Open Letter to World Bank, Stop Financing Displacement and Killing

 by Tedla Asfaw

I am from Ethiopia and worked in Ethiopia from 1980 to 1985 in the lower Awash Valley irrigation project. In fact I did my masters on how to grow Maize in that part of Ethiopia where people can feed themselves. The cash crop cotton the communist regime cultivated never improved the life of the Afar people.
In the same token the dictatorship in Ethiopia is displacing indigenous people in Western part of Ethiopia in Gambella and Beni Shanguel and sold more than 3 million hectares of land for foreigners to produce food for their own people. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Nations claim securing land to feed their people for future. More than 70,000 Annuaks have already been forced from their land and another 150,000 will be displaced in the coming few years.
All this displacement is financed by World Bank. The Ethiopian tribal junta can not do this displacement without the support of USA/UK financing it at all levels including paying salary for those who are chasing the people from their traditional land. Annuaks are now an endangered species. Unfortunately, those who went to visit their homeland did not escape death.
The killing of Omot Ojulu Odol a 33 year old Ethiopian American from Gambella on March 2, 2013 with other five people including 11 year old child is to silence the Annuak people. The USA Ambassador in Ethiopia might try to buy the claim made by the tribal regime of Ethiopia that Omot Ojulu Odol is a “terrorist” and ignore his death as such. The USA forensic team will surely will do its job to tell us the circumstance of his death. It was Search to Kill to terrorize the people of Gambella and “guarantee security” and “safety” for foreign land buyers and tribal Land Lords from the Diaspora!
The regime propagandists are putting the driver license of Omot on their websites to celebrate his death. The Annuaks have been killed and terrorized for more than a decade now. Thousands were killed to clear their land to make money for the tribal regime in Ethiopia. For that mission it bought few Annuaks from the region. The good thing is many brave Annuaks abandon the regime to tell the true story of what has been happening in Gambella.
The Police Chief of Gambella is now in jail for condemning the killing of six Innocent people. If world bank has a courage it should send its representative and talk to the police chief jailed in Gambella. The young Annuaks are targeted for saying No to Taking Away of their land. If World bank denied loan for Cambodia in Summer of 2011 for displacing its people why should it be different for Ethiopia in 2013 ?
The Human Rights Watch is just asking that for the Bank to do its internal investigation. People are displaced and are dying, the World Bank is responsible for all that because it is paying for those who are doing this dirty job. The Annuaks have no choice but fight to defend their livelihood from homegrown and foreign vultures.

Graziani and the TPLF, an Ethiopian saga

              by Yilma Bekele

“The Duce will have Ethiopia, with or without the Ethiopians.” Rodolfo Graziani
I am writing this as a proud Ethiopian because Graziani’s promise to the Fascist dictator was thwarted by my gallant ancestors. If it was not for the bravery and sacrifice of our grandparents, to day our country will be referred to as ex Italian Colony, we will be conversing in Italian, our national dish would be spaghetti and my name will probably be Mario. Please don’t knock it because my country being referred to as the only independent country in Africa, having my own national language, dining on Injera and answering to an original name is what defines me as unique member of the human race.
The Ethiopian and Italian entanglement goes very far back in history. The period known as ’the scramble for Africa’ from 1870 to 1914 is a good place to start. It was a time the European powers were invading, colonizing, occupying and abusing Africans all over the continent. After the scrooge of slavery this was another century where being black was not a desirable existence, not that it is any different now. To avoid warring each other the Europeans decided to sit around a table and carve out the continent into outright ownership of people and country and spheres of influence. Italy already had Libya and decided to include Ethiopia in its portfolio.
Unfortunate for the Italians the Ethiopians found the idea absurd to say the least. The battle of Adwa settled the matter and dealt the Europeans their one and only defeat in Africa. The victory at Adwa will forever define what it means to be an Ethiopian. Generations will use this colossal event to shape and mold their children to grow up with pride and determination to guard what is their own and not to covet what belongs to others.
The Italians never forgave us for the humiliation at Adwa. After waiting for forty years they came back in 1935 to avenge their defeat. They came back better prepared. They used superior weapons including poison gas trying to overwhelm our barefoot army on horseback. They occupied most of our sacred land. They won a few battles but were unable to win the war. Our grandparents never gave the invading army a single day of respite. The concept of guerilla warfare that has become the mainstay of all oppressed peoples response to overwhelming force was brilliantly utilized by our ancestors. You can say they wrote the book on mobile war using a few to harass and demoralize the enemy while recovering national strength.
This brings us to the infamous General Rodolfo Graziani Governor of Italian East Africa. His ghost is what is waking us up from where we having been lying down comfortably numb for over forty years. Graziani tried to do what Meles Zenawi was able to accomplish. I know harsh words but deservingly so. Let me tell you what Graziani did to us in 1936. The day was Friday February nineteenth. Viceroy Graziani decided to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Naples in Addis Abeba at the ‘Genete Leul palace.’ Abreha Deboch and Moges Asgedom two of the most beautiful Ethiopians our country has ever produced threw ten grenades at the fascist pig and his accomplices during the celebration.
What happened next will forever live in our heart and mind as the price paid when sovereignty is lost. The Federal Secretary Guido Cortese gave the following order to his solders:
“Comrades, today is the day when we should show our devotion to our Viceroy by reacting and destroying the Ethiopians for three days. For three days I give you carte blanche to destroy and

