|
Latest News
|
Browse Ethiopian News
 BEIRUT (Reuters) - Search teams
retrieved the flight recorders belonging to an Ethiopian Airlines plane
that crashed off the coast of Lebanon last month killing all 90 people
on board, a Lebanese security official said on Sunday. World "Lebanese
navy commandos recovered the black boxes and they are in the navy base.
They will be given to the investigating committee," a security official
told Reuters. The Boeing 737-800 plane, carrying mostly Lebanese
and Ethiopian passengers, crashed minutes after taking off from Beirut
in stormy weather, plunging in a ball of fire into the sea. It was bound
for the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Read more »
Comments (1) »
Ethiopia surpasses Kenya to become East Africa's
Biggest Economy  nazret.com - For years, reporters
writing about Ethiopia's neighbor Kenya refer to it as the biggest
economy in East Africa, now no more. Ethiopia has officially taken over
Kenya to become East Africa's biggest economy. According to the
CIA World Fact Book, Ethiopia's GDP for the latest year available (2009)
is estimated at $33.9 Billion ahead of Kenya's $30.2 Billion which
until recently was East Africa's biggest economy, now that bragging
right is Ethiopia's. Ethiopia has enjoyed a double digit economy
growth for the past couple of years and The Economist magazine predicts
Ethiopia to be the fifth fastest growing economy in the world for 2010.
The magazine has criticized the government that few people benefit from
the economic growth. Despite the economic growth, Ethiopia still remains
to be one of the poorest countries in the world based on GDP per capita
and just this week Ethiopian government appealed for aid to feed 5.2
million people.
Read more »
 The
month of January usually finds university campus grounds eerily empty.
It’s a time of the year when first semester exams are just around the
corner. Sometimes referred to as Ye’Genna Maebel (Christmas Storm), this
time of year is feared because the outcome of the exams can decide
whether a student stays in school or has to leave. So there is no time
for conversation, relaxation or socialization; it’s time for all
students to button down and study like there’s no tomorrow to ensure
their survival on campus for another year. Even the campus
cafeteria – normally the scene where the hottest campus news and gossip
(also known as PD or ‘Personal Data’) is freely dispensed – is unusually
empty. The joteni (foosball) and ping-pong tables have fallen silent
and the dama (checkers) gurus have also taken leave of their stands.
When you do see the occasional student on a campus pathway, it is quite
likely that he may be heading back to his dorm with a zurba (roll of
khat) hidden under a shirt. There are those students who are
normally referred to as sekayochu (those who achieve high grades on
their exams), some of whom are thought to rely heavily on khat (a
narcotic stimulant) to help keep them awake during long nights of
studying. This is especially true for the procrastinators who feel like
they need every bit of advantage that the alertness and increased
ability to concentrate that are known to be effects of chewing khat, can
bestow. But its use on college campuses, goes far beyond just a select
group amongst those who achieve the best results on campus.
Read more »
Editors Note: Ohhhh YES! Finally, Thanks to the
our scholars we finally have fully Amharic Version of VISTA operating system, Today it is
officially announced and will be on sell, might be a little expensive
but people will start to get ride of pirated software as 90% of the
windows operating system in Ethiopia are pirated or cracked once. it might solve the biggest security issue that become a
headache for most of the government office and private organizations in
every region. Below is a report from AFP ADDIS ABABA — US software giant
Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the first operating
system in the national language of Ethiopia, the official news agency
said Saturday. "Launching the Amharic version software is a major
step forward for Amharic to be a language of technology," Director of
the Ethiopian ICT Development Agency, Debretsion Gebremichael was quoted
as saying by the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA). He said 40
scholars from the Addis Ababa University had taken part in the
translation of the software and added that plans were being drafted for
translation into some of the nation's other languages.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
 HE ALWAYS greets people with a hug and is
quickly moved to tears or booming laughter, so emotions are never far
from the surface for the director Peter Sellars. Those emotions
overflowed when the thrones that are the centrepiece of his staging of
Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms arrived at the rehearsal
space in Marrickville. Made by the Ethiopian artist Elias Simes, the
intricately carved thrones are adorned with cow skulls, shells, gnarled
wood and leather, buttons, nails and the horns of an ibex. Each is
redolent with what Sellars calls secret, feminine images, ''what you
would call here in Australia secret women's business''.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
Note: Death in the family affects everyone including friends. Abel is a young man and a bright students at Arizona State University who had a
promising future ahead of him. He died in a traffic ocllision from a suspected red-light runner as the news reports. The family, friends and loved ones of Abel Abebe are pleading to
the public to help through this hard times that has confronted it\'s
self before the family. Please do help the family, They have set up an account in his name at all Bank of America locations. Here is the news report @ http://newsdire.com  PHOENIX — Dozens of friends
gathered Monday at the Laveen home of an Arizona State University
student killed in a traffic collision caused by a suspected red-light
runner. Abel Abebe, 27, an immigrant from Ethiopia, died from
injuries he suffered when a 2008 Hyundai coupe broadsided his Honda
Civic on Baseline Road as he drove to work in Chandler. Investigators
said the Hyundai's driver ran a red light on southbound 19th Avenue as a
police helicopter followed overhead. "He wasn't sick or
anything," said Fitsum Sima, 25, a friend and fellow Ethiopian immigrant
who attended St. Mary's Orthodox Tewahedo Church in south Phoenix with
Abebe. "It just happened on his way to work," Sima said. "It
wasn't his fault." Phoenix police patrol officers spotted the
Hyundai about 12:30 a.m. Monday after watching a female driver switch
seats with a male passenger at an intersection near a store where police
said the man stole beer moments earlier. After taking the wheel, the
man sped away from an attempted traffic stop near McDowell Road and 55th
Avenue, police said.
