Tadias Magazine

The Providence Journal

Saron Simon Mechale is an accidental entrepreneur.

The 26-year old from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is founder and CEO of goTeff, a deliciously nutritious crisp made from an ancient supergrain called teff. Mechale doesn’t have a background in business. She’s never studied culinary arts. But her unwavering conviction to reshape the West’s perceptions of her home country was incentive enough to launch her own startup.

“When it comes to Ethiopia or Africa, we are not the ones telling our story,” she said.

That reality became crystal clear to Mechale when she first came to the United States in 2013 to study at Brown University. Her knowledge of the U.S. was largely drawn from the movies and television shows she had grown up watching.

America is known as the best country in the world,” she said. “Its brand is very powerful.”

But just as the Hollywood version didn’t tell the whole story (she was shocked to learn that homelessness and poverty exist in this country), she also became acutely aware of the stereotypical way that Western media portray Ethiopia, and Africa at large.

“It was very one-sided storytelling,” she said. “I felt I wanted to tell an authentic, contemporary story for Ethiopia.”

Ironically, Mechale’s more modern messaging about her homeland centers on a supergrain that’s been cultivated in Ethiopia for thousands of years. Teff is an integral part of the Ethiopian diet. Rich in protein, fiber, iron and calcium, it has long fueled the country’s famous long-distance runners. From Mechale’s perspective, each tiny grain of teff packs the power and promise of a new Ethiopia.

“When I started this, it was almost like a social-justice project in my head,” she said. “I know that Ethiopia is sometimes known for two things: famine and malnourished kids, or freakishly good endurance athletes. The Ethiopian athlete angle is super powerful. That was strongly connected to teff.”

What was equally imperative to Mechale was making sure her country would benefit financially from teff, beyond just exporting the grain. While 95% of the world’s teff is grown in Ethiopia, it was a Dutch company that for years held a patent on products made with teff flour.

“I looked at it as secondhand colonization,” she said of the practice of Africa exporting raw materials cheaply to richer nations that transform them into consumer products with higher profit margins.

“Cocoa comes from Ghana or West African countries, but chocolate is associated with Switzerland. Why can’t West Africans produce chocolate and be part of the market in a stronger way that returns more value to farmers and to the economy of the country?”

From vision to startup

With her vision for a rebranded Ethiopia, Mechale started taking more entrepreneurship courses at Brown, learning important lessons about starting a business. Slowly, goTeff began taking shape. In 2019, she competed in Brown’s Venture Prize, hosted by the Jonathan M. Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship; goTeff came in second place.

“I was privileged to start this idea at a place like Brown,” Mechale said. “The university created a great ecosystem for me when I first started this company.”

goTeff’s trajectory continued to rise. The startup also won the 2019 MassChallenge Rhode Island and became a two-time finalist for the Rhode Island Business Plan competition. At every turn, Mechale was making significant connections to networks of entrepreneurs who would become valuable mentors.

“Rhode Island does an amazing job of supporting small businesses and getting young people to stay here and start new things,” she said.

Mechale had her vision. She also had her star ingredient. But she still needed to come up with a recipe that would prove irresistible to customers. One of her first stops was Hope & Main, an incubator for food businesses, located in Warren. It would take years of trial and error for Mechale to develop the crunchy snack food she sells today.

“She’s the quintessential entrepreneur,” said Lisa Raiola, president and founder of Hope & Main. “She iterates. She learns. For her to have transformed this ancient grain in a way that’s very accessible to us, and build this brand, is pretty remarkable. She’s a powerhouse.”

Saron’s goTeff snak products come in a variety of flavors. (The Providence Journal)

Joe Loberti is equally impressed. A longtime businessman and entrepreneur himself, Loberti has mentored Mechale since 2019 through the RIHub Venture Mentoring Service. The nonprofit relies on industry veterans who volunteer to mentor entrepreneurs who want to launch startups in the Ocean State.

“She really is a remarkable individual,” he said about Mechale. “At the first meeting, we were wowed by her communication skills and knowledge of the product.”

With the help of the mentoring sessions, Mechale expanded her target customer beyond the purely athletic to the health-conscious. She made sure that her goTeff snacks — which can also be used as a cereal, granola or topping for yogurt or salad — were not only gluten-, dairy- and nut-free, but they only contained a handful of healthy ingredients.

She perfected her logo and packaging to “communicate the joy and essence of Ethiopian culture.” The company’s tagline: go long, go strong, goTeff!

