correspondent. Her visit in Ethiopia! (http://robots.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/03/le.01.html)



Aired July 3, 2005 - 12:00 ET

Christiane Amanpour looks at one Ethiopian village's daily struggle for survival and how hopes for a brighter future rests with its children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's early morning in Koraro (ph). A mother gets up to start her day. Young girls start off to fetch water. A shepherd tends his flock. And fathers start another day breaking rocks for building. This is a place where 5,000 people live in abject poverty -- poverty measured not in income but in hostile soil, hunger, disease and dirty water.

Marza (ph) and her children have walked an hour to fetch water from this rain hole. It's where they wash and where their animals drink too. Is this clean water? Is it good water?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's very bad.

AMANPOUR: Do you get sick?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes.

AMANPOUR: But it's all they have.

What would make your life better?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Clean water.

AMANPOUR: Marza (ph) heaves the dirty water onto her back, ties it around her shoulders and walks another hour home. She does this four times a day. That's what all Koraro's (ph) women do every day: fetch water, grind maize by hand, try to provide for their family.

Latai (ph) prepares an engera, traditional Ethiopian bread. This will last her and her five children all day.

Are your children hungry?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Yes.

AMANPOUR: And they usually go to school hungry. At the school, I asked them about their diet.

Raise your hands if you have three meals a day.

No hands go up. Nor when I ask about two meals.

One meal? How many of you are hungry?

Why are they laughing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we are hungry. That's what -- we are hungry.

AMANPOUR: This is normal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

AMANPOUR: But even on empty stomachs, they come to school.

Haftume (ph) teaches seventh grade outdoors because Koraro (ph) doesn't have enough classrooms.

Put your hands up if you want to go to eighth grade.

But there is no eighth grade here. How far away is the next village or the next school that has an eighth grade?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three or four hours from here.

AMANPOUR: Three to four hours walking?

The village has no vehicle. The children spend only half a day in school and the rest at work. Even the smallest ones, after class they run down the hill to the riverbed, where slowly under a burning midday sun, they fill sacks, tins and whatever they can find with sand to make mortar for the new schoolrooms their fathers will build from the rocks they crush every morning. On the way back up the hill, seven year-old Arizeer's (ph) bag breaks, and for a moment he's at a loss.

Is it hard work?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes.

AMANPOUR: Do you think it's normal for a seven year-old boy to work like you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes.

AMANPOUR: We asked young Amachal.

What do you think you're going to be when you grow up? When do you think you're going to get married?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't want to get married. I want to be a teacher.

AMANPOUR: Why don't you want to get married?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): It's bad. When you are a child and have a baby, it's a bad situation.

AMANPOUR: Amachal (ph) is only 9.

Do you think your parents will force you to get married?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't know.

AMANPOUR: Typically, parents marry off their little girls when they can no longer afford to feed them. More than half of Koraro's 1500 children are severely malnourished. A simple illness or mosquito bite can kill them. Life expectancy in Koraro is 40. Latai (ph) is 37. The bread she showed us earlier will also be dinner for six. When was the last time you had meat or you gave your children meat to eat?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Three months ago. It was a holiday and we had chicken.

AMANPOUR: I asked her oldest son, "Is this enough for you, this little piece of bread?"

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) whether it's enough or not.

AMANPOUR: How much do you think we eat in America for dinner?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until they are full.

AMANPOUR: Until they are full.

But Latai's (ph) 14-year-old daughter thinks she'll have a better life.

What do you want most in the world?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): To finish school.

AMANPOUR: After a long day of chores at dawn, school and more chores, this is how the children of Koraro (ph) end their day, doing homework by the light of a kerosene lamp.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN in Koraro (ph), northern Ethiopia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Kebe Nura,
How sad it is some people like your self with their vision so narrow they cannot even see the obvious human sufferings being committed by Meles. Your statement shows your inability to see and to judge the truth. There are so many people in Ethiopia who are being tortured because of their political views, there are too many people in Ethiopia who are dying of hunger and diseases, there are so many families who are suffering from grieves because Meles has killed one of their family members. Try to walk on their shoes and see how it feels.

Martin Luther King once said: “INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE.”

http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/displayenglish.php?id=2526

Look "Man-made" disaster looms over Ethiopia

Email: duga_tena@yahoo.com

City: Jima

What a joke? Those who lobby for the brutal leader of our time Meles Zenawi are nothing but corrupt. It is sad that the Yara foundation went along with them. What an insult for Africans and decent people all over the world. Give the money to charity that do good to needy not to thusgs.

City: Springfield

Three points are considered in this article

(1) It is misleading to compare total food production because it does not take account of population increase. Remeber that the population of Ethiopia has also increased substantially. My guess is (please sombody with a census data help out)that population might have increased by little less than 20 million in the last 10 years. Thus, when the food production level is recalculated in terms of food production per head and gap would definely narrow.
(2) A rise in food production is more of a function of adequate rainfall rather modernization of agriculture or improved productivity. In the last 50 years, Ethiopia's great famines were precceded by serious droughts. When the rain came again food production increased considerably. Present level of food production can easily disappear if Ethiopia faces drought because irrigated agricuture is almost none existent. The point is Ethiopia's agriculture is as backward as what it was before Melse took power.
(2) The best way of showing the regime has not improved social welfare is to show mortality and morbidity statistics of Ethiopia for the two time periods considered in the analysis. For example what was the infant mortality rate then and what is it now? What was the life expectancy then and what is it now? What was nutrition status of children then and what is it now? The statistical annexes of the World Development Report by the World Bank might be of help.

The World Development Report I have is for 1995.
(a) Table 1 shows life expectancy at birth in 1993 is 48;
(b)Table 27 shows infant mortality (per 1000 life births)in 1993 was 117; malnutrition under the age of five for 1988-1993 is 47%.

Look for the most recent World Development Report
and examine if the indicators in "a" and "b" have changed. I am sorry that I cannot help beyond this. I do not have access to a library right now.

City: Paris

Kebe Nura and Zerefewa,

”I am not a liar and neither am I biased by Melese's ehtnic background or political positions. I know there are people who are suffering in jails for different reasons. The point is that those of you who are set out against him or his party are moved by your desire to bring the dismantled and rotten system that reined the country for 100 years or 3000 years as you like to say.
Melese or his party has done a lot of job to improve the economic status of the country and this is much greater than what the self claimed heros who are making the loudest noise did during the times they or their fathers were in power.”

It is your right to believe whatever way you desire, but it amazes me your insensitivity for all of those who are being tortured and killed. You said you are aware of Meles’ wrong doings at the same time you want him to be rewarded. Personally I don’t have any animosity towards Meles as a person or his ethnicity, it his cruelty and insensitivity to wards Ethiopian people I hate. Under any circumstances a cruel person like Meles or any other person who has committed atrocity towards others should not be given any kind of award.

You cannot be more wrong to think it is only Amharas who are against this Yara award. You are smart enough to know that ethnicity has nothing to do with it. It is a shame that you have animosity towards other ethnic group. You need to know during Haile Selassie only his family and his close friends and cabinet members enjoyed life while all of us from every ethnic group have suffered. Why go back 30 more years and blame others while we have a crisis in our hands.

Are you aware Ethiopia is receiving more than two billion dollars a year from foreign countries like never before? Yes there should be more jobs, improve the economic status, and fight hunger and diseases. But it seems only a few are benefiting from it. Open your eyes and see. Who owns the most Co., and which groups of people have the most important jobs? Which groups of people are getting richer by the minute while others are getting behind and starving to death?

When you visit this website and see Shibir’s face what do you see? There are more hundreds of Ethiopian like that beautiful faces gunned down by Meles, and you want him to be rewarded.

Selam Yihune, please, do not allow Zerifewa side track you from the main theme of this discussion board. What we are trying to do here is pool together hard data and show the true character of the Melese regime.

In exposing the secret life of the regime we are demanding accountability. Those that are against this democratic principle are at best living in the past and at worst they are part of the problem.

City: Paris

Yara Executives,

Shame on you for giving award actually A BRIBE to the chief dictator of Ethiopia.

Now, you pay the price for it.