Read more »
Comments (2) »
Synopsis
A romantic comedy. Tihut is set up to make a fool out of her best
friend's cousin, Melhik, who is desperately seeking a sweetheart.
Thinking that she has no idea about his identity, Melhik tries to charm
the young girl he only knows as Lily into falling for him. Tihut plays
around at first, but as she gets to know Melhik, her world turns upside
down as she starts to seriously wonder whether she has feelings for the
supposed "victim" of her friend's mischievous plots and whether she
could ever reveal her true identity.
Directors Bio
Yetnayet Bahru is an Ethiopian film maker and a vocalist born in May
15, 1984 Ethiopia. She is a 2007 graduate of Computer Science from RMIT.
At the age of 23 she made a Feature film in titled Aldewolem (He
Didn’t Call) which she wrote, produced and directed; she also
participated in singing 2 songs for the soundtracks. The movie was one
of the top blockbuster movies in Ethiopia for more than six months. She
is the youngest and the first Ethiopian female filmmaker to be given a
special award for best competitor movie of 2009 in the International
Ethiopian Film Festival.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
 She may not be as well known as Prof Haile Gerima—the celebrated US-based Ethiopian filmmaker and scholar—due to her age and recent entry into the African audiovisual media sector but 25-year-old Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse’s creativity is pushing her onto the podium where she will join the stars of filmmaking and become one of them. OGOVA ONDEGO reports.
Though trained in computer science, her passion and determination for filmmaking appears to be stronger than her attraction to computers. At the age of 23, soon after graduating from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, she scripted, directed and produced ALDEWOLEM (He Didn’t Call Me), a US$13,000 romantic comedy on the games that young, single, city-dwelling African women and men play but find they cannot extricate themselves from what they began as innocuous practical jokes using the now common cell phone.
A ‘Juliet-and-Romeo’-like themed film set on St Valentine’s Day, the success of the 108-minute ALDEWOLEM exceeded the expectations of many. In fact, it is still showing in cinemas. It was one of the top blockbuster movies in Ethiopia for more than three months in 2008. The movie is said to have received rave reviews in the media for what is described as its unique contribution to Ethiopian cinema. It wound up with nominations in four categories—best director, best writer, best actress, best supporting actress—at the 4th Ethiopia International Film Festival in 2009.
ALDEWOLEM, a film about four girlfriends trying to hook up one of their best friend’s cousin with one of their friends without his knowledge, is now a contender for the best African film prize at the continental 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria in 2010. It has also been accepted for screening at various festivals in the United States and the director who considers her foray into filmmaking a calling, is not only excited but is now confident that she has made the right decision in following her heart to the magical world of moving images. She is today on location in Addis as we file this article on her work.
 I first met Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse in February 2009 at the Imagine Film Institute in Burkina Faso during the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO). She had been one of a handful Africans selected to participate in a two-month film-training workshop that also gave her the chance to participate in the making of the newsreel for FESPACO; she worked as a cameraperson, editor and director of different events and newsreel which was broadcast on television stations like RTB, CFI, and NTA and is still online at dailymotion.com.
“In the course of the training, I had the opportunity to work with great filmmakers like Gaston Kabore, John Lvoff, Fernand Damsereau, Bertrand Lenclos and Rod Stonemann, the director of Houston Film School, Ireland. Under their tutelage,” Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse says, “I made a short film, LIPSTICK, which was highly applauded after its selected screenings during the FESPACO period. It was also entered for competition at the Nigerian Entertainment Film Festival (NEFFA) in 2009.
But how did Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse get into filmmaking?
“I have always been passionate about movies and music. In my college days I got a call from a renowned Ethiopian filmmaker who asked me to sing a song for the soundtrack of his upcoming movie. That was my first inspiration for movie making,” she says.