Empowering girls in Ethiopia

And staying true to her focus on social impact, she is partnering with Girls Gotta Run, an organization in Ethiopia that uses sports to empower girls and keep them in school.

For now, Mechale has moved production to an industrial kitchen in Providence. She’s streamlined the production process and is focusing more on sales.

“Before COVID, we’d let customers [at farmers markets and events] sample it,” she said. “We know that once people try our product, they buy it. But because most people don’t know what teff is, they’re more cautious.”

Saron Simon Mechale breaks up sheets of baked teff products into snack-size portions. Now working in an industrial kitchen in Providence, she dreams of one day moving production to her native Ethiopia to boost its economy. (The Providence Journal)

Mechale has been selling her teff crisps at farmers markets, at Plant City (a vegan restaurant in Providence) and on the goTeff website. She just joined WhatsGood, an online “market” that connects local growers and food businesses to customers. And, she’s hoping to get a big boost from renowned “superfoods hunter” Darin Olien. The wellness author recently recorded an interview with Mechale about goTeff for an upcoming episode of his podcast, “The Darin Olien Show.”

For the foreseeable future, Mechale plans to keep working 80-hour weeks to grow goTeff in the American marketplace. Her dream is to one day move production to Ethiopia and help lift the local economy.

“In a lot of ways, I’ve looked up to Saron,” said Mary Magdalene Langat, a close friend from Brown who helps Mechale with goTeff. “She’s very brave, and she goes for what she wants. When someone believes in themselves and their vision so much, they take you in with them.”

Brown University graduate Saron Simon Mechale says she sees goTeff as a way to help rebrand and lift the economy of her native Ethiopia, while empowering women. (The Providence Journal)

Not everyone is born knowing what they’re passionate about or what they want to do,” Mechale said. “I think passion comes after you invest a significant amount of time in something. For me, I am passionate about rebranding Ethiopia. I’m passionate about empowering women. And, I’m passionate about making teff and healthy food options accessible to people.”

Go long, go strong, go Saron Mechale!

—

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Tadias Magazine

By Tadias Staff

Updated: August 10th, 2020

Interview With Addisu Demissie: Senior Adviser to Joe Biden

New York (TADIAS) — As the Democratic Party prepares to officially nominate Joe Biden as its candidate to become the next President of the United States, veteran campaign strategist Addisu Demissie is the person in charge of putting together the nominating convention that kicks off on August 17th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The convention — one of the most anticipated American political events during a presidential election season — promises to be nothing but traditional this year amid the growing Coronavirus pandemic, which makes Addisu’s role all the more challenging and historic.

“My job is essentially to produce the convention,” Addisu told Tadias in a recent interview. “I do everything from the program, to the budget management, to fundraising, to political relations with members of Congress or with Governors or what have you.” He added: “It’s kind of a little bit of everything. No one day is like any other, that’s for sure. We’re trying to produce a convention in the midst of a pandemic. It’s gonna be nothing like anything anyone has ever done before, but we have a mission – and that is to present Joe Biden to the country. He is somebody who has been in public life for 40 years, but still people need a better sense of who he is and what he’s fighting for.”

Addisu, who is also a Principal & Co-Founder of 50+1 Strategies, a California-based consulting firm, comes armed with years of campaign experience including managing Senator Cory Booker’s 2013 Senate campaign and more recently his presidential campaign, as well as Gavin Newsom’s 2018 campaign for California governor, and working as National Director of Voter Outreach for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Addisu’s first got involved in politics when he joined Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign prior to attending law school.

“I went back to school thinking I’d be leaving campaigns and go back to my original path, which was to be a civil rights lawyer, but I discovered that I missed the campaign,” Addisu said. “So all during law school I worked on campaigns. And then I graduated in 2008 and basically it was ‘do I go become a lawyer or do I go back into politics’ and I decided to go back to politics. Friends that I had worked with on campaigns starting in 2003 connected me and I ended up working on Obama presidential campaign’s as Get-Out-The-Vote Director in Ohio. That was really the fork in the road for me in terms of my career path.”

Below is our full interview with Addisu Demissie:

TADIAS: Please tell us a bit about yourself, where you grew up and were raised, your focus in school and college.

