Worancha ወራንቻ

Volunteers hard at work at the Zone 9 Bloggers Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Across the globe, journalists and activists are in jail for doing the kind of work we do everyday here at EFF—advocating for free speech and privacy. Last April, for instance, the Ethiopian government arrested six members of the Zone 9  bloggers network and three other journalists.  All now face  terrorism charges  for blogging about free speech and online surveillance and for using free digital security software. We wanted to raise awareness and educate people about the case in a way that would be maximally impactful, so we decided to spend a day editing Wikipedia to improve the entries relating to the Zone 9 Bloggers’ case. Here’s what happened. Techno-Activism 3 rd  Mondays At a recent  Techno-Activism Third Mondays  event (TA3M), a weekly tech-activist gathering in the Bay Area, one of the Zone 9 bloggers, Endalkachew Chala—who is in the U.S. finishing his Ph.D. and who worked with EFF this past summer

Marty Nathan, M.D., of Northampton was a 2011 Fulbright specialist grantee at the Hawassa University Referral Hospital School of Medicine in Hawassa, Ethiopia. This is the first of a two-part series on street people in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The second article examines the plight of street women and explores local efforts to help the town confront the needs of beggars and homeless people. Photo from http://www.lonehomeranger.com/2012/10/on-street-children-and-how-we-can-help.html Early one morning I was riding my bike to work at the Referral Hospital in Hawassa, Ethiopia. My husband, Elliot Fratkin, and I had lived in the city for six months, sent on federal Fulbright grants to teach students at the University of Hawassa. He taught undergraduates at the main campus and I lectured and oversaw medical students and interns in the internal medicine department at the hospital. As I pedaled down a broad boulevard in this, the fastest-growing city in Ethiopia and a tourist center due

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Ethiopia has dropped its bid to host the 2017 African Cup of Nations, and will focus instead on the next available tournament in 2025, the president of the country's football federation said. Junedin Basha said the East African country decided against running as the replacement for Libya after meeting with Confederation of African Football officials. CAF wants a country with already-established facilities to step in at short notice for 2017 after Libya withdrew as host in August because of security and organizational concerns. Ethiopia's bid revolved around building new stadiums. CAF executives "advised" Ethiopia to delay its bid, Junedin said. Zimbabwe and Algeria say they have submitted formal bids to host the 2017 tournament, while other candidates could include Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt. The deadline for bids to be lodged was Tuesday. Morocco will stage the next 16-team African Cup in January and February. Cameroon, Ivo

African Diaspora The African diaspora, together with the Jewish diaspora—the etymological and epistemological source of the term  diaspora —enjoys pride of place in the increasingly crowded pantheon of diaspora studies. Studies of African diasporas can be divided into two broad categories. First, there are those that discuss the patterns of dispersal of African peoples around the world and the kinds of diasporic identities these populations developed in their new locations. Distinctions are increasingly drawn between the "historic" and "contemporary" or "new" African diasporas, referring respectively to diasporas formed before and during the twentieth century. Second, some studies are concerned with analyzing the various linkages that the diasporas have maintained with Africa. Here emphasis is on the demographic, cultural, economic, political, ideological, and iconographic flows. The term  African diaspora  gained currency from the 1950s and 1

By Yilma Bekele The Bay Area that currently is home away from home for thousands of Ethiopians is nothing like any other place that I have known. I was born in a small village on the southern part of Ethiopia and have resided in Addis Abeba, Oregon and Seattle Washington before moving here. The Bay Area is unique. I thank the Gods and celebrate my luck whenever I have a chance. The place where I originated from is not known for such movement of people from one location to another. As much as I remember the majority of the people I know were born, grew up and die within a few miles of their home. A trip to the next town a few miles away was talked about days from departure. My journey to America was definitely a mind boggling experience and by any stretch of the imagination not an understandable act by most of my family and neighbors for the period I came to America. The same thing cannot be said today. As I drive to go to work every day the sight of elderly Ethiopian moth