Ethiopia English Blogs Roundup

Guardian’s Poverty Matters Blog wrote:

Years after debt campaigners succeeded in persuading the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and G8 to abolish debts worth billions of dollars owed by developing countries, figures show total external debts are once again on the increase

The blog further situate the account by highlighting Ethiopia’s debt

Ethiopia’s public sector debt is almost back at pre-MDRI levels, with China becoming Ethiopia’s third biggest lender (11% of new loans) behind the World Bank (34.3%) and IMF (11.5%), according to the AEO report.

On Huffington post it was reported that a £1bn programme of British aid for education in three east African countries has failed to teach basic reading, writing and maths skills to most of the children involved. Ethiopia being one of the recipients of British aid for education the account might be interesting for you and you can click here to read the full report.

Again on Huffington post Ben Rawlence, Senior Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch wrote a commentary titled “The Ethiopian Enigma”. He claims:

Ethiopia is a reliable partner on counter-terrorism and regional security and perceived to be an oasis of stability amid Eritrea, Sudan, and Somalia. Ethiopia has held terrorism suspects from Somalia and Kenya for interrogation and hosts a U.S. drone base for operations in Somalia. Ethiopia intervened in Somalia in 2006 to oust the militant Union of Islamic Courts and deployed peacekeepers in the contested region of Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan.

On Guardian Land grabbers: Africa’s hidden revolution is one of the highly commented stories of the day so far. In a book review titled same as the title of the commentary Pearce, the author of the book wrote:

Gambella is the poorest province in one of the world’s poorest nations – a lowland appendix in the far south-west of Ethiopia. Geographically and ethnically, the hot, swampy province feels like part of the new neighbouring state of South Sudan, rather than the cool highlands of the rest of Ethiopia. Indeed, Gambella was effectively in Sudan when it was ruled by the British from Khartoum, until 1956. For the half-century since, the government in Addis Ababa has ruled here, but it has invested little and cared even less for its Nilotic tribal inhabitants, whose jet-black skin and tall, elegant physique mark them out from the highlanders. The livestock-herding Nuer, who frequently cross into South Sudan, and the Anuak, who are farmers and fishers, are peripheral to highland Ethiopia in every sense.

Tadias Magazine interviewed Francis Falceto and wrote a feature on How Ethiopian Music Went Global.

Will bring to you my Amharic blog roundup soon!