People around the world surprised that Ethiopia has Airline [Reactions from DailyMail -UK , CNN and Twitter]

After the news that Ethiopian airlines plane caught on fire was covered by international media, instead the of the main news, many people were surprised to learn that Ethiopia has airline and owns the most advanced plane in the world.

Here are the reactions from CNN and Twitter.

We will update it as we get more reactions.

DailyMail

Boeing Dreamliner of Ethiopean Airlines? I thought the place was all desert and famine.

I thought Ethopia was a poor country how the hell could they afford to buy one of these planes?

Ethiopia? Thought their people were starving, it's akin to someone claiming benefits and turning up in a Rolls Royce!

Huffingtonpost

I work in aviation, have for the last 15 years, and mainly work International assignments at this point. How Ethiopian Airlines can afford a 787 and also get to the point in the waiting list where they already have on is beyond me.

Ethiopian Airlines? They probably swapped out the batteries with some they bought from K-Mart (on layaway).

teve Klingensmith • 3 hours agowhy does Ethiopia have an airline when all the people there are starvingGhost Rider • 6 hours agoThe bigger news is that Ethiopia can afford Dreamliners.

Reactions from CNN

TrayvonKardashan • an hour ago

Ethiopian have an airplane? They barely eat food!

outhernwonder • an hour ago

i did not know ethiopia has airplanes.

odette99 • 2 hours ago

Wow Ethiopia can afford a Dreamliner...now that is amazing. I wonder if Obama gave it to them.

coment8r southernwonder • an hour ago

a lot of us are stuck in the bloated belly past - Ethiopia has evolved

 

Paul Williamson • 2 hours ago

No real facts, or news for that matter...maybe the Ethiopians built a campfire in the plane and were roasting a goat..

SirOinkers • 2 hours ago

I thought flying in Ethiopia meant flapping your arms in a tribal feather dress.

johnsmith9875 SirOinkers • 2 hours ago

I hate flying Air Ethiopia. Meals are never served, ever.

Ethiopian Airlines? Some dude probably left a hooka going in the galley.

tet1953 • an hour ago

What shocks me is that there are enough people coming and going to Ethiopia to require a Dreamliner.

HeavyCavalrySgt • 12 minutes ago

I am a little surprised that Ethiopian Airlines operates 787s. I didn't realize that, but it looks like they own almost 10% of the fleet.

Knightmario • an hour ago

"The fire ignited on an empty 787 operated by Ethiopian Airlines that was parked at London's Heathrow airport."

I find this statement disturbing. This is a country which still holds the highest number of citizens who are literally starving to death, yet can afford the latest in commercial aircraft.

GodIs JustAnIdea Knightmario • 37 minutes ago

Ethiopian is a private airline company and their customers are Americans and European who go to Ethiopia to steal all the natural resources and have sex with local prostitutes, which are very cheap over there yet quite hot ...
so see, it's not the country .. we pay for the airplane ...

J.tell GodIs JustAnIdea • 28 minutes ago

Ethiopia doesn't have a lot of natural resources. And it's hard to call something "stealing" when you have a buyer and a seller agreeing upon a price. I'll need to check out the prostitute thing first hand and get back to you, though the Ethiopian chicks in the DC metro area are hot, but not cheap.

GodIs JustAnIdea J.tell • 24 minutes ago

well, see, this is what you do not know of the Ethiopians .. they are indeed very smart, at least those who got an education, which is very hard to get in Ethiopia

With regards to the babes .. they are among the most beautiful women in history ... of course ... it's Africa so sex is a dangerous business

Oh natural resources .. dude .. Ethiopia has no oil, but tiny rocks you can make into expensive thing women will want you to buy for them

J.tell GodIs JustAnIdea • 19 minutes ago

Well, I'm only having safe sex until marriage, so I am always careful. I do know a little about Ethiopia. That country's economy is growing fast now. It's also greatly expanding it's hydro power, so much so that it will be a major exporter of electricity. But the quantity of it's natural resources is not high, especially considering it's large population. It will have to depend on it's most important resources....it's people.

GodIs JustAnIdea J.tell • 17 minutes ago

unless war breaks up again, Ethiopia will be a leading country in African in 10-15 years .. just wait .. these guys are extremely smart ... so many wars selected the smartest only among the survivors

J.tell GodIs JustAnIdea • 13 minutes ago

I agree. Ethiopia's high GDP growth numbers are more sustainable over the long term than many other African countries. This will translate into a more important role for the country.