Nestanet

City: Atlanta

Dear respected,

I am a student in Europe from Ethiopia. I have been grown, educated and worked for years in agriculture and natural resources of Ethiopia. I and any international organization are very aware that the Meles Zenawi tyranny is the worst in agricultural, natural resource sustainable management and food security activities through its bad property ownership policy, its monopolized agricultural trading, ethnic conflicts and unbalanced and unfair monetary budgeting. All NGOs agree with my idea that this government obstacles their development and food security programs by the above problems and its corruption as it it is obvious simply by referring how its' personnel's cheat and use the food aid from the starved mouth of so many Ethiopians in the past 14 years legal documents of the government. Most of the times, his decision on this kind of corruption is to change the corrupts' location of being boose for other cheating at the expence of our agricultural development and food self sefficiency. As an example, you can collect information about two cases that coincides with your prize: the first is about the case of how the big fertilizer company (Amalgamated,Ltd) went out of its competent service for the poor farmers by Meles monopoly "Ambasel" and its' scar on these farmers to develop agriculture and improve food security. The second is the case of millions investment of improper water harvesting program for poor consultation of political officials while we have other best so many small streams and large rivers alternatives to change our food security status with the same investment in a sustainable way.

This PM also declare in black and white on the two main issues for development and food security as a "RED LINE" and no discussion on them unless and otherwise on the grave of his party: These are discusion on resource (land and water) ownership and national security while these two are the most important and prerequisites for agricultural development and food security-the main issue of the award and the most contested once by any international organization dealing with Ethiopian food security. Due to these basic public and NGO's idea, Meles Zenawi ordered to shot down innocent students and citizens and warned the umbrella NGO organization, CRDA (http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=10909) that is a composition of so many international organization on agricultue, food security and nutrition. It is clear that unless and otherwise these two basic resources are legally certified for the owners with their full rights and obligations to involve in the financial processes like banking, it is impossible to develop agriculture and improve food security of the country, which is banned by the PM. Now a day, nobody is the legal owner of these precious resources and they are deteriorating at an alarming rate since no one is taking care about them. This is fatal for the country and the surrounding countries too and difficult to rehabilitate it again in the future generation. The second red line is the so called his "security". He is the master of killing, arresting and torturing peace full people and legal groups and demolishing better civil societies (like Teachers' Association illegally and un democraticall)for the poor. He is a master of ethnic conflicts for the benefits of his position. He is the crime of world known 70,000 life at boarder conflict since he could manage it at the very beginning of the departion of Eritrea if he listens the people. This with his ethnic miss-design made the progress of agriculture and food security status of the country down (rather than his falacy and your announcement) that appoint him for the Yara prize. In conclusion, he declare this kind of "security" is legal and it is "red line" to discuss on it with any international and national sectors unless and otherwise on the grave of his party. You can refer this declaration from his radio briefing and public media. I think you are aware about it when you are going to decide the prize on your famous vision on "agriculture, natural resource, nutrition and food security". My question for you and your personnel is that what is the motive behind the prize. Such prize for him is not the first. He got the same thing immediately after the killing of 70,000 poorest and innocent Ethiopians (both Eritrea and others nations). It is clear and we understand it as the mischief of some bad international society that are delighted to see the poors under fire and starvation. We are no more keep silence for such kind of interuption. We are humans and know all things behind.

These and other all faults on the countries agricultural and food security had done by Meles Zenawi's bureaucratic decisions and it leads him to get your prize at the past and future expenses of that poor farmers. It is really shame for us and Yara's reputation.

You can collect ideas all over the world with in an hour about this fact against your decision of the Yara prize with petition or designed web site.

I'm an Ethiopian and in proud of my PM to get this prize if it has meaning. Otherwise, I consider it as aashame and as a promotion of my countries war, conflict and starvation by such booses since our next booses continue the same act to get your and others like your organization gift.

Finally, what is meant by "the first African Green Revolution Prize"? What is green: designing to kill more than 70,000 poors, to ban public rights like question of freedom and resource right, dectating people rather than manageing them,...?

Please, try to reconsider it.

Kind regards,

Email: sdemeku@yahoo.com

City: Paris

Greetings my great compatiriots, who participate in the Anti-YARA Prize Commitee:I think you will find this article very helpful. It is very current and reported on July 27,2005.

Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) (July 27, 2005)

Date: 27 Jul 2005
Ethiopia: Complex Health/Food Insecurity Emergency Situation Report #5 (FY 2005)U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE (DCHA)
OFFICE OF U.S. FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE (OFDA)
July 27, 2005

Here is the site:
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-6EPRH4?OpenDocument

The bottom line is:

"Ethiopia has experienced worsening food insecurity, rapidly increasing malnutrition rates, distress migration, and erratic climatic conditions. Field assessments confirm widespread food shortages and the likelihood that 12 million people will be vulnerable"

"Initiatives aimed at tackling chronic food insecurity have been hobbled by delayed implementation, underestimation of emergency needs, and underresponse. As overall food security deteriorates in many areas, these contributing factors presage the spread of man-made famine conditions."

Remember: the reason for this worsening conditions of food insecurity in Ethiopia, according to the report is : a man-made factors which include, delayed implementaion, underestimation of emergency needs and underresponse,,,,,,,,,,,yet, yet,, yet..YARA Organization, picked PM Meles Zenawi for his greatest ahcievement to be part of this problem, what a shame!!!

I will try to paste the whole report.

May God bless Ethiopia and all Ethiopians!

Okay here is the whole report (in case you guys enounter difficulties to open the site):



Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

Date: 27 Jul 2005

Ethiopia: Complex Health/Food Insecurity Emergency Situation Report #5 (FY 2005)

U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
BUREAU FOR DEMOCRACY, CONFLICT, AND HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE (DCHA)
OFFICE OF U.S. FOREIGN DISASTER ASSISTANCE (OFDA)

Note: This report updates situation report #4 dated June 9, 2005.

BACKGROUND

In 2002, failed belg, or secondary rains from March through May, combined with delayed and sporadic meher, or main rains from July through September, led to severe drought conditions and widespread food insecurity in Ethiopia, affecting more than 13.2 million people during 2003. Humanitarian conditions improved in 2004, but the destitution that accompanied the crisis of the previous year complicated recovery efforts. Although relatively good meher rains improved harvest prospects in western parts of Ethiopia, most of the eastern lowlands experienced a poor meher harvest due to below average and erratic rainfall. Further, the situation in some belg-producing areas remained precarious due to poor rains and failed crops. In September 2004, USAID’s Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) reported signs of growing distress in pastoral lowland areas due to drought conditions and shortages of water, pasture, and food in affected areas. The arrival of the deyr rains in October mitigated a widespread disaster in Somali Region; however, overall humanitarian conditions in the region remain concerning. Similarly, inadequate Karan/Karma (July-September) rains have not improved the situation in Afar Region, where conditions continue to deteriorate. Since early 2005, Ethiopia has experienced worsening food insecurity, rapidly increasing malnutrition rates, distress migration, and erratic climatic conditions. Field assessments confirm widespread food shortages and the likelihood that 12 million people will be vulnerable. Initiatives aimed at tackling chronic food insecurity have been hobbled by delayed implementation, underestimation of emergency needs, and underresponse. As overall food security deteriorates in many areas, these contributing factors presage the spread of man-made famine conditions.



NUMBERS AT A GLANCE SOURCE
Vulnerable Population in 2005 12 million USAID Field Assessments, May-July 2005
Total Food Aid Requirements in 2005 464,385 metric tons (MT) DPPC, May 4, 2005


Total FY 2005 USAID/OFDA Assistance to Ethiopia: $26,341,107

Total FY 2005 USG Humanitarian Assistance to Ethiopia: $401,540,602

CURRENT SITUATION

Humanitarian situation remains critical. Humanitarian hotspots continue to proliferate in eight of Ethiopia’s nine regions, creating food insecurity and emergency health, nutrition, water and sanitation needs for an estimated 12 million people. As the hunger season sets in and many areas become inaccessible due to rains, food insecurity is expected to become more widespread between July and September. The pattern of hotspot emergence bears a striking resemblance to the 2002-2003 crisis, and humanitarian agencies are poised to anticipate hotspots. Despite the advantage of previous experience, however, with so many Ethiopians struggling to survive, delays in the government’s safety net programming, and cumulative shocks have created localized famine conditions.

Adjustments to the PSNP. While cash and food distributions through the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s (GFDRE) Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) are currently underway, slow start-up and problematic implementation of the program have contributed to increased food insecurity. From June 3 to 17, the GFDRE met with a multi-donor team to review the implementation of the PSNP and to discuss immediate actions to improve the effectiveness of the program. The group registered concern about the progress of the PSNP, and agreed on several adjustments. The modifications include an increase in lump sum payments to beneficiaries, and replacing cash transfers with food aid in some regions, in accordance with current conditions in local grain markets. In addition, the PSNP will more closely monitor grain prices, disseminating price and PSNP transfer information in order to improve local market responses to cash distributions.

