Ivanka Trump in Ethiopia to 'promote women'
President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, is in Ethiopia to promote a US government initiative aimed at advancing women's participation in the workplace.The initiative aims to benefit 50 million women in developing countries by 2025. Ms Trump toured a female-run textile facility in the capital, Addis Ababa.The US policy in Africa under President Trump has prioritised the war on terror and checking the influence of China.

Widening the Bright Side: TPLF Should be Deeply Reformed Never Eliminated
Dr. Yohannes Aberra Ayele 4-14-19 - This is a critical transition period for Tigray from a thankless "National-service" to a rewarding "Self-service". In order to achieve this it would be ill-advised to "change the horse in the middle of the stream". TPLF has enumerable faults. Many of them were avoidable and should have been avoided; some were necessary evil; the rest were logical outcomes ..



Forging Strategic Democratic Federalist Alliances - The Challenge and Task of Our Era
Makonnen Tesfaye, 12 April 2019 - The forging of strategic alliances amongst all democratic federalist forces is the single most urgent task of our time and is tantamount to preserving the gains of self-determination and preventing state-failure in Ethiopia. It is by now abundantly clear that the rise of the current “EPRDF” leadership led by Abiy Ahmed (PhD) is principally the result of the Front’s internal decay...

TPLF statement after it concluded its recent Central Committee meeting,
(Amharic) (Tigrigna)
(Mekelle)  4-12-19 - In its statement, TPLF in no uncertain terms believes, 1) the coming national election must be held as planned, 2) the planned transformation of EPRDF in to a single party is unattainable and makes no sense now when the main four EPRDF members are not seeing eye to eye on many issues, 3) the country is at risk of disintegrating, better late than never to go back to the tested EPRDF way of governing, 4)TPLF is saddened to know the Ethiopia that used to be peacemaker in many other countries is today begging for helping hand to restore its own peace., 5) TPLF is bemused to hear the government is thinking to invite outsiders to keep peace in the country. 6) TPLF call on all peace loving people to join its forthcoming effort to restore law and order and democratic governance in the country!



Let's Make Ethiopia a Country for All of Us
Assefa A. Lemu 4-12-19 - The making of Ethiopia took Emperor Menelik II less than half a century (1866-1913), but making Ethiopian took triple of that time (1866-2019) and not yet fully made. As Mr. Lencho Leta, a veteran Oromo politician, said in early 1990s, being Ethiopian needs negotiation because there is no agreement on who is Ethiopian and what are Ethiopian values...



Can Abiy Ahmed Continue to Remodel Ethiopia?
It has been a whirlwind year for Ethiopia since Abiy Ahmed became prime minister. He has initiated a raft of reforms to overhaul... But the same period has seen a sharp increase in lawlessness, intensified domestic conflict, heightened identity-based violence and huge internal displacement.The fervour of 'Abiymania' has waned in recent months, as the reality of the monumental tests that lie ahead hit home. Having created massive expectations among competing constituencies, there are growing fears that Abiy's reforms might end up achieving neither good governance nor stability. To date, his accomplishments far outweigh his shortcomings. But significant tests lie ahead.

Sudan's military ousts president in face of protests
CAIRO - Sudan's military ousted President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday, ending his 30 years in power in response to escalating popular protests. The defense minister announced military rule for two years, imposing an emergency clampdown that risks enflaming protesters who have demanded civilian democratic change.




Experimenting on the Living Flesh of Ethiopia-(2)theBurden of History
Samuel Estefanous 10 April 2019 - I will never forget the impression (yet enduring and conflicting) I had of EPRDF (Woyane), after seeing the first batch of the Tegadala is in flesh. It was almost like sighting an ET in broad daylight. True, we were kids living the impression prone sensitive teen years to the full.

An open Message to TPLF:Good governance and Battle-readiness are Complimentary not Contradictory
Dr. Yohannes Aberra Ayele 4-10-19 - There is a disconcerting squabble in Tigray in the last few weeks over an issue which should not have been an issue in the first place. Everyone knows that Tigray is in a situation where some people, with political though not with military capacity, wish to see Tigray hanging in a butcher’s shop. Is this a significant enough threat forcing Tigray to hold...