Addisu Demissie: I was born in Windsor in Ontario, Canada. My mother’s side is Black American and my grandmother is Black Canadian. My father’s side is Ethiopian. My dad came to Windsor to attend college and met my mother. I was raised in Toronto until the age of 11 and then became a U.S. citizen and moved to Atlanta, which became my first home in America. For high school I attended a boarding school in Massachusetts and then attended Yale for undergraduate studies. I grew up steeped in Ethiopian culture as well as American and Canadian. I’m Canadian by birth, American by choice and Ethiopian by ethnicity, history and tradition.

TADIAS: What were some early experiences that made you decide that you wanted to study political science in college, go to law school and then become active in state and national political campaigns?

Addisu: I actually started out as pre-med student in college. I was into math and sciences my whole schooling years, but I took a law class about civil rights during my sophomore year in college and I found myself liking it a lot more than I did my science classes. In my junior year I started asking myself “am I doing math and science because I’ve been doing it for 12 years or do I actually want to be a doctor or scientist?” I realized that I didn’t really want it anymore and basically took political science courses through my junior and senior years to get a political science degree. When I graduated from college I moved to Washington D.C. to work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. That was my first job out of college and it started me on my path in politics.

I ended up in Washington because I had taken a class in the fall semester of my senior year with a Connecticut Supreme Court Justice named Flemming Norcott, who taught a civil rights law course about Blacks and the law, which was seminal in my life and I wanted to work for the NAACP legal defense fund. By spring semester of my senior year I found a job opening at LDF and while I didn’t get the job that I had applied for in New York I received an offer from the Executive Director to work in Washington D.C.

TADIAS: You’ve worked on several presidential campaigns as well as served as Political Director of the Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America project in 2009. What are some of the memorable highlights and lessons learned?

Addisu: I worked for the 2004 Kerry campaign before going to law school. I went back to school thinking I’d be leaving campaigns and go back to my original path, which was to be a civil rights lawyer, but I discovered that I missed campaign. So all during law school I worked on campaigns. And then I graduated in 2008 and basically it was ‘do I go become a lawyer or do I go back into politics’ and I decided to go back to politics. Friends that I had worked with on campaigns starting in 2003 connected me and I ended up becoming Obama campaign’s Get-Out-The-Vote Director in Ohio. That was really the fork in the road for me in terms of my career path.

TADIAS: As Principal of 50+1 Strategies you successfully led as Campaign Manager for Cory Booker and Gavin Newsom’s campaigns among other candidates. Can you share more about what motivated you to found your own organization?

Addisu: I started my own organization in 2011. I was getting married and my wife wanted to move to California, so I left Washington D.C. in 2010, and in the middle of 2011 I decided to start my own firm and figure out how I was going to continue working in politics and campaigns without having to keep flying to different places around the country to run campaigns. I started seeking out clients and doing it on my own. I currently have two big clients — one is the upcoming Democratic Convention and working for Biden’s campaign and the other is a new organization called More Than a Vote.

TADIAS: You are now Senior Advisor for presidential candidate Joe Biden and working on the 2020 Democratic Convention. Can you tell us more about your current work?

Addisu: My job is essentially to produce the convention, which starts on August 17th. I do everything from the program, to the budget management, to fundraising, to political relations with members of Congress or with Governors or what have you. It’s kind of a little bit of everything. No one day is like any other that’s for sure. We’re trying to produce a convention in the midst of a pandemic. It’s gonna be nothing like anything anyone has ever done before, but we have a mission – and that is to present Joe Biden to the country. He is somebody who has been in public life for 40 years, but still people need a better sense of who he is and what he’s fighting for. The job of the convention, every year, and especially this year, is to communicate that to the country and to the world. And I’m in charge of helping to make that happen.

TADIAS: You’ve also focused on fighting voter suppression with the organization More Than a Vote. Can you share more about their focus and how others can get more informed and involved?

Addisu: This is my other big client, and once the convention ends, it will be my main client as I want to put a lot of work into it for obvious reasons. I got connected through people I know who put me in touch with Maverick Carter who runs James LeBron’s organization as well as Adam Mendelsohn who is his Communications Advisor. And they had been talking about this idea with LeBron and others to have a coalition of athletes that can engage politically. They wanted someone to help lead the organization and I feel that I am the right person because you need someone who understands politics and understands campaigns and at the same time it’s as much a cultural movement as it is a political one. We’re trying to use culturally relevant figures to create politically relevant content that’s authentic, that’s grounded and real and raw. We got it off the ground in June, largely to be honest because of the murder of George Floyd and Breona Taylor and others, which galvanized athletes to action and wanted to put their voices together and lift it up, in this moment and beyond, on behalf of black people in America. So that is what we are doing. We’re building an organization just like any other, any union or political organization that exists out there to advocate for people – these are just people who have as big a platform as anyone and as loud a voice as anybody to make change. And they are ready to use it, and I’m ready to help them do it.