TPLF/EPRDF Regime Has Failed and Is Struggling to Lead the Country!

            by Samson Gebremariam
samsongeb1@gmail.com

The late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi expected to lead the EPRDF’s (Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front) 9^th Congress meeting, scheduled to be held on March 23 – 26, 2013 in Bahir Dar city, as a “ghost” from his grave yard declared the party. “WITH THE THOUGHTS OF MELES, STRONGER ORGANIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT FORCES FOR THE RENAISSANCE!!!” stated on the party’s stinky website¹ as a motto to this year’s meeting. But what were the late PM’s thoughts? Rather than insulting and mocking opposition party Members of Parliament (MPs); intimidating and torturing citizens; ordering the killings of innocent people who challenged him or his party; building full of corruption authoritarian regime; threatening and jailing journalists on triumphed up treason; and above all showing his arrogance to the people he said he had fought for. Is that what they meant to keep on doing; stronger citizens terrorizing government?
What strikes my mind always is that “What do the people of Ethiopia really owe these “freedom fighters”, especially those of the TPLF (Tigray People Libration Front) members?” How many years is their sought payback period for fighting and defeating the Derg regime? It bet should not be forever or until all them passed away. One thing is very clear and no one would dare to deny that they have done something admirable and defeated yet another oppressive regime. Not alone though, they had been tirelessly backed by enemies of Ethiopia and the westerns who did not like the socialist ideology followed by the Derg regime. Back in the days, The New York Times had reported that there were negotiations and arrangements for the then president Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam to escape from Ethiopia flew to Zimbabwe. Here are some quotes;
United States officials in recent weeks had quietly suggested that Colonel Mengistu resign to achieve peace. Last month, Colonel Mengistu told former Senator Rudy Boschwitz, a special envoy of President Bush, that he would leave his post if it was the only way to keep Ethiopia united.
Colonel Mengistu apparently made his final decision to depart after President Robert G. Mugabe of Zimbabwe sent an envoy here on Monday to repeat his invitation that the Ethiopian leader move to Zimbabwe, where his family had already gone.
Colonel Mengistu reportedly invited many of his longest supporters to his palace for a farewell party on Monday night. He left for the airport this morning, unceremoniously, in a caravan of four vans surrounded by motorcycles. (NY times)
Since they were there to be backed, credit has been given for their sacrifices and persistence to defeat the Derg regime. And they were given all the time and unlimited resources to restart their life and educate themselves. Almost all of the former rebels have now accomplished, academically and life standard, what they would have achieved had they did not decide to become guerrilla fighters. The patience of the Ethiopian people, in return, should have to be compensated by building a democratic (or at least semi-democratic) country and transparent government. What it turned out; however, is leaders of the regime have been changed from what they had been “non-sense killers” to “educated devils”.
The TPLF/EPRDF regime has also been amazingly consistent in its oppressive style of leadership. According to Freedom House (“an independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom around the world.”) the country’s political environment has been changed from “FREE” in 1998 to “NOT FREE” today. The trend has never shown any improvement rather kept on to be worse and worse since then. We had a “free” country, in civil liberties and political rights, for the last time in 1998 and then became “partially free” from 1999 to 2010. Since 2011 our beloved Ethiopia has become a “not free” country, for three consecutive years.