J.tell Amala ati Ewedu • 11 minutes ago

If Nigerians are smarter, they should prove it by doing something intelligent with all that oil wealth. Nigeria is a major exporter of crude oil, yet has to import most of it's gasoline. How intelligent is that?? Imagine if Ethiopia had a trillion dollars worth of oil.

Reactions from Twitter

Spadoni ‏@MandrewJablowmi31m

How the hell does Ethiopia have its own airline?

Sam © ‏@skirbi10m

year after year we are asked for charity for Ethiopia yet they can afford to have a their own airline using 1 of the most advance planes

richard simmonds ‏@06_rich10m

Wtf. Ethiopia has an airline,don't expect any food on board.

Babee T ‏@BAlexMA9m

The passer by white guy said "I didn't even know Ethiopia had airline." The fire at least put us on the map.

Alasdair Mackie ‏@AlasdairMackie15m

We go on about people on benefits with big tellys and iPads but Ethiopia has Dreamliners.

Pamela Meehan ‏@pamela_meehan17m

@ABC @ABC7 Ethiopia has an Airline? Wow the things you learn.

Brad Tanner ‏@Tannerlogue18m

Ethiopa have their own airline? They should stop moaning about their Boeing Dreamliner catching fire and get some kids fed!

Ollie ‏@oFrizzleJizzle3m

That Ethiopian airlines plane caught fire because it's made from sticks and mud. What did you expect?

Bryan Sargent ‏@dampmelonballs3m

How comes Ethiopia used to have kids with flies in thier eyes now they have 2 boeing 787 dreamliners although 1 has some fire damage!

swedishmarcus ‏@swedishmarcus47m

The most surprising thing about the news of an Ethiopian Airlines fire at Heathrow is that Ethiopia has an airline.

Source: http://sodere.com

Obama in the Early Days

In Ethiopia, the massive Nile River dam project is compared to the story of American Hoover Dam

ASSOSA, Ethiopia — The book, a history of Hoover Dam, fell from the dashboard as Simegnew Bekele drove through the rugged mountains where the engineer is leading construction work on Ethiopia’s massive Nile River dam.

“This book,” he said, picking it up, “I am reading it now ... It’s a fascinating story. This dam too (has) a history one day someone will write about.”

Simegnew’s sentiment illustrated the great expectations of a dam that has raised tensions between this Horn of Africa nation and Egypt, which is concerned the ongoing project will diminish its share of Nile River waters. Reading the book, a gift from Ethiopians he met in New York recently, the engineer has come to see similarities between the Ethiopian dam-in-progress and Hoover Dam, the Great Depression-era project that in its time became an icon of American enterprise under difficult economic conditions.

“Hoover Dam was constructed when America was (in) depression,” Simegnew said. “It was an enormous success. I am sure our dam too will herald a bright future for this country and also for the whole region.”

Despite the concerns of Nile-dependent Egypt, Ethiopia —whose economy suffers frequent power failures —has vowed to proceed with the dam that would become the biggest hydro-electric power station in Africa. In May, Ethiopia started to divert Nile waters to make way for the $4.2 billion dam which, when it is finished, will have the capacity to produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity. Ethiopia’s national electricity corporation says potential buyers of Ethiopia’s electricity will include the two Sudans, Kenya, Djibouti, Somalia, Uganda and even wary Egypt.

In Ethiopia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region near Sudan, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the capital, workers labor under intensely hot conditions and gigantic machines smash boulders in order to make the dam a reality by July 2017. Even as Egyptian and Ethiopian diplomats talk over the dam’s impact on the volume of Blue Nile waters flowing to Egypt, construction work is proceeding apace here in a sign of Ethiopia’s determination to resist Egyptian pressure. Some 5,000 Ethiopians, joined by 200 expatriates from 20 nations, work in shifts 24 hours a day. Visitors here have to go through multiple security checkpoints that are manned by soldiers wearing “anti-guerrilla” tags on their fatigues. The Italian construction firm Salini is building the dam while the Chinese company Electric Power Equipment and Technology Co. Ltd. is building power lines for it.

