In a report from 2006 marked “Secret ; Subject: Ethiopia: Recent Bombings Blamed on Oromos Possibly the Work of GOE [Government of Ethiopia]…by: Charge [d’Affairs] Vicki Huddleston”, “An embassy source, as well as clandestine reporting, suggests that the bombing may have in fact been the work of the GoE security forces.” Cable reference id: #06ADDISABABA2708

The recently released, and long awaited, Wikileaks Files on Ethiopia expose the lies used to justify UN inSecurity Council Sanctions in force against the little Horn of African country Eritrea.

Angelina Jolie should come clean and tell the world what she really “donated” to get her little Ethiopian girl. Somehow though I wont hold my breath for it wasn’t that long ago that Ms. Jolie was calling for the USA to declare war and invade Sudan. Buy an African baby from Ethiopia and then bomb some African villages in next door neighbor Sudan, its Hollyweird isn’t it?

This historic breakthrough has been accomplished in Eritrea by the use of good old fashioned public health methods, that tried and true science that is responsible for the major increase in longevity that took place in the 20th century. That’s right, public health, meaning first of all, clean drinking water, sanitation and hygiene has been the biggest breakthrough in human health in history, not antibiotics or vaccines or drugs of any sort.

Words cannot express the utter stupidity and self-destructiveness of US policy in allying itself to the rabble of Ouattara and his friends. What government in Africa will ever trust or deal openly with such a maniacal formulation of national interest on the part of the US. The US is at war in Africa. To win, or survive, requires helping one’s friends and punishing one’s enemies. What imp of the perverse can have gotten things so wrong; and so often?

Started some 15 years ago on the shoreline of Zula Bay, once home to Africa’s lost civilization of Punt, a lush, green mangrove forrest has been reestablished in the middle of thousands of miles of desert and is now providing an estuary for fish and shrimp as well as food for animals. Mangrove leaves and seeds provide almost the complete nutritional needs for goats, sheep and camels, thus providing the people of the area with milk and meat, which along with fish has been their sustenance of life from time immemorial.

In early February of this year, 2011, a six man squad of British mercenaries were caught red handed in the midst of preparing an attempt to assassinate the top leadership of the Eritrean government in the port city of Massawa on the Red Sea.
A search of the vessel they arrived on uncovered a cache of tools of the assassins trade. Included was a small arsenal of automatic weapons, a sophisticated satellite communications system, state of the art electronic target range finders, and most damning, several sniper rifles.

One of the planets smallest, poorest countries is defeating malaria one mosquito net at a time.
In the last decade, by providing insecticide treated mosquito nets to its people, and more importantly, making sure that every net is retreated every three months, Eritrea, in the impoverished, war torn Horn of Africa, has reduced malaria mortality by an astonishing 85 percent.

There is no democracy without proper representation. The main goal of any participatory democracy is not to enforce a rule of majority, nor allow for an excessive power of any minority but to establish and protect the rights of all citizens. That goal is also a key element in effective poverty fighting, achieving sustainable development and championing social justice. Proper channels for participating in governance must exist to reflect each public voice and allow for proper balancing of the democratic debate.

It’s that time again. Time to make the obligatory, end of the year “best of” list and please people with my choices and comments or annoy people who didn’t see CDs from their country or by their favourite artists on it.
Well, let’s say for starters that this is a list that contain CDs that I have received this past year. Needless to say, I have not received or reviewed every CD release of African music in the past 12 months. CD sales are down and it harder than ever to get some record labels to send music to radio stations.