USAID/OFDA Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) continues assessments. In response to the growing humanitarian concerns in Ethiopia, USAID/OFDA deployed a USAID/DART on May 31 to coordinate, assess, report, and respond rapidly to increasing needs. The USAID/DART is assessing and responding to needs in health, nutrition, water and sanitation, agricultural and livelihoods sectors, and is coordinating closely with the GFDRE, the United Nations (U.N.), and existing USAID/OFDA implementing partners in Ethiopia.

USAID/OFDA water and sanitation assessments. From May 16 to June 1, USAID/DART Water and Sanitation Technical Specialists assessed the current water and sanitation situation in Ethiopia and visited ongoing USAID/OFDA-funded water and sanitation programs in Arsi, and East and West Hararghe zones in Oromiya Region, Sidama and Wolayita Zones of Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR), and Southern Tigray Zone of Tigray Region.

Water and sanitation coverage in Ethiopia remains a serious and chronic concern, as the majority of the rural population lacks access to potable water and adequate sanitation facilities. Water scarcity, unsafe water supplies, inadequate sanitation, and lack of hygiene awareness have even more detrimental impacts on populations suffering from malnutrition due to the increased susceptibility to water-borne diarrheal diseases. In the May 2005, the GFDRE and non-governmental organization (NGO) partners issued a Flash Appeal Update, identifying more than 2.6 million people in need of emergency water and sanitation services, of which, only 17 percent of the $22.2 million requirement was resourced by May 2005.

Famine Conditions in SNNPR. With a population of 13.5 million, SNNPR is a densely populated patchwork of multiple agro-ecological and livelihoods zones. While some areas in the region are enjoying record harvests, pockets of green famine have emerged in some zones, posing a daunting challenge for humanitarian agencies to respond uniformly to varying conditions across the region.

Localized green famine conditions, coupled with livelihoods crises, have rendered increasingly fragile Sidama, Wolayita, and Gamo Gofa zones, where household coping mechanisms have been depleted by the cumulative effects of major drought and famine episodes in 1984-1985, 1993 to 1999, and in 2002- 2003. In contrast, the southern SNNPR woredas of Mirab Abaya, Kemba, Konso, Hamer, Jinka, and Kuraz are currently experiencing the most productive harvest in a decade. The inaccessibility of many parts of SNNPR and the deceptively green and lush appearance of famine-stricken areas further complicate efforts to identify vulnerable areas before they evolve into hotspots.

Malnutrition increases in Amhara region. From June 16 to 24, USAID/DART members traveled to Wag Hamra, South Gondor, and North and South Wollo zones of Amhara Region to assess conditions in humanitarian hotspot areas identified by U.N. agencies. The DART met with regional and woredalevel officials from several government offices, including the Bureaus of Agriculture, Health, Rural Development, and Food Security Coordination. In addition, the team conducted site visits, interviews, and observations throughout the region.

Health officials interviewed by the DART throughout the Amhara Region reported increases in malnutrition. Save the Children UK’s (SC/UK) June 2005 nutrition surveys of Sekota and Dehana woredas, Wag Hamra Zone, indicated Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates of 14.8 to 16.1 percent, and Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) rates of 0.9 and 1.1 percent, respectively. With the exception of the MOH-managed CTC programs are currently operational in these areas. The USAID/DART is meeting with NGOs to ensure an appropriate and rapid emergency nutrition response in Amhara.

Nutrition concerns in Oromiya Region. In early July, USAID/DART members traveled to Oromiya Region to assess the current drought, crop, health, and nutrition situation in hotspot areas as a follow-up to USAID staff visits to East and West Hararghe and Bale zones in May.

The 2005 belg rains were fairly consistent and well distributed in the region. However, in East Hararghe and Bale zones, the timing was erratic, and in the highlands, heavy rains and hail storms caused extensive crop damage and flooding. According to the USAID/DART, the health and nutrition situation in East Hararghe is tenuous and emergency nutrition interventions are critically needed in Fedis and Alemaya woredas. All 17 woredas of East Hararghe are considered food insecure and have been receiving food aid for the past several years. In 2005, 338,187 people are targeted for the PSNP and 360,911 for emergency food aid. The GFDRE’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) April nutrition survey in Fedis woreda measured GAM at 20.3 percent, SAM at 3.06, and under-five mortality rate of 4.08 per 10,000 per day.

Locust Warning. In mid-June, swarms of mature desert locusts were sighted in Western, Northwestern, and Central zones of Tigray Region, as well as in North Gonder Zone, Amhara Region. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD), close monitoring and surveys are underway to control the spread of the swarms before they cause significant damage to standing crops and vegetation. Through a regional NGO, Desert Locust Control, the MoARD deployed an aircraft to Axum to conduct locust surveillance and treatment as necessary. In addition, the GFDRE is providing information to farmers regarding locust control.

On July 12, USAID staff attended the inaugural Desert Locust Control and Preparedness Steering Committee meeting, convened by MoARD to share information and coordinate response activities. The MoARD indicated that current resources and response efforts are adequate, and that monitoring throughout the Horn of Africa will continue.

USG HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE

On October 12, 2004, U.S. Ambassador Aurelia E. Brazeal redeclared a disaster in response to the continuing health and food insecurity emergency in Ethiopia. Heavy flooding in localized areas of Somali Region prompted the Ambassador to issue a second disaster declaration for floods on May 25, 2005. On June 4, USAID/OFDA airlifted emergency relief supplies including 500 rolls of plastic sheeting, 10,000 blankets, and 5,000 jerry cans to assist residents affected by the flooding.

To date in FY 2005, USAID/OFDA has provided more than $26.3 million through 14 implementing partners, including three U.N. agencies, to support humanitarian activities in Ethiopia. USAID/OFDA FY 2005 programs focus on emergency response in the sectors of emergency health, nutrition, food security and agriculture, water and sanitation, while strengthening the local capacity of early warning and crisis management structures to respond rapidly to and mitigate new crises.

The USG is the largest donor of food assistance to Ethiopia. To date in FY 2005, USAID’s Office of Food for Peace (FFP) has pledged 807,441 MT through a combination of P.L. 480 Title II emergency food assistance, valued at more than $264.2 million, and Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust (BEHT) valued at approximately $95 million through the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and NGO implementing partners to support the 2005 Humanitarian Appeal, as well as areas targeted for the PSNP. The emergency food assistance provided through BEHT is funded as part of the $414 million famine prevention initiative for the Horn of Africa announced by President George W. Bush on June 7, which is part of a broader $674 million assistance package to address urgent humanitarian needs in Africa. The commodities provided by USAID/FFP include a combination of cereals, pulses, and vegetable oil, as well as corn soya blend for therapeutic and supplementary feeding. USAID/FFP assistance is provided to vulnerable populations through direct distribution, food-for-work programs, emergency school feeding, maternal and child health, and therapeutic and supplementary feeding programs.

In April 2005, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (State/PRM) contributed $500,000 to WFP to ensure full rations for Sudanese, Somali, and Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia. In addition, State/PRM has provided more than $2.0 million to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee assistance countrywide and $1.4 million to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) for refugee programs in Shimelba camp, Tigray Region, and in Yarenga and Sherkole camps, Beneshangul-Gumuz Region.

MAP: Ethiopia: FY 2005 Programs

The site can be located at:

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-6EPRH4?OpenDocument

1. Why Meles does not want green revolution to take place in Ethiopia?

The reason is simply because Meles wants the farmers to be dependent on food aid. That way they can not challenge him. If they can produce surplus they can pay tax and then they start demanding that the government behaves. During the May 15 elections farmers were told that unless they vote for EPRDF they will not get food aid, they can’t get fertilizer and they will even lose their land. That has already occurred in many places.