Simegnew, the engineer, told reporters last week that some of the diverted Nile waters are accumulating in a temporary coffer dam, and officials say that the filling of the reservoir will start next year. Power lines to connect the dam’s output with the national grid are being put up, and cables from the national grid extend to Djibouti, Sudan and, later, Kenya.

“During the filling of the reservoir, which will take five to six years, we won’t have any fixed impoundment rate to make sure the water flow downstream will not be significantly affected,” Simegnew said.

Ethiopia’s Nile project has won the support of upstream countries in East and Central Africa that have been meeting under the banner of the Nile Basin Initiative, which endorsed the new Nile River Cooperative Framework Agreement. That accord, ratified last month by Ethiopia’s parliament, was conceived to replace the 1929 treaty written by Britain that awarded Egypt veto power over other countries’ Nile projects. Sudan and Egypt signed a deal in 1959 splitting the Nile waters between them without giving other countries consideration. Egyptian politicians have suggested attacks against Ethiopia to sabotage the dam, and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi last month warned that “all options are open” to challenge the project.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said last week that, while he was willing to accommodate Egypt’s concerns, the continued constructing of the dam and its size are “red lines” that will not be crossed by the negotiations.

If the dam is completed without incident, it would be a remarkable achievement for Ethiopia’s leaders who dreamed of something big and wanted an equally grand name for the dam. Originally a secret project called X, the dam was later called the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, said he doubted Egypt’s dispute with Ethiopia over the Nile River would degenerate into armed conflict.

“Following long periods of silence, there are periodic outbursts as we have seen in the past month,” said Shinn, who is now a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. “I expect this trend to continue but not to result in conflict between the two countries.”

The Ethiopian government, which secured a $1 billion loan from China for power lines for the Nile dam, says it will continue to raise more funds domestically. Government employees have for the second time paid their one-month salary to buy bonds the government is selling. Private banks are ordered by the central bank to buy bonds worth millions of the Ethiopian birr.

Yilma Seleshi of the Ethiopian Water Resource Institute says the dam would consistently bring in hard currency for at least a century, returning the massive investment it is requiring. In his study presented during a meeting at Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University last week, he estimated that Ethiopia would earn 2 million euros in daily income from power sales to neighboring countries.

Source: http://ethioprofessionals.com

የልብስ ማስጫ ሲጠፋ…

በየቦታው የመብራት ኃይል ምሰሶዎች ተተክለው ገመዳቸውም ተሻግሮ ተላልፏል፡፡ ይሁን እንጂ መብራት ስላልተለቀቀበት የሰማይ ላይ ሲሳይ ብቻ ሆነው ቀርተዋል፡፡ እናም ይህ ያስመረረው አንድ የገጠር ሰው ማመልከቻ ፃፈ፡- “ብዙ ጊዜ መብራት እንዲለቀቅልን ለመስሪያ ቤቱ ደብዳቤ ፃፍን ለፈጣሪ ግልባጭ በማድረግ፡፡ ግን እስካሁን መልስ አልተሰጠንም፡፡ ስለሆነም ይህ የማይቻል ከሆነ መስሪያ ቤቱ የተወጠረውን ገመድ ዝቅ ያድርግልንና የልብስ ማስጫ እናድርገው፡፡” ብለው ጠየቁ፡፡ እውነታቸውን አይደለም? እስኪ እናንተ ፍረዱት፡፡