Source: Data compiled from Freedom House’s Freedom in the World Reports (1999 – 2013)

Source: Data compiled from Freedom House’s Freedom in the World Reports (1999 – 2013)

NB: 1 represents the most free and 7 the least free. (Freedom House)

The outdated Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) fired top warlords

The Horn Times Breaking News March 22, 2013
by Getahune Bekele

Panicking and in state of collapse, one of Africa’s criminal political organizations, the TPLF has fired top genocidal warlords who are wanted by the people of Ethiopia for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed since May 1991.
All four who played a crucial role in creating the world’s brutal apartheid state in east Africa and accused of building Tigrai republic, the home province of TPLF with skin, flesh and bones of oppressed Ethiopians; are expected to flee the country dreading the total collapse of the party which provides all warlords with protection from prosecution.
According to unconfirmed reports received by the Horn Times, the fourth warlord shown the door was little known gnome Zeraye Asgedom.
Master of hate speech and feeble minded TPLF rhetorician, the frail old curmudgeon Sibehat Nega was also rumoured to have been eliminated by emerging group of TPLF king makers.
All five rapacious warlords are ethnic Tigres who defiantly practiced ethnic apartheid for 21 years without blush and flayed Ethiopia to transform their home province in to great economic success. They were part of the junta which suppressed the demands of Ethiopians by brute force instead of clearing them up by a reasoned reply.
Since the death of the ferocious tyrant Meles Zenawi, there has been talk of divisions in the TPLF camp but no one expected Arkebe ouqubay to be on the losing side of the deadly power struggle.
However, in the absence of strong opposition group to capitalize on the slip up of the aging and divided junta, the TPLF will definitely keep a tight grip on Ethiopia for some time to come.

Ethiopia: The vulture regime’s deception and our ignorance of the truth took a toll on our people

The truth is Woyane is illegitimate regime of Ethiopia, illegal representative of the people of Tigray and chronically corrupt entity. Let the truth set it free than the constant deception it perpetuate to stay alive. Those that choose to take the deception as truth are digging their own grave. If anyone has any doubts to that reality they must be part of the hoax, delusional or victims of the elaborate deception. That is the honest truth.

