October 28, 2006
Sorry ETgirl
Just got a kick in the pants from ETgirl who commented:
Comeon Andrew, please kick this thing up with some spicy, lively news! Goodness gracious, it is not like you owe any of us anything (atleast not anything I can think of right now..lol), but I come here everyday expecting something.
And she's absolutely right. All I can say is that it's been an exhausting couple of weeks and there has been little time to blog. Lots of other people have been filling the vacuum though.
To prove that, here are my last two round-ups of the Ethiopian blogosphere on GlobalVoicesOnline. Normal service will be resumed as soon as I can find the energy:
Ethiopian blogger scoops mainstream media - Oct 27
The story broke at 12.42 pm. An Ethiopian human rights activist, another unnamed Ethiopian and two senior officials from the European Commission had been arrested that morning close to Ethiopia's border with Kenya.The report from Ethiopian blogger Ethio-Zagol named the activist as Yalemzewd Bekele and the two European officials as:
Bjorn Jonsson, Head of Finance and Contract department of the delegation in Ethiopia, and Enrico Sborgi, who works at the good governance department.The post titled A prominent human rights campaigner arrested, on Ethio-Zagol's blog Seminawork said that police had been trying to arrest Yalemzewd Bekele for a week, in connection with anti-government activities. The two EC officials, it added, were arrested: “for trying to help Yalemzewd escape”.
It was a whole day before the mainstream media woke up to the story at the end of last week. (Here's the BBC version from Friday October 20.) It was another six hours after that journalists managed to confirm the names of the people involved. When the names and other details of the case finally did come out through official channels over the next couple of days, it emerged that almost everything in the original blog post had been accurate.
Ethio-Zagol, one of the most mysterious and well-connected writers in the Ethiopian blogosphere, had scored an old-fashioned scoop over the rest of the mainstream press.
Ethiopia's bloggers emerge refreshed after rainy season - Oct 11
Ethiopia's bloggers emerged refreshed from their long rainy season with a series of dazzling posts on everything from Somalia to stolen secondhand books.For once there was no unifying theme – because there was just so much to catch up on as the sun came up after four months of torrential rain and dark grey skies.
Coffeechillisun got in early with a description of the new season's new police recruits, parading up and down the streets of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa in their new uniforms. In From zero to hero she wrote:
The fresh batch of graduates of the new Federal Police officers are out and about in dapper fresh khaki; the joke being that they are so young and skinny they have to sling their belts twice around their waists and get a muscle strain from having to lift their boots.Seattle teen's opinion on Ethiopia, a welcome newcomer to the scene, gave us a rundown on the history of the sacred Ethiopian festival of Meskel, a celebration of the discovery of the true cross involving lots of daisies and bonfires which roughly coincides with the end of the rainy season.
Posted by aheavens at October 28, 2006 9:17 AM
Comments
What qualifications are required for becoming
'A prominent human rights activist'
a. opposition supporter
b. EU employee
c. Lawyer
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
Posted by: Observer at October 28, 2006 6:28 PM
Good on the ETgirl - I've missed your witty and incisive comments and news items too - thought you might have drowned in one of those Roto's!
Posted by: John at October 28, 2006 10:23 PM
Thanks Andrew! :) Didn't mean to be harsh...I was just craving for more news. :)))
Posted by: ETgirl at October 31, 2006 3:47 AM