The other technique that the Meles regime uses to make farmers loyal to his government is depriving them of land ownership. If they own the land they will not be intimidated by his cadres and will elect whoever they want to elect. Although, they voted overwhelmingly for the opposition wherever there were secret ballots they could not confront the deceptions of the ruling party during vote counting because of fear of loss of their land. As a result the ruling party was able to do whatever it wanted to do with the fraud investigations. Such a fear among the rural population will not enable them to exercise their democratic rights.
What is the other effect of depriving farmers ownership of the land they till? The effect is that they remain poor because they have to live on the same land despite population growth. Economists have repeatedly said that if farmers own their land they can use it properly or if they find it not profitable to cultivate very small parcels of land they can sell it to whoever wants to invest on a larger scale with more inputs and better technologies thus enabling the land to be more productive. This is dangerous for Meles because if the country becomes self sufficient in food then he can not get aid, he can not be rich and he can never influence the farmers. Ultimately, he will lose his power. So, green revolution is not acceptable for Meles. Whatever he does in agriculture it is meant to be showy and not to solve the farmers’ problems.

2. YARA should know that because of the way fertilizer was sold in Ethiopia many farmers were forced to sell their oxen (their tractors) to pay for fertilizer debts in order to avoid going to jail. Many others were thrown into jail because they were not able to pay for their debts. I would like to know what the YARA Company has prepared for those farmers who are in jail just because of YARA’s fertilizer.

3. One of the members of the committee that nominated Meles for the Yara Foundation Award is Dr. Marco Quinons. He is the director of the Sasakawa Global 2000 project in Addis Ababa. He was introduced to Meles by Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter established the project entitled Sasakawa Global 2000 with his wealthy Japanese friend Sasakawa who passed away few years ago. The project was initiated following the 1984 famine in Ethiopia. But funny enough the project was implemented in Tanzania because Carter did not want to implement it in Ethiopia as he did not want to help the Mengistu regime.

Later on when Mengistu was overthrown Carter wanted to implement the project in Ethiopia. The intention was to make Meles more popular. In fact, Dr. Marco Quinons once told us that he was the one who helped Meles win the previous election by bringing in the project. He was boasting about his contribution. He also said that he was allowed to visit Meles’s office anytime because of the favor he did to the PM.

Dr. Marco Quinons is not a genuine person as far as I know. He is a corrupt person. From his previous statements about his contribution to help Meles win the previous election and from his personality I can say that Dr. Marco Quinons must have been behind Meles’s nomination for the Yara Award.

At the moment, farmers have abandoned the Sasakawa project system. It has not been adopted because it could not be economical and sustainable.
The people of Ethiopia and the rest of the world will develop hatred to the Yara Company because of the awrd. It is, therefore, necessary that the Yara Company cancels the award. Moreover, the company should seek for explanations as to how Meles was elected and should make a thorough investigation on the process so that such mistakes will not be repeated.

4. If YARA says that Meles has done something good to the Ethiopian people then it should consult the people themselves. The easiest way of getting an answer for that question is to look at the results of the May 15 elections. Since the people of Ethiopia have told the world that they don’t want to see Meles as their leader then YARA should not use their names and instead should say that although Meles is hated by his own people he is a very good customer of our company.

Email: alemayehumek@yahoo.com

City: London

Greetings my great brothers and sisters,,well...it is sad..that the report "YARA's regret on the award", found to be a hoax. Well,,it could only make us to work hard, that is all!! Now we are warned....now we know we have to be careful in releasing key information,,,,,that is all!! There is a remedy for hoax...to not to give up...and to work more harder....and to focus!! Well..I have one more report to share..that I found and believe to help the committee: here is the article:



Post details: Man-Made" Disaster Looming Over Ethiopia
30.07.05
06:40:51 am, Categories: Agriculture, 486 words
Man-Made" Disaster Looming Over Ethiopia
By our staff reporter

Delays in the execution of Ethiopia's landmark Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), which is aimed at ending perennial hunger in Ethiopia, were creating a "man-made" disaster. The private bi-weekly, The Reporter (English), by referring to a report from the governmental Emergency Nutrition Coordination Unit (ENCU), disclosed Saturday, July 30, 2005.

[More:]

According to The Reporter, the ENCU believed that the consequences of the inadequate implementation of the PSNP were being felt in many areas of the country. Under the safety net scheme, 5 million, chronically-hungry people were supposed to be given food or cash (i.e. around 6 Birr) in return for doing public work like building roads; but that in some places, families have received nothing. Multi-Agency Teams dispatched to different regions said that as of May, only 11 per cent cash and 44 per cent of food had actually reached people in need, despite the scheme being operational since January (The Reporter, July 30, 2005).

The UK, the European Commission, the US and the World Bank were said to be providing financial support the program, which runs at 200 million USD-per-year. The safety net scheme was hailed by leaders of wealthy nations at the G8 summit back in 2004 as a means that "...will protect the assets of the chronically food insecure families, enhance the functioning of food markets, and support urgent rural investments", and is also hoped to provide "...an alternative to emergency assistance for Ethiopians who are chronically food insecure" in the coming 3 to 5 years (The Reporter, July 30, 2005).

Nutritional experts are however starting to warn that outbreaks of scurvy and hunger were occurring because of delays in delivering cash or food to families. It was also learned that the critical report came two days after the European Union announced it was pouring an extra 60 million Euros into the program. It was also learned that UN Secretary Koffi Annan had condemned the delays in the handing-out of aid to families, and last June, was quoted as saying "urgent action is required to address the implications of the delay in the program". According to the ENCU report, in one region of the country where the scheme was operational, some 700,000 "poorest of the poor" had been excluded and had not received any kind of aid at all (The Reporter, July 30, 2005).

According to The Reporter, a spokesperson from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had dismissed the ENCU report, but though had acknowledged the delays, and was quoted as saying that "there are minor problems but the government and donor community are devising certain strategies to cope with the delays". According to the spokesperson, the delays were related to the novelty of the safety net program and the fact that some local officials were not handing out support to families. It was also indicated that the scheme ranked as one of the largest aid programs in the country, covering almost half of the total 520 woredas of the country (The Reporter, July 30, 2005).



May God bless All!!

Bombard Yara Board Members @ personal emails

Please email or fax to the Board Members of Yara Foudation who have decided to award Meles for "outstanding contribution to the Green Revolution in Ethiopia"
Yara Board Members

Thorleif Enger, Yara President and CEO (Chair)

Yara International ASA
Bygdøy allé 2
P.O. Box 2464, Solli
N-0202 Oslo
Norway

Tel: 47 24 15 70 00
Fax: 47 24 15 70 01
thorleif.enger@yara.com
-----------------------------
Dr. Pedro A. Sanchez
Director of Tropical Agriculture, The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Senior Research Scholar, International Research Institute for Climate Prediction
Co-Chair, Hunger Task Force, Millennium Project
P.O. Box 1000
61 Route 9W, Lamont Hall 2G
Palisades, NY 10964
Tel (845) 365-8330
Fax (845) 680-4870
Email: sanchez@iri.columbia.edu
---------------------------------------------------
Dr. Marco Quinones
Director
Sasakawa Global 2000- Africa Program
Box 12771, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel:+251-1-528507/08/09/10/11
Email: sgeth@telecom.net.et
Sgeth@ethionet.et
---------------------------------------------------
Joan Holmes, President of the Hunger Project, USA.
The Hunger Project, 15 East 26th Street, New York, NY 10010
1-212-251-9100 or fax +1-212-532-9785
jh@thp.org
jc@thp.org
----------------------
Peter Hartmann

Director General
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
c/o Lambourn (UK) Ltd.
Carolyn House, 26 Dingwall Road
Croydon CR9 3EE
UNITED KINGDOM

p.hartmann@cgiar.org

---------------- ------
Expected to present the award is:
Professor Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey.sachs@unmillenniumproject.org

Forum,
I hope your message gets deleted again. It is full of crap. You must be blind and deaf to come up to your conclusion to say a children killer, a robber and one of the biggest habitually liar should be given an award. If Ethiopians hate Meles as a person they wouldn’t have tolerate him for fourteen years. It is what Meles has done to Ethiopia and what he has done to hundreds of Ethiopians like Shibre they hate.

Forum, some of the things you have said make sense but most of it don't. If you claim to be neutral lets see u write somethings on the PM's wrongs. Those pilots foresee the potential of the government to committee a genocide on the people of Ethiopia. After hearing Gen. Samora Yenus saying "I will kill as many as I can and head to the Chaka to become a rebel again" before the opposition takes over. I think this will scare any body.

Email: hhaile@gmail.com

City: MS

Bereket Simon wedi eritrea also said, " the land policiy will be changed on the cofin of EPRDF's" . "Land will be privatized be ehadeg mekaber ly" when you hear all these do not u be sacred. These people will not hesitate to commit a genocide to stay on power.

