Getting ready for the Easter feast

By Tagu Zergaw

This year’s Ethiopian Easter worries a one time chauffer for a private company who is now laid off. Elias Degu, 32 is afraid that what he has in his pocket will not be enough to buy a sheep and a chicken [indispensable for Ethiopian Easter celebration] for his 69 year old mother, Medhin Tsegaw.
Believing news he heard about the government taking measures to create price stability in the market, he took what he saved to the market thinking it will be enough for everything he needed. But it was not so as he found out. Finally when he realized he didn’t have enough money, he planned a way out.
Elias told Capital that either he will swallow his pride and ask his former colleagues to lend him some money (which he doesn’t really know when he could pay back) or, if worse comes to worst, to tell his mother the truth – he was unable to buy her things which he had never failed to provide.
“I heard about the measures taken to tackle the increasing inflation, and I said to myself, ‘God knows what will happen on the next holiday, so let me not worry too much and buy whatever Medhin needs and make her happy. I then went out to assess the market,’’ Elias told Capital.
On March 18, 2008 P.M. Meles Zenawi, in his mid-term report to the House of Peoples’ Representatives, had stated that despite the fact that the inflation rate has reached 20 percent, the country will register 10 percent economic growth. The P.M. added that the worsening inflation is becoming a burden on low income urban dwellers as a result of the global price rises, especially on oil, food grains, steel and cement.
According to the Prime Minister, the government, to minimize the worsening inflation, will continue to subsidize basic consumer goods and supplies in the energy sector. In the process of doing so the government has spent 3.52 billion Birr to subsidize fuel and 372 million Birr on wheat.
Later on during that same session, Prime Minister Meles announced that the government has lifted the Turn-Over Tax (TOT) and Value Added Tax (VAT) on grains, starting from the very next day. He furthered it will take strong legal measures to tackle problems being created by profiteering businesses people, while a task force comprising members of pertinent government bodies has been set up to permanently monitor illicit activities and take legal actions as necessary.
It was reported that because of the lifting of taxes on food grains, the government will forfeit over 400 million birr it should have collected.
In the next days the task force became operational. It made every shop label the price of each item prominently so that supervisors on patrol may inspect if there is any abnormal increment on prices as seen in the ridiculous spike of the price of salt. It is recalled fraudsters caused a five to 10-fold increase in the price of salt in a single day, sparking panic purchases of the white stuff.
Lifting taxes on grains had a surprising effect during its first days. Even the price of vegetables started to fall. Tomatoes went down to 3.5 birr from 4.90 birr, potatoes from 4.00 birr to 3.50 and onions decreased to 1.50 birr from 3.00 birr per kilo.
However, enforced labeling of prices and lifting the tax imposed on food grains could not help holiday shoppers including Elias, because prices of sheep and chickens cannot be labeled or controlled, as they are sold by customary bargaining.
Elias went to the major markets where merchants and farmers from the outskirts of the city bring in and gather to sell supplies to the market. A sheep that sold for 250 birr last week now sells for 400 birr, even days before the holiday.
Elias’s modest stash started to erode as he started buying minor items necessary for his mother’s Easter feast and feared in his mind of how much he had to spend on the remaining items.
“When I heard about the tax lift on food items and the tough measures being taken on those merchants who blindly increase prices of items, I thought there would be stability on prices so that my money will be enough for everything my mother needs for the holiday,” said a dejected, laid off Elias, brooding on his dilemma.
Onions, butter and some spices are ingredients needed for Medhin’s recipe, including pepper. Luckily, currently she has enough pepper. The price for a kilo of onions has reached 2 birr. Two weeks ago it sold lower than 0.80 birr. Butter has reached 100 birr per kilo that was sold 60 birr few days ago. The staple grain Tef, is the only item that remained at the same price that was labeled on it after the lift of tax on food grains. Before the lift it was sold for up to 800 birr but later it decreased to 600 birr.
“She [Medhin] doesn’t know that I have lost my job and I don’t want her to be worried. So she expects me to do the same as what I was doing during the last six years of holidays. I buy her a sheep and especially on Easter, there will also be a chicken as it’s the famous doro-wot which will be the first thing taken to break the fast.
Elsa Kindaya, a 44 year old mother of two, told Capital that she has taught her children a way of buying sheep at inexpensive prices.
“Our compound is not wide enough to accommodate a sheep. If it were, I would buy the sheep a week or so before and definitely save over 150 birr over the prices on the last days to the holiday. But now what I do is buy a kilo of meat and a chicken, which is sufficient for the day. So after 3:00 pm or later, I and my family will go shopping for a sheep. My family is getting into the groove with this tradition, we enjoy the walk and looking around and we come back with a good sheep at a reasonable price,” Elsa revealed her strategy.
Maybe Elias should wise up and devise a strategy like Elsa and her family or get a job as soon as possible before the next holiday comes around.