BBC Amharic: Dawit Woldegeorgis Interview
BBC amharic 4-10-19 - "It is amazing how much hate can cloud once judgment! TPLF and many more from the old EPRDF members were crying out loud that Abiy was not a messiah but a populist. There are too many articles and interviews that could have enlighted anyone about the danger of team Lema! Today, almost everyone who jumped off the bandwagon of team Lemma is scratching their heads to find what went wrong! Dawit without the current constitution there is no Ethiopia! And, there will not be an Ethiopian Army!!!"

Ethiopia, US Launch New Project To Improve Rule Of Law Institutions
Addis Ababa, April 10, 2019 (FBC)- The United States announced today the launch of its new two-year, $4 million Feteh project to support the strengthening of independent rule of law institutions in Ethiopia. Feteh, meaning "justice" in Amharic, is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to a press release the US Embassy sent to FBC today.
The US Justice system is not perfect. If it was there will not be millions of black Americans jailed more than any other race in the country! However, the US has a good system to correct the wrongs over time! Let us hope Meaza Ashenafi's team is learning both from the good and bad of the US Justice system! To be honest with you all readers, how could Meaza still hold her position while the executive branch is ignoring her judge's decision in broad daylight? Does Meaza know how the cases of Isayas Dagnaw and likes are being handled? Does she know Berket and Taddesse are in jail in BahirDar for no reason? We really had high hopes Meaza was going to be a change maker! It is sad she is looking the other way instead of confronting the executive branch head on!



Trump's protectionist gamble
The US and China are engaged in a trade war nothing seems able to stop. It began with President Donald Trump's threats against those who 'steal from us' (18 April 2017), to which President Xi Jinping replied: 'No one should expect us to swallow anything that undermines our interests' (1). A war of words soon led to punitive import tariffs: the US imposed 10-25% on a range of Chinese goods and China retaliated.



How did US and Ethiopia become so close?
A high-level US delegation just returned from Ethiopia, which is arguably America's closest ally on the continent of Africa. How did these two countries become so close? Journalist James Jeffrey explains.It's noticeable soon after you land in Washington - the city is full of Ethiopians.Their ubiquitous presence - behind the counter at Starbucks or the wheels of taxis - in the bastion of American government symbolises the two pillars of this alliance.



Ethiopia's transition to democracy has hit a rough patch. It needs support from abroad
There aren’t many success stories around the world as nations transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Ethiopia has a chance to become a model, but it will need significant help confronting its challenges. There is no evidence that Abiy's administration has a clear strategy for addressing these growing tensions..
Advocates of color revolution are not concerned about the rule of law and democracy! As the article alludes no color revolution of our times have succeeded to bring democracy. All of them tore apart democracy and rule of law! It is really sad Ethiopians are left to beg outsiders to bring back rule of law and constitutional order. What happened to our patriotic spirit?

Ethiopian Airlines flight was in trouble after just 12 seconds: sources
Minutes after take-off, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX were caught in a bad situation.A key sensor had been wrecked, possibly by hitting a foreign object, according to four aviation experts and two US officials who were briefed on the flight data.As soon as the pilots retracted the flaps and slats, according to flight data, the sensor began to feed faulty information into the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), designed to prevent stalls.

Diaspora Donation List for Displaced Tegaru Update April 5, 2019
Aigaforum April 2019 - Note: List is updated with Donation from las Vegas - April 6, 2019
Those of you who have donated but could not see your or the organization name in the list should contact the office if you have the wiring receipt. Those of you who are still collecting money and wants to know how to transfer the money should contact one of the officers...

Ethiopia Commercial Bank to build a new 17 Story Headquarter in Mekelle!
Mekelle April 6, 2019 - The New building will cost a billion birr and will serve as the headquarter office for the region. It is also expected to serve the growing need of all importers and exporters in the region! The bank has over a million customers in the city and most were flying to Addis to get service for their import and export business.
See Also: Ethiopian Parliament has Approved the Mekelle water project loan!

Has Privatization Benefitted the Public?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 2 2019 (IPS) - In most cases of privatization, some outcomes benefit some, which serves to legitimize the change. Nevertheless, overall net welfare improvements are the exception, not the rule.Never is everyone better off. Rather, some are better off, while others are not, and typically, many are even worse off. .

Should Ethiopia stick with ethnic federalism?
To date, federalism has only been nominally practised in Ethiopia. Since the constitution was established in 1995, the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has maintained power through autocratic means. Ethiopians in the nine regional states have never had the privilege of electing their own governors. These officials have instead most of the time been appointed through informal channels by the EPRDF leadership in Addis Ababa.