Email: hhaile@gmail.com

City: MS

Thank you very much for removing my article as usual !!!! how may i thank you !?? i have never seen a genuine democrat like You !!! your tolerance & accommodation is very commendable > keep it up brother ,Ethiopia needs Guy Like you , who tirelessly removes , deletes , silences, other Ethiopian ,as you may know your Highness ,we can`t move Forward with our your blessing , so-keep on removing articles who opposes your holy idea,we are fortunate to have you, please keep this room clean from those opposing CUD and UEDF,
thank you very much ,
sincerely yours
i forget To Mention , down with meles zenawi , he`s thieve , criminal , He has To be brought to Justice ,
Dear moderator , am i now Ethiopian enough to Be called , Ethiopian . will my article survive the next couple day`s ?

Forty-Five Percent of Population Estimated to Be Food Insecure

Assistant to the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Sally Anne Way, said last Friday that 45 percent of the Ethiopian population subjected to food insecurity.


Speaking at a press conference held at ECA, Anne Way said that it was time for the Ethiopian government to change strategies to ensure the right to food in the country. She said monentary mechanism to ensure the right to food in the country was very weak.

Jean Ziegler, special rapporteur on the right to food, said that some programms being undertaken by the government in some parts of the country to ensure the right to food were promising. He said the resettlement programm and infrastracture development under way in most parts of the country were encouraging.

At the invitation of Ethiopia, the special rapporteur on the right to food, Mr Jean Ziegler, had undertaken a country mission to Ethiopia from 17 to 28 February 2004.

The full report of the mission containing the findings and recommendations will be finalized during 2004 and submitted to the Commision.


Source: http://www.addistribune.com/Archives/2004/03/05-03-04/Forty.htm

Email: kuratekere@yahoo.com

City: Ambo

Aster,

I think you are not aware of the facts at the ground. Haven't you heard that the CUD is now asking for a government of unity?

Everything is changing soon and the opposition seems to realise that facts at the ground. They failed to prove the alleged vote rigging and the only solution is to join the parliament.

So, please don't try to incite violent or armed actions because we had already wars more than our share.

By the way, I am sure you will not volunteer for such struggle. Don't push others to do what you will never try. My last word, you know EPRDF wins any war.

May God help you to have peaceful mind.
Ali

Email: alimodi_akrimodi@yahoo.com

City: Addis Ababa

Ethiopia's digital dream

Twenty years ago, Ethiopia was in turmoil. Now there's a new kind of revolution sweeping the land, reports Michael Cross

Thursday August 4, 2005
The Guardian

Ethiopian government offices are austere affairs. They even lack the typical African decoration of the president's portrait on the wall. None of the furniture would fetch 10p in a British junk shop.
One detail disturbs this pattern - a large flat-screen plasma monitor, plugged into a rack of digital routers, appears to have been teleported from another universe.

The kit is here to support the world's most unexpected e-government programme: Ethiopia, one of Africa's poorest countries, is spending one tenth of its GDP every year on IT. Over the next five years, the government plans to invest more than $100m (£56m) in public sector computers. It aims to equip hundreds of government offices and schools with broadband internet connections. And by 2007, according to the plan, none of Ethiopia's 74 million people will live more than a few kilometres from a broadband access point. The nucleus of this network, 4,000km of optical fibre, has already been laid and will be fully commissioned later this year.

Ethiopia's IT programme is an extreme example of the aspiration of several African countries to leap out of their quagmire of decaying public services with the help of IT. The dream is to skip an entire generation of infrastructure by going directly to internet technology.

Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, talks of IT providing a short cut to development. "I want to see ICT pervade all our activities as a government, not just in the urban areas. We want to connect all our villages in two to three years. All education services, likewise. We would also like to provide a bit of telemedicine."

Telecommunication of any kind is a novelty in Ethiopia. In the 1980s, when I first visited the country to report the famine, making a phone call outside the capital meant picking up the receiver and waiting for an operator to set up a crackly radio link. Two decades on, only 1.2% of the population have a telephone. Internet usage is low even by African standards.

Meles deals briskly with talk that a country where female life expectancy is 50 and famine still threatens millions should have different priorities. IT is no luxury, he says, but rather a "crucial weapon to fight poverty".

He says the national digital network underpins two specific "pro-poor" projects, to connect schools and local government offices.

Schoolnet is an attempt to overcome Ethiopia's desperate shortage of teachers, especially in remote areas. Schools already receive video lessons broadcast for eight hours a day by satellite TV. The syllabus, based on South African material, is being digitised for transmission over the internet so that teachers at the receiving end can prepare beforehand and control the pace of lessons (so long as their electricity supply is working). Demissew Bekele, head of the government's educational media agency, says this control is essential for children moving from primary to secondary school, where the medium of instruction is English.

The education minister, Genet Zewdie, says there is no alternative to e-learning. "IT is expensive, but ignorance is more expensive."

Woredanet is the country's first step in e-government. For the first time the network connects all 600 of Ethiopia's local councils (woredas) to 11 regional capitals through internet telephone and video-conferencing. Half the links are by cable, and half by satellite. The broadband infrastructure also offers the chance for small towns to install their first payphone.

Previously, official reports would take months to reach the capital. Often early warning signs of famine, such as falling livestock prices, would not get through until a crisis had developed. Woredanet has not yet been tested in such circumstances, however it was mobilised in earnest earlier this year to train officials running the May general election - by far the most open in Ethiopia's long history.

Efficient communications between tiers of government are part of a programme of administrative reform that speaks a language strikingly similar to Tony Blair's vision of citizen-centric e-government.

"The whole purpose is to change the mindset of the civil service," says the man in charge, Tefera Waluwa, minister for capacity building. He talks of "transparency and accountability, fairness, efficiency and effectiveness" enabled by the technology.

Tefera says his reforms have already reduced the time taken to issue a foreign investment licence from 225 days to two hours. His target is one hour. It was done by looking at all the procedures and asking why they were necessary. Unlike his British counterparts, however, Tefera is not seeking to re-engineer public employees out of their jobs. "The government has a shortage of educated people. When someone is redundant in one office, they will be required in another place."

Another innovation in the programme is an information desk in every government agency. Tefera shows off an official name badge on his lapel, which he says is compulsory issue to all his civil servants.

Ministers say that, eventually, the government's networks will become community internet facilities. Today, widespread internet use is a distant dream. Even by the standards of the world's least wired continent, Ethiopian internet usage is low: less than 0.1% of the population goes online. According to Internet World Stats, this places it in the same league as Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo and way behind Kenya (1.2%), let alone South Africa (7.3%). Britain's score is 59%.

Ethiopia's digital infrastructure is being built by the national telecom operator, the publicly-owned Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation. Its main contractors are Cisco Systems (whose guest I was) and Business Connexion, a South African-based IT services firm. The government subsidises the project with a tax break and by underwriting bonds. "We do not spend a cent of the budget per se," says Meles.

In fact, Meles says that money is by no means his main problem. "There are two things we need. One is training and manpower. So whatever technical assistance the west can give with high quality internet technology is the most important thing."

The second is hardware. "I know that people throw away computers that are two or three years old," says Meles. "We could do with five, six, seven-year-old computers that work."

Ethiopia is already receiving used hardware from a Brussels-based organisation Close the Gap. It supplies renovated corporate PCs, sorted in standard packages and with new Windows licences for between €45 and €90 per machine.

One consequence of Ethiopia's knowledge gap is reliance on Windows and other proprietary software. Meles, a former guerilla leader who overthrew the dictator Mengistu in 1991, is at ease discussing the question of open source software.

"Our position is determined by the fact that proprietary suppliers have the money to provide initial support," he says. "To implement open source needs a minimum of training and at the moment we don't have that. In five or 10 years time, we will be in a position to choose."

Whether the dream of IT helping African countries fast-track to development will become reality is impossible to predict. The worry must be that national broadband infrastructures will repeat the story of the 1960s and 1970s, in which ambitious industrial and agricultural projects proved unsustainable after lining the pockets of the African elite.

There are some signs that the new wave will be different. One is the existence of grass-roots demand for IT throughout Africa. In many big cities, cellphone networks and cybercafes have bypassed incompetent and corrupt official analogue channels of communication. In Ethiopia, mobile phones outnumber fixed lines. The phenomenon turns on its head the whole concept of "appropriate technology".