Death and poor health situation still continue in Borena

By Addis Mulugeta

The United Nation Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) assessment teams have documented and indicated that the situation in Borena zone with regard to animal health, food security and water for human and animal consumption deteriorates on a daily basis. The extended dray season follows insufficient rainfall during the hagaya rain (October-December) and conditions have been exacerbated by overstocking of livestock and encroachment of land by farms and bush trees. Coping mechanisms are stretched to breaking point and pastoralist communities, children, the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to livelihood and health risks. While conditions in Borena do not currently fall under classification of a full scale drought, there is a risk that poor performance of the upcoming ganna rains will have a serious impact upon human health, animal welfare and livelihoods in the region. Prompt and coordinated intervention by government and humanitarian partners could limit the impact upon human life, health and livelihood in the region. Priority needs are water for human and livestock consumption, animal feed provision to mother cows and calves and animal health services.
Assessment mission by UN agencies and humanitarian partners have begun to document the early signs and direct consequences of the extended dry season for water availability, animal health and food security in the region. According to Woreda officials in Arero, limited availability of water for animal consumption is contributing to poor health of livestock and reported cases of livestock death is increasing on a daily basis. The sub-regional offices of WFP has registered 4,660 livestock deaths since mid-February. Access to food supplies from local markets is becoming increasingly difficult due to increased price. Resent reports from the zone indicate that the price of maize has trebled from 100 to 300 birr per quintal.
Death and poor health conditions of livestock, dwindling water supplies and ongoing human disease outbreaks are having a negative impact upon health, nutrition and wellbeing in the region. Poor animal health is affecting child nutrition levels due to zero milk production in some woredas. Health officials from the health bureau, UNICEF and WHO are responding to outbreak of measles in some words of Guji zone including Dimtu Hamballa,. Qarca and Odda Shakkiso and in Abaya, Blue Hora , Dugda Dawa and Gelena Woredas . Governments, UN agencies and humanitarian partners are preparing for disease outbreaks associated with extended dry season periods and early onset of drought including increase in water-borne disease and pulmonary disease. Children, the elderly and people living with HIV/AIDS are particularly vulnerable to infection and impact of livestock death on nutrition. Early reports from UN agencies and humanitarian partners suggested that conditions and vulnerability levels are similar in neighboring areas including, Liben Woredas of Guji zone, lowland Woredas of Bale zone and some Woredas of East Hararghe zone. But currently, one week ago, according to the same witnesses, some parts of Borena zone have been getting rains.
On the other hand, some parts of the country are critically in danger although there are reports of rains, the food security situation in most parts of the central and southern zones of Somali region, lowlands of Oromia and SNNP and some woredas of Tigray, Afar, Amhara and Gambala regions, remains of concern. In addition to the ongoing assistance to Somali region, the Federal Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency ( DPPA ) has allocated 9, 343 tons of relief foods for 509,390 beneficiaries in SNNP and 1, 032 tones of supplementary food allocated for the second round of distribution for 31, 834 beneficiaries has been dispatched.