But this is hardly a confirmation that she is called to make films, isn’t it?
“My driving force in filmmaking comes from the fact that I grew up watching lots of movies. Film serves as a great source of inspiration to me and it also broadens my horizon,” she says. “Renowned artists like Julia Roberts and Sophia Coppola have been inspirational to me because of their ability to transcend into the movie business and make their womanhood their strength. I never thought I’d be a filmmaker one day but after I started, I discovered that film is another aspect of human existence, which is so natural. It wasn’t planned but perhaps, it was a leap of faith.”
OK, that is well put. Hers is a leap of faith.
Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse continues: “Immediately after my graduation from College I decided to write a script, which posed the greatest challenge of my life. Finding the resources to cover the budget for the film proved very difficult. The only choice I had was to look for sponsors. Even finding them was very difficult because usually big companies and investors are interested in sponsoring filmmakers that have a track record in the business. Finally before I gave up, my parents consented generously to cover the film’s budget.”
She has little illusion that the absence of a film school in Ethiopia means that film practitioners have to learn through trial and error.
“Well, I had to start somewhere; and once I got started, perseverance, commitment and determination is getting me through.”
 But Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse also understands the importance of certification or affirmation in one’s career. “My plan is to get a better education in a higher institution and be a better filmmaker and use the knowledge I acquire as a tool for showing the world where I come from. My driving force and zeal is to make a positive change in my country for a better tomorrow and film is the right tool for that adventure into Disney land of positivism.”
Though the number of films shot in Ethiopia are limited and largely produced by established Ethiopian filmmakers trained and mostly residing abroad, a few people, like Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse, are starting to make films. This is out of the realisation that film could play a major developmental role.
But this is a tall order in a country without the necessary film infrastructure with professional crews, equipment, knowledge and experience: “It takes a lot of courage to work in the film sector in Ethiopia where one works as a labour of love. The tax and the cinema renting fee are higher than the filmmaker’s returns!” Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse says.
The average budget of making a good film in Ethiopia is about US$25,000. Cinemas usually charge filmmakers US$700-800 per day to screen their work while a ticket price is US$1.25 per head.
For Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse, filmmaking is like a school that is full of lessons.
“From my experience as a first time director, I have discovered that directing and editing are very interesting aspects of filmmaking. The director sets the tone of the work place and takes all the positive energy film people bring to the work place and jacks it up even higher. The director creates a mental picture, based on the script, of what the finished film looks like. Working as a director and an editor will give you the opportunity to see the pictures and how to put them together and make them flow. Filmmaking is very challenging and it is not an easy job. But the satisfaction that a film maker gets when the audience reacts to what they see is beyond imagination. For me filmmaking is like watching your own child playing games that please everyone. It is a tool to communicate with people we don’t even know and share our perspective on life.”
[right]By Ogova Ondego
Published January 18, 2010
Read more »
Comments (2) »
 Ethiopia's
distance runners are world renowned, but given the East African
country's climate and negligible snowfall, its winter sport athletes are
scarce, to say the least. One man is doing everything in his
power to change that. Cross-country skier Robel Teklemariam is
Ethiopia's only winter Olympian. He will be competing at the Vancouver
Games in the men's 15-kilometre race on Feb. 15, aiming to improve upon
his 84th-place finish at the Torino Olympics four years ago. The
35-year-old has a much bigger objective: to set the stage for other
Ethiopians to follow in his tracks. "After Turin, I met a lot of
Ethiopian skiers, but so far, none of them are racers," says
Teklemariam. "They just go out and enjoy skiing or snowboarding.
Read more »
 Teddy
Yo, a young, vibrant rapper, has been making the local magazine
headlines for sometime now. The rapper’s innovation in blending the
Gurage melody and beat with a contemporary hip-hop beat has been
appreciated by many. His trademark music, Guragetone (including a track
by that name), was a hit three years ago, and he is now out with a new
album. Very soon he will be releasing more singles and later a new
project. Teddy Yo (full name Tewodros Assefa) resides with Eden,
his wife of two years. He sometimes wears inconspicuous clothes when he
goes out that blend into society and a baseball cap down low over his
eyes. He does this just so that he can get from Point A to Point B
without having a dozen conversations along the way with fans and random
people who recognise him. He is the epitome of an arada or an
in-the-know Addis Abeban. But after a one hour interview in a
relaxed café, he became a whole lot more. During the interview, he
talked about life, happiness and even history. People love him,
and he gets the encouragement to do what he does from them, he said, but
he had a bone to pick with views held by some regarding Amharic rap. “Some
people say rap is not good for our culture or that it is not part of
our tradition,” Teddy Yo began. He begged to differ. There is
more in common with Ethiopian tradition than some people think, he said. For
example, after kings of old, like Emperor Tewodros, gathered their
troops for battle, they would basically freestyle rap to get the troops
ready for war in what is known as kererto and shillella, he explained. His
voice intensified as he described the connections of rap with the
doo-rag (bandana) that Emperor Menelik wore under his hat, tilted like
rapper R-Kelly does today, to the cornrow hairstyle of Emperor Tewodros
and the combs stuck in the afros of the Afar and Kereyu. Even Negus
T’ona of the Welayita wore an earring like most rappers, he said, as his
own glistened in the evening light.