African leaders enjoy demonstrating that the latest digital router can be as appropriate to a developing country as a bullock cart or an efficient wood-burning stove. Ethiopians in particular detest the West's automatic association of their ancient country with famine and charity.

"We're not waiting for handouts," assures Genet, "but we do need partnerships."

In Ethiopia's case, it is especially hard to be objective. The country's distinctive culture and the scale of its problems make any visit an intense experience, especially for anyone who saw something of the bad years. Merely sitting in a government office brings back vivid memories of hearing officials reciting district-by-district statistics of families "affected" and "seriously affected" by famine.

The capital, Addis Ababa, looks so changed that it is easy to fall into the trap of over-optimism about an IT-enabled future. But Ethiopia is not Addis Ababa. So long as the vast majority of its people are subsistence farmers scraping a living from a hostile environment, IT can only be part of a bigger package of slow and painful reform.

That doesn't mean it is not a good investment. In any case, Ethiopians don't regard themselves as second-class human beings: no outsider is going to persuade them to have second-class ambitions

Those who ever supported meles are his supporters only because they are benefiting from his rule in one way or an other.

I think it is time for his supporters to forget private benefits and to come to the real world. Please stop sucking the blood of the poor farmer who even never ate enough food in his life. It is ENOUGH, and ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

I think if he deserves the prize it is only for being brother of devil.

UNITY TO ETHIOPIA, AND FREEDOM TO THE ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE ONCE AND FOR EVER BUT DOWN WITH MELES AND HIS REGIMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would like to thank the organizers and would like to tell you that you will be succesful leting meles down only because you are trying to uncover the hidden truth.

FK

Email: flagot@yahoo.com

City: German

Why YARA nominate Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles? Is really a symbol of Green Revolution in Africa? By what standard Yara assess growth, food security, nutrition, and hunger of the people? How Meles government exemplified as good governance? For me it is really a joke. Not only a joke but it is also insulation to Africa in general and to the people of Ethiopian in particular.

Forget others, at present we heard millions are suffering as a result of low production and severely exposed to drought, chronic malnutrition, and HIV/AIDS, etc. This is one indicator of EPRDF and its bad governance. On the other hand the government, Meles, is number one country leader in begging and requesting G8 countries, other developed, and humanitarian organizations to assist millions of Ethiopians vulnerable to abject poverty annually.

Besides it is obvious the international communities, prominent country leaders, and humanitarian observers, including Norway perhaps, recently criticize and condemned government action against opposition, and killing innocent civilians in Addis and other towns.

In parallel what happens in Ethiopia is part of the democratic process in the country. And this is the out put of all Ethiopians struggle against tyranny and anti-Ethiopian Meles for justices and democracy. Even meles use as an idea to convince some friends, leaders and innocent Ethiopians, as it was achieved by the good will and democractic nature of EPRDF. It is not true. EPRDF is not a democratic government by its nature neither in the past nor in the future. It is completely a dictatorial government.

So the going on rally is nothing except to oppress human rights of the people without alternative using security and military forces. Therefore How YARA could nominate such dectatorial, anti-Ethiopia and its people leader as a symbol of GOOD GOVERNANCE.

I condemn YARA because YARA encourage and contributes to this dictatorship and it is a moral and physical damage to Ethiopian people, Africans, and developing countries. It is also a moral question for Norwegians. How a company setting in Norway, regardless it origin as a commentator to the company tries to describe, are initiated to award such dictatorial and anti-Ethiopian leader. To me this should not be happen in Norway.

The Company should know that, one way or the other, he is attributing to dictatorship. In such manner you never contribute to improve food security, reduce malnutrition, and or help HIV/AIDS victims when they award Meles.

Let see one by one what criteria Yara use in the selection based on the official report stated in Yara website.
http://www.yara.com/en/about/yara_centennial/green_revolution/yara_prize_winner_inter.html

1. Yara foundation has evaluated and emphasized the progress to date, and realizes that there are still many unsolved challenges and shortcomings to be addressed.

Here I don’t want to say much. This is self explanatory. What Yara tries to tell us is he knows there are real problems but he needed to cover them with warm blankets in order not to disappoint our prime minister. They are attempting to fuel Ethiopian and other people in a diplomatic word. But they know the actual problems are more than that.

2. A 21st Century African Green Revolution is much more than just producing more food.

If African Green Revolution is more than producing more food as YARA stated; what is prime minister bring to Ethiopia people. Ethnic politics and division, increase food aid beneficiaries, and increase number of people affected by hiv/aids. What else?

3. It also involves providing an enabling policy environment, securing ownership rights, but improving child nutrition, making markets work for the poor and doing all this in ways that protects and enhances the rural environment.

First and foremost, policy is not an end by itself. But it is a means to an end. And in the existing world I never believe a government or country without such decorated policy and strategy was existed.

How we define ownership right? Majority of our people are dependent on land, so let’s take land as example. Even though I have my own stand with regard to ownership right, according to Yara does land belonging to the government means ownership is secured. While others including IMF/World Bank have differences with government on land issue. Here I don’t mean I personally agree with IMF and /or WB policy and strategy in Africa.

Where is the improvement in child nutrition? I don’t want say much only let see some study and UNICEF report

Case-1:

63% of the surveyed children live in very poor households and 89% of their caregivers or biological mothers have not completed primary school. Only 3% of urban and I% of rural households covered by the survey have flush latrines. The preliminary report also shows that the death of a child under-five has been reported in 25% of households and that 96% of the mothers of the children gave birth without assistance from any trained person.

In regard to shocks or events, both the rural and urban households surveyed have experienced up to five events or shocks in the last 12 months before the survey. Furthermore, about a third of the households reported serious debt of whom only 33% thought they could payback. In regard to the health of children, about 10% have long-term illnesses and 36% reported to have experienced an illness 24 hours before the survey.

Case-2:
Members of the ACT Ethiopia Forum - the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), the Lutheran World Federation (LWF/DWS), Norwegian Church Aid, DanChurchAid, Christian Aid, Canadian Food Grains Bank and Bread for the World - are bringing to the ACT alliance’s attention a situation in which 8 to 10 million people are at risk of malnutrition. Severe drought conditions, a late start of the Ethiopian government’s National Productive Safety Net Program, meant to provide multi-year support to more than five million chronically food-insecure people, and the lack of adequate resources to provide food and non-food assistance to 3.8 million food-insecure people have combined to create an alarming situation.
ReliefWeb » Document Preview » Ethiopia: 8 to 10 million people ...
www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/ db900SID/KKEE-6CYRG4?OpenDocument - 18k



Case-3:
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday it would quadruple the number of its emergency feeding centers for almost 20,000 children by the end of the year in response to rising malnutrition in Ethiopia. The agency said malnutrition was on the increase, with some 170,000 children at risk of death by the end of the year unless they received urgent help. "Severe acute malnutrition among Ethiopia's children has reached alarming levels across the country," Bjorn Ljungqvist, country director for UNICEF in Ethiopia, said.

ETHIOPIA: More feeding centers needed to combat malnutrition – UNICEF, 13 Jul 2005 14:16:22 GMT
Source: IRIN

4. It is a revolution to end hunger that also empowers people with a voice, and the opportunity to create their own future.

As I try to explain, this is the most important issue. In my opinion, this should be the main criteria we need to focus while we are selecting candidate for prize. We need to assess and consider carefully what changes were actually observed in the people and local community.
However in Ethiopia in the last 14 years we observe only drought, hunger, food aid, lack of empowerment, and deem futures. The fact is not what YARA is trying to inform us. Every body knows the fact, either developed or undeveloped; and humanitarian or non humanitarian. It is the opposite.

“Based on YARA he attempted to tell us “the results are among the most promising for achieving the Millennium Development Goal of cutting world hunger in half by the year 2015. During the past decade Ethiopia has more than doubled its food production; from 6.3 million metric tons in 1993, to 14.3 million tons in 2004. Ethiopia’s GDP grew at an average of 5.8 % annually, with agriculture growing at an average rate of 3.1 % in spite of the severe droughts of 1998 and 2001. During the last three years, agricultural production has grown at 8 % per annum. In spite of the fact that about 40% of the population is chronically malnourished, Ethiopia’s food security program aims at enabling 4-5 million chronically food insecure to attain food security within 3-5 years, a major step towards accomplishing the Hunger Millennium Development Goal”.