Egypt - Ethiopia: Storm on the Nile

Laurent de Saint Périer
Sabotage, corruption and intimidation to hamper the construction of Ethiopia's hydroelectric dam were brought to fore as Egypt weighed its options during a crisis meeting... on television.
But Ethiopia won't be intimidated.
Ethiopia evoked the wrath of the powers that-be in Egyptian politics on 28 May, as the East African country prepared to divert water from the Nile River to test its Renaissance Dam.
Egypt believes the Ethiopian dam could affect its water supply.
On 3 June, a meeting called by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi quickly turned into a council of war.
Some of the attendees suggested a number of actions to disrupt the construction of Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam, including destroying the infrastructure, corrupting top Ethiopian officials or even funding rebel groups.
The confabulation, transmitted live on television without the prior knowledge of the officials, reportedly, was met with rage.
In a twitter posting, Ethiopia's Foreign minister said his country won't be intimidated.
But Morsi later assured Ethiopia that his country will take no such action. One of his advisors was also quick to add that the Egyptian officials had not been warned about the live transmission of the meeting.
The construction of the $3.2bn Renaissance Dam was announced in 2011 and is part of a vast $9bn hydro-electric energy programme being undertaken by Ethiopia. Works will be finalised by 2016.
The dam is expected to generate about 6,000MW of electricity, the largest on the African continent, and could see Ethiopia becoming a net exporter of cheap electricity in countries within the sub region, including Egypt.
The Renaissance Dam is being constructed near the Sudanese border, on the Blue Nile - which meets with the White Nile in Khartoum to form the Nile river that flows through Egypt.
Despite Egypt's opposition to the dam's construction, Ethiopia argues that the Nile's downstream flow will not be affected.
Experts estimate that Egypt could see a 20 percent reduction of the Nile's downstream flow in the initial months following the opening of the dam in 2014. The filling of the dam is expected to last between three and five years.
Colonial-era agreements signed with Sudan in 1929 and 1959 saw Egypt taking an estimated annual share of 51 billion square metres and Sudan parting with an estimated 18 billion square metres, giving the two countries over 90 percent of the Nile's water.
Ethiopia says it contributes to more than 80 percent the Nile's water.
In April 2010, riparian countries of the Nile, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya signed the Entebbe agreement, which stipulated the redistribution of Nile's water.
Egypt and Sudan boycotted the talks, with Egypt saying the agreement was non-binding.
But the inclusion of Burundi meant that the majority of countries on the Nile water course had assented to the agreement despite Egypt's protest.

Source: http://ethioprofessionals.com

Cairo and Khartoum in talks on Ethiopia Nile diversion

Egypt and Sudan were holding talks on Wednesday following a decision by Ethiopia to divert the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project which risks affecting the two downstream Arab states.

Sudan’s minister of irrigation, Osama Abdallah al-Hassan, arrived in Cairo for a one-day visit to discuss the issue with authorities, Egypt’s official MENA news agency said.

And Ethiopia’s ambassador to Cairo, Mohammed Idriss, held talks with senior officials at the foreign ministry, it said.

Cairo said it was awaiting the outcome of a tripartite report by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to assess the impact of the project.

Officials in Cairo have described Ethiopia’s move as technical, saying it was unlikely to affect Egypt.

Essam Haddad, a senior advisor to President Mohamed Morsi, stressed that Addis Ababa’s decision “does not have a direct impact on Egypt or its Nile water.”

But Ethiopia’s move did unnerve authorities, prompting a cabinet meeting on Wednesday headed by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

In a statement, the government said Cairo was opposed to all projects which could affect the flow of the Nile.

It said it had planned “several scenarios” depending on the outcome of the report, without elaborating.

The $4.2 billion Grand Renaissance Dam hydroelectric project has to divert a short section of the Blue Nile -- one of two major tributaries of the Nile -- to allow the main dam wall to be built.

The river is being shifted about 550 meters from its natural course, officials in Addis Ababa said earlier on Wednesday, but stressed that water levels would not be affected.

The first phase of construction is expected to be complete in three years, with a capacity of 700 megawatts.

Once complete, the dam will have a capacity of 6,000 megawatts.

In Khartoum, the foreign ministry said Sudan would not be affected by the project, stressing in a statement that there are agreements and consultations between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

“Sudan respects the agreements to cooperate with those two countries (Egypt and Ethiopia) in matters that concern sharing the waters of the Nile and sharing mutual revenues,” the Sudanese foreign ministry said.

Both Sudan and Egypt, arid nations that rely heavily on the Nile for water, particularly for agriculture, are extremely sensitive about projects that could alter the flow.

Egypt believes its “historic rights” to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile’s flow and give it veto power over upstream projects.

But a new deal was signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allowing them to work on river projects without Cairo’s prior agreement.

Source: http://ethioprofessionals.com

CNN interview with Betsegaw Tadele: Obama called him the 'skinny guy with the funny name', but who is he?

By: Meron Moges-Gerbi, CNN

(CNN) -- On a rainy afternoon this spring when President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he called valedictorian Betsegaw Tadele the "skinny guy with a funny name" -- a nickname Obama has often called himself.

So, who is that other "skinny guy?"