by Teshome Debalke
Every living and breathing Ethiopian or in new politically correct language of Woyane, Nation and Nationalities of Ethiopia should be ashamed of ourselves for not seeking the truth but noting but the truth about our people and country to stop vultures’ instigated conflicts and corruption. Our ignorance about ourselves, each other and what is happening around us open the door for vultures like Woyane, the one time self declared non Ethiopian insurgency to tell us who we are in the 21^st century. To make matter worst, Berket Simon, an Eritrean national that was planted to represent the Amhara region is in charge of telling us about ourselves. Sadly, lots of us are going along with it; thanks for the vulture’s propaganda and our inability to get to the truth. The co-opted ‘journalists’ that make a living spinning the lies are not helping us to get to the truth either.
Before some out of control messengers of the vulture regime jump all over me and label me terrorist to throw me in jail or order for my stoning or hanging for telling the truth as they did to many brave Ethiopian truth seekers, let me explain what I mean. After all, am I not free to speak the truth and innocent until proven guilty? I wish.
Quite honestly, our problem isn’t the vulture Woyane or its mindless cadres that took the opportunity of our ignorance to do us harm but, the messengers of vultures and our inability to get to the truth are to blame. Woyane happen to be on the right place at the right time to exploit our differences and live-off on our ignorance about each other to end up where it is now.
As they say, we are what we eat, in this case the information we consume. Therefore, what we know about ourselves and each other matters. But, when we are at the mercy of vultures like Woyane for our daily information we are bound to be ignorant enough to do unforgivable crimes against our own people and country.
Count me out; I don’t have the taste or the propensity to entertain rubbish propaganda from vultures of any kind, especially from Woyane. I wouldn’t be caught dead making a self trashing decisions based on information the vulture regime provide against my own people just because… I leave that to the messengers of vultures and the scavengers that see the lack of knowledge and the misery of our people as an opportunity. In fact, they have no self respect to see themselves any other way beyond serving the vulture regime.
Noting proves the truthfulness of what I say than the latest deception against our people of the Muslim faith. The fiction titled Jihadawi Harekat was written, produced and directed by the notorious propaganda boss Berket Simon. The desperate dance against our own flesh and blood of Ethiopians of the Muslim faith is not a small matter to ignore. What is even worst was to witness how the messengers of the vulture regime are salivating to spin it beyond belief. It was indeed distasteful and insulting to the sensibility of Ethiopians.
However, let’s not blame only Woyane vulture to cover up for other vultures that working hand and glove with the regime against our people. There are quite a few religious, ethnic, economic vultures out there. It is sickening to witness how low they are reduced to capitalize on our differences, poverty and vulnerability.
That said; there is no question Woyane is on the top of the vultures’ list in our modern history. But, the worst of our predicament is our collective silence and apathy when vultures tear us apart and institutionalize treachery and falsehood as a means to their end.
Short of explanation for our behavior, I think we are afraid to stand up for the truth and left it for the Almighty to sort it out. Unfortunately, the vultures are interfering in our relationship to the Almighty too. After all, our Mosques and Churches are infested with idiotic and Godless cadres as we are witnessing everyday.
Vultures are not new and are present in every society. It shouldn’t surprise us to have them in our own society. Like every society the problem are the massagers of vultures; co-opted through bribe, propaganda… to sustain their enablers. These weak links in society must be feed massive dosage of truth to see themselves other than being butlers of tyranny. Since their minds and souls are contaminated with falsehood they can’t rationalize the truth to see straight.
With that note, the intellectual messengers of vultures that setup the stage for perpetual deception to take roots in society are on of the top of the pyramid. Their effort to institutionalize deception makes them a classic case of the living dead. Their muted counterparts that closed their eyes and ears are not far behind. They don’t have the back bone to stand up for the truth. Both must take the responsibility for allowing deception to take roots.
That is why we need independent institutions and Medias

A Critical Appraisal of the Diaspora Organized Groups By Walle Engedayehu, Ph.D

An Overview
The collective staying-power of the opposition within the Ethiopian Diaspora community against the regime in Addis Ababa still remains in a state of paralysis after more than two decades of cry-out for a unity of purpose, goals, and objectives. The opposition has not been able, as yet, to help stamp out both authoritarianism and a minority ethnic oligarchy, which are both well-entrenched in Ethiopia. As its primary objective, this commentary strives to address some of the salient issues that affect unity amongst Ethiopians in the Diaspora. More importantly, it deciphers the adverse consequences of such issues on efforts to usher in a positive political transformation of our country, while offering some possible remedies central to forging a united front among the variety of groups that make up the opposition. Nonetheless, the essay does not purport to be a research-based study on the hard-to-pin-down unity of the Diaspora opposition, but is an opinion that is based on both personal reflections and a keen awareness of the issues with which the writer has been familiar over the years, as a long-time observer of Ethiopian Diaspora-based political activities.
The Nature of the Problem and Purpose of the Commentary
The writer posits that the ceaseless divide, which ostensibly characterizes the Ethiopian Diaspora community in general and the opposition particularly, has unquestionably offered a golden opportunity for the regime in Addis Ababa to continue the ethnic-based authoritarian rule that it has imposed on our country— practically unchallenged. Furthermore, in the opinion of this writer, there has not been a serious challenge exerted against the regime at a level necessary to force the rulers— even at a minimum—to come to a bargaining table for a possible compromise with the opposition on any possible power-sharing modalities. This has stemmed from the undeniable fact that the opposition, both inside and outside of the country, is divided and thus has failed to marshal its collective resources to confront the regime on the many fronts that would be necessary to weaken its grip of power and strangulate its narrow support-base throughout the country. However, the scope of this essay is limited to and exclusively on the Diaspora opposition, although the domestic foes of the regime are also central to any broader examination of the issues.
Indeed, more than two decades have elapsed since the opposition throughout the Diaspora started a campaign of struggle against the Ethiopian regime through peaceful means, mainly aimed at forcing the ethnic minority regime to negotiate with its political opponents on ways to bring about not only a lasting political reconciliation in Ethiopia, but also a national unity government that will lead the country on a genuine path of democracy, transparency and the rule of law. However, all efforts to that end have fallen on deaf ear, as the Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF)-dominated government in Ethiopia appears to see the opposition simply as an inconsequential political adversary not worthy of any recognition. Why has the opposition failed regretfully to impel the regime to change its behavior of intransigence for more than 22 years? Retrospectively speaking, why have protests, demonstrations, and condemnations of regime policies throughout the years failed to budge the minority rulers from the North, making them amenable to a negotiated political settlement of power-sharing? Why has our plea for help become so pointless that Western governments have dismissed us as seemingly irrelevant? What have been the glaring consequences of failure of the opposition to wage an effective, united struggle against the regime in power? What lessons have been learned so far from this failure? Are there any changes of tactic that the opposition should explore in order to find a lasting solution to a minority ethnic oligarchy that is well entrenched on the home front? What should we, as concerned and despondent citizens of Ethiopian descent, do to put an end to all the crises beleaguering the Horn of Africa country and shorten the life of a regime hell-bent on pursuing a totalitarian control of all aspects of life in Ethiopia? This essay navigates through these and other related issues here forth.
The Character of the Divided Opposition
First and foremost, the truth has to be told that the Ethiopian Diaspora opponents of the dictatorial regime in Addis Ababa still remains divided; we may not like to admit it, but this is the reality. The varieties of groups that make up the opposition are so many that listing them here would be an unrewarding exercise;