This is unreliable: The proportion of the people vulnerable to food aid to survive is 10.3% between 1980/1 and 2000/1, this increase to 22% in 2002/3. Meanwhile average yield production per hectare is 11.91 qt in 1980/1 and increases to 12.17 qt, where as fertilizer consumption increases from 43287 mt in 1980 to 279603 mt in 2001 even farmers consumption far less than the total fertilizer imported to the country, so where is the double production at farm household level.

LET ME END BY SHOWING:

HOW MUCH IMPORTED AND WHO EXPORT INORGANIC FERTILIZER TO ETHIOPIA?
To have a clue about HYDRO renamed now as YARA. In 2002: Following a Japanese aid tender floated in August 2001 Hydro has reportedly shipped 20,000 mt of Western European urea into Ethiopia. A new IDB tender for 25,000 mt has been floated with closing on February 7. Small price increases were registered in the supplies out of CIS also. Transagro is reported to have been awarded the business in the November 19 Ethiopian National Bank tender for 50,000 mt DAP with supplies from CIS at a price of $181.99/mt ciflo. Other sales from the CIS net-back to about $135/mt. GCT in Tunisia sold 8,000 mt DAP to Italy at $156-$157/mt fob bulk. It has offered in the Ethiopian ADF tender of January 23 at $189/mt cfrlo bulk. Morocco has also participated in the Ethiopian tender. JPMC from Jordan has sold about 6,000 mt DAP to Malaysia at $166/mt bulk.

The Ethiopian DAP tenders have been the main attraction of the recent past. The November 19 National Bank 50,000 mt tender has been awarded to Transagro at $181.99/mt ciflo through Ambasal, with shipment starting in February., and the January 23 ADF tender is likely to be awarded to Tunisia and Jordan (25,000 mt each). A new ADF tender for another 50,000 mt has been floated with closing on February 4.
www.afamin.net/documents/AFM_Jan02_en.pdf

From this we can visualize how competition and price determine in import transaction in this world. Every year Ethiopia imports a large amount of fertilizer against the interest of Ethiopian farmers. Some of these dangerous chemicals were stored in various warehouses through out the country. They are harmful to human health and the environment.

As USIAD stated in one of their document: “THE UTILIZATION RATE OF FERTILIZERS IN ETHIOPIA IS EXTREMELY LOW. EVEN SO, THE IMPORT OF FERTILIZER IS SUBSTANTIAL AND GROWING AT A RATE OF 20% ANNUALLY FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS. THE GOVERNMENT EXPECTS THIS RATE TO CONTINUE WELL INTO THE NEXT DECADE.” http://usembassy.state.gov/ethiopia/wwwhecco.html

This indicate the interest and demand of rural poor farmers is completely ignoring; the government lets say minister Meles imported fertilizer just to satisfy companies interest/benefit and clean a road for corruption. The money allocated to purchase fertilizer never came from the sky. It comes through international debt/loan agreements at the expense of the country and its people. For instance in 2001 77% comes from loan and 23% from grant, no government share at all. However the final destination of this money is bank accounts of individual leaders; and organizations involve in such drama.
IS FERTILIZER REALLY CHANGES FARMERS FOOD SECURITY?

Millions were suffer in Ethiopia as a result of drought, food aid, and malnutrition. We don’t need further evidence to justify this. It is enough to see government appeal, assessment reports, and studies, documents of international communities or non-government organisations. The controversy on fertilizer use is wide and intense. Many argue on the negative effect of fertilizer in recurrent Africa. They argue inorganic fertilizer has more disadvantage than advantage in ensuring food security and alleviates poverty in Africa. It affects indigenous local seeds capacity. It causes to lose their resist to drought then improve soil fertility. It rather enhances desertification, low production, food insecurity and poverty.


SO WHAT YARA TRY TO DO IS LAY AND COVER UP OUR EYES WITH UNJUSTIFIABLE AND GOOD REASONS. WHICH IS REALLY UNACCEPTABLE BY ANY

Email: endashawmekonen@yahoo.com

City: Trondehiem

The YARA Award was conceived and bought to give legitimacy to Meles' claim that he is popular in the rural areas with the farmers and hence winning the election there.Look at the timing of the announcement of the award.

Email: zghiwet@yahoo.ca

City: York

i am impressed with the statistic laden reports, but depressed about the recommendations. why stop the award? why not try to encourage the PM to try better next time? despite your personal feelings for all the faults of the current government, let us not forget those of the previous one, and the one before that, and if we live long enough that which is to come. unless you are amassing some form of military or tremendous political machinery to reconstitute another government, then our most constructive option is to push the govt in a positive direction. fighting amongst ourselves only leads to problems for ourselves. not that i support the divisive policies or all the scams, but just a few years ago i remember when mengistus men took us out of our parents home to kill us or to get us killed. the reason why we are here, and why tplf is in power is because we had a monstrous regime. we should be like the chinese, be patient, and slowly move our country and our people to better self sufficiency and governance. everything is relative, and tomorrow may turn ugly. so be grateful you are breathing, and use your breath to help others breath easier as well.

Email: gedeclue@yahoo.com

City: los angeles

There is nothing we can give credit for Meles. He is enemy of Ethiopia. No one expect good thing from this person. He has been doing it and it is clear that will continue doing it. He gave our port, defend badim belongs to Eritria, divide the country in ethnic group and promot hate rage among us. How can Ethiopians accept this guy as a leader. The recent fact is also killing innocent people using his Agazi criminal forces. How about the million dollar run by his party ignoring other Ethiopians starving to death. The dergue was overthrowen by Ethiopian people directly on indirectly. The only thing Melese did is hijack the struggle and take the power by doing the mentioned distruction against Ethiopia like sale the port, land and using divide and rule. If he has a little interest in Ethiopia, the ethiopian people would follow him but he hate us I don't know how he developed this inferiority complex. But he will live with his anger and hate rage burnning himself. Ethiopia will live forever against Melese&co interest.

Email: hager@hotmail.com

City: DC

I heard more and more people are getting diagnosed with breast cancer and other kind of cancers more than before in Ethiopia. I wonder if it has something to do with non-organic fertilizers from Yara.

Dear participants,

Whichever forum you join, you will read Ali's nasty comment against Ethiopians. Is this his only paid job? Or what else is he doing? spying?

Email: ab89891@yahoo.co.uk

City: LONDON

I don't get it.

How come yara price committee believe to give Yara price for murderer Meles Zenawi? To me, it seems like Yara committee knows only meles Zenawi not Ethiopian.

Email: zewditu@rogers.com

City: Toronto

(I-Newswire) - The only truth in the whole statement is only the last phrase that reads Ethiopia is “one of the poorest countries in the developing world”. Today Ethiopia still remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Prime Minister Meles ruled the country for the last 14 years. During this period the number of Ethiopians requiring food assistance tripled from 5 million to 14 million. Yara claims that Ethiopia’s agricultural average growth is 3.6% per annum. All other reliable data show that it was only 1.6 % yearly. It is not only the opponents of Meles Zenawi that dispute the claims of Yara. All data collected by independent researchers and agricultural experts question the validity of the data provided by Yara. In 1990 Ethiopian per capita income was $120. Today after 15 years under the per capita income is only $96. All data show the contrary to Yara’s claims: the living conditions of Ethiopians has rather worsened.

Then why do Yara have to manipulate the facts concerning the democratization process in Ethiopia, the agricultural production, food security and the reduction of poverty in Ethiopia? The answer is simple. Yara is the biggest fertilizer business partner of Meles Zenawi’s government. Yara by its own advertisement is one of the leading fertilizer producers in the world. It sells fertilizers worth billions of dollars, and Meles Zenawi is a client. In Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopia fertilizer sale is 100 % monopolized by ruling party ( EPRDF ) affiliated fertilizer selling companies .All other companies that were in the fertilizer market were forced out of the market. An Ethiopian farmer who lives from hand to mouth has no choice but to purchase the fertilizer at the exorbitant price from the sole supplier. To add insult to injury, a farmer can be thrown into jail if he cannot pay back the debt. This is only the tip of the ice berg of the corrupt practices of those party –owned fertilizer companies.

One cannot believe that Board members of major European corporation are not aware of the human rights situation in Ethiopia. Meles Zenawi has the worst record of atrocities and gross human rights violations of any current African leader. All known and respected human rights organizations regularly report these shameful facts which are indigestible only to Yara Foundation’s Board members.