Clinton wins Pennsylvania, Obama eyes North Carolina

Hillary Clinton has managed to keep what Reuter’s political correspondent, John Whitesides, described as ‘a slim hope’ to the White House, alive. She has beaten her Democratic rival, Barack Obama, in Pennsylvania last Tuesday, despite his overwhelming spending on advertisements.
As for delegates and popular vote counts, Clinton’s 10-point win in Pennsylvania, doesn’t have a strong effect as she only narrowed down Obama’s popular vote lead to 500,000 from 700,000. As far as number of delegates is concerned, Obama still has an insurmountable lead, despite Clinton’s grasp of 80 delegates. He collected 66 delegates, according to MSNBC.
For Clinton, the victory needs to be converted to cash as she appeals to voters to donate to her campaign which is in debt and running low on cash. It was reported that Clinton’s campaign spokesman had said that they raised $2.5 million in the hours immediately after the win in Pennsylvania.
Both candidates look to the next round of contests on May 6 in North Carolina, where Obama is leading as Clinton was in Pennsylvania with a 20 point lead. The next primary, after an expected Obama’s win in North Carolina, is in Indiana. It is still to close to call any one of the candidates as a clear leader and possible winner in this state, so maybe would be more clear after North Carolina results are in.
“Some people counted me out and said to drop out, but the American people don’t quit and they deserve a president who doesn’t quit either,” Clinton told cheering and chanting supporters in Philadelphia. According to a study, the ‘drop out’ pressures may come in strong if she fails to do the same in the majority of the remaining nine states where Obama is said favored.
“The future of this campaign is in your hands,” Clinton told her supporters. She was joined on stage by daughter Chelsea, and husband, former President Bill Clinton whose role in the elections is still controversial.
“There were a lot of folks who didn’t think we could make this a close race when it started,” Obama said in Evansville. “Six weeks later, we closed the gap. We rallied people of every age and race and background to our cause.”
Turnout was heavy at many polling booths, and a record number of Pennsylvanians had registered to vote. Lamenting the lack of a valid primary in his home state of Michigan, Michael Moore, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, endorsed Obama just before Pennsylvania primaries. He wrote that Obama’s experience and voting record aren’t as before, important as his “basic decency” and ability to inspire.
What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change,” Moore writes. “My endorsement is more for Obama the Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.”
The Oscar-winning filmmaker was hardly as kind to Clinton. “Over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting,” he writes, saying that she has tried to “smear” Obama — “Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity.”
Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, won 9 of every 10 black voters and led among young and male voters. Clinton, who would be the first woman U.S. president, won blue-collar workers, elderly voters and more than half of women.
Clinton also won 58 percent of those who decided in the last week, when Obama was on the defensive in a debate over a series of campaign controversies and Clinton questioned his toughness in an ad featuring images of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
According to press reports, voters were not happy with the race’s negative tone. About two-thirds of Pennsylvania voters thought Clinton unfairly attacked Obama, while about half thought Obama had unfairly attacked Clinton, the polls showed.
The New York Times, in an editorial, called the Pennsylvania campaign “even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering” than previous contests, and said it was “past time for” Clinton “to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.”
Obama has a nearly insurmountable lead in popular votes won during the first three months of the primary battle and in delegates. But neither candidate can clinch the nomination without the help of superdelegates, 795 party insiders who are free to support either Obama or Clinton.
Clinton hopes her win ignites a strong run through the last nine contests, bringing her closer in delegates won and votes cast and convincing superdelegates she is the Democrat who can beat McCain.
Currently Obama has 1,720 delegates overall to Clinton’s 1,588, both well short of the 2,024 needed to clinch the nomination.
Democrat party rules allow the losers in each state to win a proportional amount of delegates, giving Obama big chunks of delegates even when he loses. That means Clinton must win many of the nine remaining contests by big margins to significantly close the gap with Obama in the delegate race, which surely won’t be easy especially with significantly lesser financial aid from contributors.

Compiled by Kirubel Tadesse

Taking on malaria, the U.S allots 1.1 bln USD 20 mln. USD for Ethiopia in 2008.