Nine senior TPLF leaders left the organization

21 MARCH 2013
Nine veteran members of the TPLF, including Seyoum Mesfin, Berhan G/Kirstos, Sebhat Nega, Arkebe Equbay and Zeray Asgedom have left the organization, according to sources from Addis ababa.
Concluding its ninth convention, the senior partner in the ruling coalition, TPLF has elevated for the first time since its formation, a woman to its political bureau, making two of the nine politbureau members women, Fortune learnt.
Tirfu Kidanemariam, who was vice chairperson of the Tigray Women Association (TWA) in 2008, has now joined Azeb Mesfin in the TPLF’s top political body. Azeb was elected to the political bureau in 2010, the first woman to ever make it that high in the TPLF. Tirfu is a spouse to the party’s chairman and chief of the regional administration, Abay Woldu. She is head of TPLF’s all too powerful organisational affairs bureau. She has been elected to the central committee of the TPLF since 1999, and has also served as head of the region’s justice bureau.
As expected by those following the region’s political development, Tsegaye Berhe, a former chief of the regional state and current chairman of the National Security Council; and Abadi Zemo, Ethiopia’s ambassador to Sudan, have left the political bureau, upon their request, according to sources. They are replaced by Alem G. Wahid and Gebrehawariya Woldu, both veteran political operatives of the regional administration, heading various administrations at zone levels, according to our sources.
TPLF central committee, which has seen the departure of nine of its veteran members such as Seyoum Mesfin, Arkebe Oqubay, Brehane Gebrekirstos and Zeray Asgedom, has left its chairman and deputy intact. Abay Woldu and Debretsion Gebremikael will continue to lead the party as chairman and deputy.
The three other parities in the coalition are holding their respective congresses, thus elections to their political bureaus is expected soon. Political pundits are expect hardly any change in the compositions of their senior leaders, however.

World Bank to probe links to ‘villagisation’