According to human rights reports, there are 15, 000 political prisoners in today’s Ethiopia. In the wake of the post-election protests over massive electoral fraud, the Meles Zenawi government by its own account admitted incarcerating up to 5,000 protesters


###

Zerihun, M. Adam
telefon +47 41509453
Oslo,Norway

Minalebet sewatch lela sra btseru. Already Meles has won the prize. Try to work hard like Meles and get a prize in your respective disciplines. It is like the saying "Amlakie yegadegnie hulet aynotch lematfat yenewa and atfalgn".

Email: Debalkie@hotmail.com

City: WDC

debalki teretesh moteshal!

Email: getahun123@gmail.com

City: oslo

CWS emergency appeal: Ethiopia food insecurityAccount: 640-X

Appeal amount: $300,000

SITUATION:

Erratic and poorly distributed rainfall in the 2004 planting season, lack of infrastructure, inability to recover from previous crop failures, and years of economic decline have all contributed to the conditions of acute malnutrition now plaguing Ethiopia. Approximately 3.8 million of the country's 47 million inhabitants are at risk of starvation.

Food shortages are expected to become increasingly more critical in the coming months and the number of at-risk persons could double. Women and children are the most vulnerable, while migrating men and their livestock are both succumbing to weakness in isolated areas.

CWS RESPONSE:

Through February 2006, CWS will support the work of partner and Action By Churches Together (ACT) member Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus -- Development and Social Services Commission (EECMY-DASSC). The group is coordinating direct assistance to 103,967 persons through its area synods and local partners. Project implementation includes, food relief and agricultural rehabilitation inputs, medical assistance, and veterinarian care to ailing livestock, in 14 Woredas or districts in four regions of the country.

EECMY-DASSC will coordinate purchase, storage, and distribution of:

- 9,475 tons of cereal

- 954 tons of supplementary food mix

- 421 tons of seed (variety, purchased in country)

- 20,797 sets of hand tools (three tools per household)

Due to the gravity of the situation and the need to respond quickly, CWS encourages immediate support for this appeal -- Ethiopia Food Insecurity (Acct. #640-X)). The appeal goal is $300,000 in support of the targeted initial funding request from ACT (ref. AFET51) for $4,900,572.

Details regarding specific budget items are available upon request.

Contributions to support Ethiopia Food Insecurity may be sent to your denomination or directly to:

Church World Service
India (Maharashtra) Flood Response (Acct. #6977)
P.O. Box 968
Elkhart, IN 46515
Contributions may also be made by credit card by calling: (800) 297-1516, ext. 222, or online at www.churchworldservice.org.

Email: walexmz@yahoo.co.uk

City: oslo

Debalkie,'Siyamrsh yikr engi' No Yara price for meles!!!Do you have a share??

Email: zewditu@rogers.com

City: Toronto

Moderator,please close this forum,it get us no where since EPRDF paid cadres still blinded by truth.

Email: DillingerJ1@aol.com

City: DC

Cadres of Melese not getting what they use to in thier Embassy abroads the reasons?we Americans are squzzing George troat to free the social security some of us invested.

Email: DillingerJ1@aol.com

City: DC

Hailegnaw, Do not worry,
who ever is ant-Yara commitee member whether shabia or who ever is in the commitee we do not care yara price is still wrong, for the wrong person we still are ant-yara.

City: Toronto

The funny thing is he is making money and get commision from yara because he is bying their sheet and sell to for the moost poor nation on the planet the poor peopel of ethiopia and yara know him he is purchaser of that misken Ager.

Email: aba11715@yahoo.com

City: texas

The people of Norway,
This is one of the many criminal acts comitted by your very first Yara green award winner against Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has warned that his country faces a famine worse than that of 1984 which killed nearly one million people and sparked a big international relief effort.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the BBC that some six million people already needed food aid and the number facing starvation could rise to 15 million early in the new year if international donors did not come to the country's aid.

Meles said

If [the 1984 famine] was a nightmare, then this will be too ghastly to contemplate

Meles Zenawi,
Ethiopian PM

He predicted that the number of people who could be hit as a result of the new drought might be three times the number affected during the earlier famine.

as i said it is one of the thousands. are you happy with your action? Congratulation. The Ethiopian 75 million people have many friends especially God. Your profit motive to prize a criminal leader who took power by force after 17 years Gurilla war will never overshadow the truth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2440093.stm

Email: Gimma@hotmail.com

Hi,

Yara is trying to be smart by legitimatizing illegal profit sharing of 200,000$ with Meles & co. If they're realy concerned, why not make a debt relief to the very farmers who're burdened by fertilizer payment imposed by Meles & co?

Do not be surprized if their next candidate for the prize will be Hitler!

What a shame?

bye

City: Canada

wogenoche,

'LeHodam Bere chid yazletal'. Meles is Hodam and therefore he always wants to eat. Be it by selling Ethiopia, anyone related to him or anything for that matter. He wants to get something out of nothing. That's why he smells 'Genzeb' and goes wherever it takes him. Mind you, he kills as long as he gets 'Tirf' out of it. AFTER ALL, THAT'S WHAT HE DOES WHEN SLAUGHTERING INNOCENT ETHIOPIANS. JUST TO CONTINUE TO BE IN POWER AND GET PAID.

Email: genbiw@yahoo.com

City: Wales

Despite the tireless efforts by the Stop Yara award campign Meles Zenawi have recieved the prize. What amazes me most is those who were on the demonstration were Ogaden Liberation sympatizers, the Shabias and the Somalis

Email: haile#hotmaol.com

Dear compatriots,

It should not surprise us that Yara went ahead with its decision to give the prize to the tyrant. The final action was to be expected in my view. But, the work of the Stop-Yara-Award Committee was undeniably a success. It has exposed the evil deeds of Meles and his junta to the entire world. It has rendered the credibility of the group in world politics highly questionable. This is a loss of collosal magnitude, and they know it; they feel the pain. Meles's reputation is so badly tainted that he will probably never recover from the wound. I think that is the biggest achievement of such a protest. Thus the crux of the matter is not whether Meles took the money or not. After all, $200,000 is a peanut for Meles and Co compared with what the Mafiosos have been plundering. However, they have lost heavily what they have aspired to gain, namely the political advantage. No doubt also that they will continue loosing. So, I would say well done to the Stop-Yara-Award Committee. This type of struggle has to continue until all the evil deeds of these blood suckers are exposed naked to the peace-loving world.

City: A.A

The saying goes as follows "If the poor was not to drink butter on his dream, he/she would have dried up anight". The same is true with "Anti-Yara committe and co.".
The dog continues barking while the camel has no time to listen to the uninteruppted cries of his fellow dog. Meles and the EPRDF has no time to spend a minute with the jobless and hopeless CUD leaders, members and supporters. If the battle field was on the internet you would have been victrious by simply lying without stopping.

You see while you are barking like the dog the Dollar 200,000 is already asigned for helping fellow Ethiopians. EPRDF and its supporters are not suspected working for fulling their Belly.
Who else then? I refer you to the talks of the late Prof Asrat

Email: Debalkie@hotmail.com

City: WDC

Debalkie,

I thinnk 'Negeru hulu Tedebelalkobhal litdebaliq sitmokir'. Do you know, wusha bebelabet yichohal. Therefore, there is nothing new about your comment in support of Meles. God knows how much your share is.
It could be in cash or in kind.~)

What I would like to tell you is, don't ever mention that he got the money because he helped poor Ethiopians. He has never helped them.

One thing you don't realise is 'Money cannot buy the credibility. He lost his integrity and credibility(if at all he had one in the first place). No one will trust him anymore. Even the Norwegian politicians boycotted the event because they don't want to be seen with him. No one greeted him at the airport. Because no one see him as an important person . He attended the event because the money was for him. Would he attend if the money was to go to Ethiopian farmer? NO.

Therefore, even Yara committee knows that he likes money more than his name or postition. For Norwegians, $200,000 is not a lot of money. But for the GREEDY Meles, it is. That's why, he went to attend the ceremoney and get paid 'Aynun BeChew Atibo.

Email: genbiw@yahoo.com

City: Wales

Can any one tell me the numbers of demonstrators in oslo against Yara award. Because i read a conflicting report in Ethiopian newspapers. Is it 50-80 or 1200?

Thanx

Email: blacklion77@gmail.com

City: Dubai

Habeshaw,

Are you just waking up after days of sleep? The number is around 1200.

oh

O

Email: deleted

City: deleted