Tadele's journey to sharing a stage with the president began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the youngest of Tadele Alemu and Almaz Ayalew's two children. Tadele's first name, Betsegaw, means "by God's grace" in Amharic, his native language.

In the summer of 2009, Tadele came to the United States in pursuit of a higher education.

Morehouse College, a historically black college, was not Tadele's first choice; he was initially interested in more technical schools. Morehouse only awarded him enough scholarship funds to pay for tuition, not room and board. But Tadele's brother happened to be living and working in Atlanta. Tadele saw this as an opportunity to spend time with his brother while taking advantage of what the university had to offer. Morehouse became his new destination.

After four years at Morehouse, Tadele had a 3.99 GPA. He graduated with a degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics. He won departmental awards in math and the school's computer science leadership and scholarship award, led Morehouse's Computer Science Club and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

"There is no impossible. There is no unbelievable. There is no unachievable, if you have the audacity to hope," Tadele said during his speech, paraphrasing the name of the president's 2006 book, "The Audacity of Hope."

The next stop in Tadele's journey is Seattle, where he'll work for Microsoft.

Here's what Tadele had to say about meeting the president and finishing college:

CNN: First thing first, what was it like to meet President Obama?

Betsegaw Tadele: I didn't really get to meet him except on stage. There were a lot of Secret Service (agents) around him. Many were suggesting I go and hug him, but I couldn't do that. But it was great; after my speech, he got up gave me a hug and told me he was proud of me. That was a great honor.

CNN: What was the greatest part of being a Morehouse valedictorian?

Tadele: It was great to be able to mark that moment and summarize our journey at Morehouse. I wasn't nervous at all. I could feel the energy of the crowd, everyone was happy to be there. It was an honor to be able to acknowledge all these parents who sacrificed so much for their kids to be there. Acknowledging them and our hard work and the energy of that moment was unforgettable.

CNN: How did it feel to have President Obama talk about you during his commencement speech, and later receiving a standing ovation from him?

Tadele: That was really great! I heard him call me "the skinny guy with a funny name," and I knew I heard it somewhere and I later found out that he was comparing me to himself, which was great. Some people in the Ethiopian community who had not heard him use the phrase on himself before found it offensive. They thought that "skinny" was a reference to the Western image of Ethiopia as poverty-stricken country and "funny name" as a trivial jab at my Amharic name. In fact, it was getting so out of hand, that I actually had to clarify on Facebook where the reference came from.

CNN: Quoting President Obama, "As Morehouse men, many of you know what it's like to be an outsider; know what it's like to be marginalized; know what it's like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that's an experience that a lot of Americans share." What has been your experience during your educational journey in the United States as an Ethiopian? Do you relate to his statement or was he aiming this only at the black community as some critics have stated?

Tadele: I do think the president was making a particular reference to the African-American experience, which is appropriate considering that he was the commencement speaker at a (historically black college or university.) However, more than that, he was speaking of the human experience. The struggle of fitting in a place that is new and strange is a common experience. As human beings, we fear the unknown. As long as there are people who deviate from the norm, there will always be people who discriminate against them. And thus discrimination is a universal experience.

When I first came to Morehouse, people thought I was not smart because of my strong English accent. As a native of Ethiopia, I have a very noticeable accent when I speak English, which leads a lot of Americans I meet to assume that I am not very smart. The cause for this assumption is simply the fact that experience and norm say that smart people's English sounds good. I had to prove myself. I can associate with a Morehouse man who might be stereotyped because of his color of skin.

CNN: Is it all work? What do you do for fun?

Tadele: Like most Ethiopians, I like to sit in Starbucks and have coffee, hang out with my friends. I was pretty involved in my church youth group until about a year ago. I spent a lot of time with them and that is a big part of who I am. I do spend a lot of time on computers. To me, computers are not work. I enjoy working on them. I don't see it as work at all, so that is fun for me.

CNN: Who or what inspires you?

Tadele: I have had many people who have served as my role-models, but none more than Jesus. Though I am a technically inclined person, I don't believe that I can have a meaningful life through my technical skills. I think, more importantly, my character and who I am as a person has a lot more to do with how meaningful my life is. And for this, the best example I have is Jesus.

He inspires me to work harder every day to prioritize people over my work. I try every day to shape my character like him. It is this attitude that enabled him to change the world.

Source: http://ethioprofessionals.com