William Lloyd George in Addis Ababa

An independent panel has called for an investigation into a World Bank-funded project in Ethiopia following accusations from refugees that the bank is funding a programme that forced people off their land.
In a report, seen by the Guardian, the inspection panel – the World Bank’s independent accountability mechanism – calls for an investigation into complaints made by refugees from the Anuak indigenous group from Gambella, western Ethiopia, in relation to the bank’s policies and procedures.
The refugees claim the Protection of Basic Services (PBS) programme funded by the bank and the UK Department for International Development (DfID), is contributing directly to the Ethiopian government’s “villagisation” programme, introduced in 2010. The programme seeks to move people to new villages, but residents say this is done with little consultation or compensation, and that these sites lack adequate facilities.
In a letter sent to the panel in September, the refugees say some people have been forcibly relocated from their land, which is now being leased to foreign investors.
“These mass evictions have been carried out under the pretext of providing better services and improving the livelihoods of the communities,” says the letter. “However, once they moved to the new sites, they found not only infertile land, but also no schools, clinics, wells or other basic services.”
It says the government forced them to abandon their crops just before harvest, and they were not given any food assistance during the move. “Those farmers who refused to implement the programme … have been targeted with arrest, beating, torture and killing,” the letter says.
The refugees say they “have all been severely harmed by the World Bank-financed [project], which is contributing directly to the Ethiopian government’s villagisation programme in Gambella region”.
The letter says Ethiopian government workers, whose salaries are paid for through the PBS programme, have been forced to implement villagisation.
DfID has been criticised for failing to address abuse allegations in the South Omo region of Ethiopia, where residents told DfID and USAid officials of their experiences.
DfID is also embroiled in a legal action over its links to the villagisation programme. An Ethiopian farmer claims he was forcibly evicted from his farm. His lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, say DfID money is linked to these abuses through PBS funding in Gambella. DfID has said it is responding to the legal concerns and reviewing the allegations of rights abuses in Ethiopia.
In its report, the panel says that although the World Bank management denies links between villagisation and the PBS programme, the two are attempting to achieve the same things. “[Villagisation] is a programme that aims at fundamentally restructuring settlement patterns, service infrastructure and livelihoods, including farming systems, in the Gambella region, and as such constitutes a significant context in which PBS operates. In this sense from a development perspective, the two programmes depend on each other, and may mutually influence the results of the other,” says the panel report.
The panel says there are “conflicting assertions and differing views” on links between PBS and villagisation, the complaints by the refugees and the bank’s adherence to its policies and procedures, which could adequately be addressed through an investigation.
In a response to the refugees’ letter, the World Bank denied all links between the PBS and villagisation. It said it had not encountered any evidence of human rights abuses. It did admit the new sites “were not desirable”, but said the Ethiopian government had asked for assistance to improve them.
According to David Pred, founder of Inclusive Development Internationalwho helped the Anuak file their complaint, the PBS is funding the majority of government departments responsible for implementing the villagisation programme. “It provides both the means and the justification for villagisation,” said Pred.
The World Bank has been supporting the PBS programme since May 2006 with a commitment of more than $2bn. The bank’s board was scheduled to meet on Tuesday to discuss the panel’s report, but the meeting was postponed.
Human Rights Watch says many of the communities affected by villagisation have not been properly consulted about resettlement. It has interviewed several refugees from the region who reported that government officials have responded with violence and arbitrary detention when people have not agreed to relocate.
“The World Bank’s president and board need to let the inspection panel do its job and answer the critical questions that have been raised by Ethiopians affected by this project,” said Jessica Evans, senior international financial institutions advocate at Human Rights Watch. “If the World Bank doesn’t support this investigation, its Ethiopia programme will continue to be shadowed by controversy.”
The chairman of the UK parliament’s international development committee, Sir Malcolm Bruce, said the allegations against villagisation are unsubstantiated. Bruce, who visited Ethiopia last week, said the UK programme “is delivering a very good result”.
• This article was amended on 20 March 2013. Gambella is in western Ethiopia, not eastern as we originally said

Meles Zenawi Net Worth

                            How much is Meles Zenawi worth?
                        Meles Zenawi was Ethiopia's former Prime Minister with a net worth of $3 billion. Before becoming a prime minister of his native country, Zenawi was the president Ethiopia in the nineties (from 1991-1995). He was also the chairman of Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the head of Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) during the eighties. Taking the position of Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 (until his death in August 2012), Zenawi was hailed as one Africa's strongmen, introducing a multi- party political system, private press in the country and reducing child mortality rates. He was also heavily involved in the US' War of Terror, helping to eliminate military organisations such as Al Qaeda. Furthermore, Zenawi received praised for his work towards a stable relationship with the African Union, playing an important role in improving continent's position on climate change. However his leadership came under serious attack, as he was accused of abusing a string of human rights issues and repressing the freedom of press/speech. Following a brain tumour operation in Brussels, Zenawi died contracting an infection on August 2012. He was 57. Barack Obama said that Zenawi 'deserves the recognition for his lifelong contribution to Ethiopia's development, particularly to the poor.'