Read more »
A new Ethiopian film that has
spent four years in the making ‘Nege’ which means tomorrow, has started
screening in Addis Ababa at Alem Cinema and Edna Mall. The film is written and
directed by Alebachew Arage and produced by Sat Multimedia Training.
Postponed from its original plan
the film has been delayed several times due to financial and other setbacks.
“We started the film under the impression that we would not need more than
100,000 Birr to make it but it has cost us 430,000 Birr.”
The director told us this week
that he has found the whole filmmaking a learning process having written 11
plays in the wollo region while serving in the church as a child.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
 ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - As Temesgen Afework decided to drop by his motherland after spending 12 of years abroad giving a unique opportunity for his fans in Addis Ababa to see the young artist in action once again. What better way could the young artist could have come up with as an entrance than to come out and have a play on the theatre stage? Currently preparing for his performance in the different cities of Ethiopia, Temesgen, has found the opportunity to act in Addis Ababa as a blessing; especially considering he does not do that on a full time basis any more.
“It is great to come back and act. The crowd was so nice and warm.” He told SSI Wednesday this week.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
 New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) Ethiopia has sought India's help in developing a rail link with its neighbour Djibouti which will allow the land-locked country access to the sea.
This was conveyed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zanawi to the visiting Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor Jan 29 on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa.
According to officials, the Ethiopian Prime Minister had specifically sought India's help in establishing a link to Djibouti as it is a landlocked country.
The Ethiopian government has recently signed memoranda of understanding with four foreign companies, including India's Overseas Investment Alliance and two Chinese group, to undertake studies for the railway project.
Read more »
Comments (0) »
 NDJAMENA — An Ethiopian Airlines passenger jet which made an
emergency landing in Chad due to a radar problem took off again Friday,
but 120 of its 150 passengers refused to board, airport authorities
said.
The plane, a Boeing 737 en route from Dakar in Senegal to
Addis Ababa via Bamako in Mali, "left this morning at 5:00 am (0400
GMT)," said an airport official, as well as airport police. The
incident comes days after another Ethiopian Airlines 737 with 90 people
on board crashed into the Mediterranean minutes after takeoff from
Beirut during a raging thunderstorm on Monday. There were no survivors.
Read more »
Comments (1) »
 Billionaire Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi ordered for Neway Debebe a brand new car and unconfirmed amount of money. But Neway did not receive the promised money which is believed to be 5Million Ethiopian Birr or the car which is RAV4 - Four Wheel Drive. The car is not in the town actually and the money expected to be delivered together with the car. The amount of money promised to Neway is around 5 million Birr as it is heard from the relatives of Neway. Similarly last year Gossaye Tesfaye also received around 2 million Birr from Al Al-Amoudi. Al-moudi was celebrating his birthday in Sweden where Neway Debebe took the stage for the party held, during that time Neway also received around 20,000USD after performing in the birthday party.
Read more »
 Page 1 of 28 |
|
|
The
month of January usually finds university campus grounds eerily empty.
It’s a time of the year when first semester exams are just around the
corner. Sometimes referred to as Ye’Genna Maebel (Christmas Storm), this
time of year is feared because the outcome of the exams can decide
whether a student stays in school or has to leave. So there is no time
for conversation, relaxation or socialization; it’s time for all
students to button down and study like there’s no tomorrow to ensure
their survival on campus for another year.
ADDIS ABABA — US software giant
Microsoft has launched Windows Vista in Amharic, the first operating
system in the national language of Ethiopia, the official news agency
said Saturday.
HE ALWAYS greets people with a hug and is
quickly moved to tears or booming laughter, so emotions are never far
from the surface for the director Peter Sellars.
PHOENIX — Dozens of friends
gathered Monday at the Laveen home of an Arizona State University
student killed in a traffic collision caused by a suspected red-light
runner.
She may not be as well known as Prof Haile Gerima—the celebrated US-based Ethiopian filmmaker and scholar—due to her age and recent entry into the African audiovisual media sector but 25-year-old Yetnayet Bahru Gessesse’s creativity is pushing her onto the podium where she will join the stars of filmmaking and become one of them. OGOVA ONDEGO reports.