By Kirubel Tadesse

Malaria is an ancient disease, identified as long ago as 2700 years before Christ yet it remains the most deadly health hazard affecting almost exclusively the developing world, and is especially lethal in Africa, where up to 2 million people are killed each year. Of these victims, over 75% are children, usually under five years.
Recently, one of the boldest moves from the U.S. is the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which alone targets to cut malaria-related deaths by 50% in 15 focus countries. It has been announced that there is strong reason for optimism in combating Malaria in African countries including Ethiopia. The second annual report of PMI, released last month, disclosed the allocation of an additional 1.2 billion USD for the remaining three years of the PMI.
According to Richard Reithinger, United States Agency (USAID) Ethiopia, Malaria Advisor, the two years, 2008 and 2009, will enjoy 300 million USD from of which Ethiopia gets 20 million for the first year. Ethiopia’s share of from PMI 300 and 500 million USD in 2009 and 2010 respectively is yet to be known but Reithinger is optimist that it will be at least the same amount as 2008 or more.
In order to achieve PMI goals and save lives lost every day, Reithinger explains that US AID’s major intervention has been operational, targeting 85% the population in selected areas which is Oromia regional state in Ethiopia’s case. The overall interventions in the selected areas include distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito bed nets, indoor residual spraying with insecticides, intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women and artemisinin-based combination therapy.
According to the advisor, unlike other countries, malaria cases in Ethiopia aren’t observed more on pregnant women and children below the age of five, it is rather affecting all age groups. “Very interestingly our malaria prevention, control and eradication efforts in Ethiopia haven’t been started a few years ago,” explains Reithinger, “USAID supported the government of Ethiopia’s establishment of the malaria eradication service back in 1960s.”
This US help, particularly in Ethiopia seem to gain a new momentum in overall U.S commitment towards African countries, as advisor Reithinger breaks down some of the major dramatic increment in financial dedications. When it went operational back in 2006, PMI, having only activities implemented in three countries, it had a budget of 15 million dollars which dramatically scaled up, including fifteen focus countries with a total of annual budget which witnessed a 20 time increment. It is with this scale up Ethiopia became part of the PMI focus countries.
In Ethiopia, Richard Reithinger explains that USAID activities are in five major areas. “The first one is case management; diagnosis and treatment of malaria cases using the latest state of the art approaches like rapid diagnosis test and artemisinin combination therapies. The second is prevention, done in line with Ethiopian government national malaria prevention and control strategy, “explained Reithinger, “we also monitor and evaluate to make sure that the activities of USAID support is resulting in impacts.”
USAUD also works to assure that malaria pregnancy treatments and epidemic detection and response mechanisms are put in place.
Despite critics that malaria is yet get a serious attention from donors, PMI effort seem to result in some major achievements and are likely to put its goals on target. PMI second year report discloses that activities are under way in eight new fiscal year 2008 focus countries including Ethiopia. “Continuing challenges during this third year of PM Implementation include the need for rapid scale up of artemisinin- based combination therapy (ACT) distribution and appropriate use of these drugs in countries with historically weak national pharmaceutical management system and the expanded distribution of ACTs a the community level, “ reads the report. It also put the need to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems for malaria as challenge need to be met in order to empower national malaria control programs and partners access to monitor the progress of activities.
On World Malaria day, celebrated last Friday, April, 25, 2008, USAID Mission Director, Glenn Anders said that Americans are standing in solidarity with Ethiopia and communities across the globe in the fight against malaria.
This year’s World Malaria Day is celebrated under the theme “Disease without Borders” highlighting malaria as a global emergency that troubles the entire world.
On a press statement USAID issued on the day, it explained that evidences shows in at least four African countries an impact on malaria transmission has been achieved through PMI.
It was shown that in Zanzibar, the percentage of children who tested positive for malaria dropped from 22 percent in 2005 to less than 1 percent in 2007 after the distribution of long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying. “In Malawi, where coverage with insecticide treated nets has increased rapidly over the past several years, a 2007 household survey in six districts showed a 43% decline in severe anemia among children aged 6 to 30 months, when compared with 2005.”
Even if it is yet to tell whether PMI will be able to save the targeted 50% of lives lost before it expires in 2010, at least it is clear that it will leave a remarkable foundation on which African countries can build on, to completely eradicate malaria in the coming few years.