TADIAS: Who are the mentors who have inspired and encouraged you to blaze your trail?

Addisu: My dad obviously. He died five and half years ago. He was always supportive and proud of what I was doing. I would say he was initially confused when I switched my major from biochemistry to political science in college, and very confused when I decided to move to Iowa to work for John Kerry. I was gonna be a doctor, and then I scrapped that. And then I got a law degree and he was like “phew, he’s back on track.” Then I went back to politics and he was like “what the hell are you doing?” But I think once he saw me work for Obama and go to the White House and run Corey Booker’s campaign for Senate (the first one I ran) – he was like ‘okay I get that this is an actual career and actual profession and I appreciate it,’ and he was always great and definitely encouraging and supportive.

Professionally, Ben Jealous helped me get my first job on the Kerry campaign, and has been someone that I’ve stayed in touch with and has been helpful to me. I definitely look up to him as a justice warrior and he is a great guy. Terry McAulife, Former Governor of Virginia, who was my boss in 2004, taught me a lot about politics and about how to treat people and how to be a leader when he was the DNC Chair and I was his assistant. He has really been a great mentor to me. Corey Booker is certainly on that list too. He’s someone I look up to as a person of character. He’s a real mentor. I’ve ran his campaign for Senate and President, and he’s somebody who models good behavior as a public figure and somebody who has not compromised his values or his character to get to very high places in politics. There is this public image, and sometimes a private one as well, about the need to be a backstabbing, manipulative person to get ahead in politics and I actually don’t believe that. And Corey and Terry are proof of that. They’re just good people..people of high character, and good moral values who are in it for the right reasons. I’d like to think of myself as that and I’ve also tried to model myself after the way they conduct themselves and I definitely look up to both of them.

I’ve been lucky. I’ve had many people open doors for me like Elaine Jones when she was head of NAACP legal defense fund. My whole career wouldn’t have happened without her if she hadn’t spotted me and said, “you know what, you should go to Washington. You’ll be really good at this if you just get the opportunity.” I think I was 20 years old when I interviewed with her. Leslie Proll, who was also my boss at LDF, is someone that I still keep in touch with and who remains a big champion for me. To have people want to help you at a young age and see something in you, and want to lift you up, and put you in positions to succeed is a pretty cool thing. I’ve been lucky to have that at basically every stage of my career.

TADIAS: What do you like most about your work? What are the challenges?

Addisu: As I’ve gotten older what I really like about it is that every day I feel like I’m making a difference, which I know sounds trite, but every time I’ve tried to go into a profession or a job that doesn’t have a mission-driven basis then I fail. Money is not enough of a motivator for me, prestige is not a big enough motivator for me. I need mission. I need purpose in my professional work – what gets me up in the morning is doing mission-based work. I work 16 to17 hours a day right now because I got these two huge projects that I’m leading, but I don’t care because I love it. I feel like I’m changing the world. And when I see people like Corey introduce legislation or Gavin do something great here in California I’m like “you know what? I helped to put them there.” When Barack Obama got elected and passed the Affordable Care Act I may have had a very small piece in the broad scheme of things in doing it but I know that I did something that helped move the ball forward and that is what motivates me.

I think the challenge of this work is, first of all, there are very long and difficult hours and most of it is not glamourous. It’s very hard relational work that you put a lot of labor into, and so you’re really tired on a physical and emotional level if you do this work every day. It’s also slow, you don’t get everything that you want. You know, this moment even now that we’re in with George Floyd and the BLM movement gaining power, rightly so, it feels like I’ve seen this movie before and I’m thinking ‘is this gonna be the time where it has a different ending or not?’ I don’t know. But you gotta have hope that it is. Every once in a while you get your Affordable Care Acts, but more often than not you get nothing. And you gotta remember those wins, so that the losses that we had in 2016 or the one I had with Corey’s presidential campaign don’t land so hard, because you lose more often than you win or you get half wins. Pure victories are very rare. Election night 2008 was one of the greatest nights of my life, but I don’t think I’ve had that feeling in politics more than five times. That sort of ‘we did it’ pure, joy, bliss and feeling like we accomplished exactly what we set out to accomplish – it doesn’t happen very often. You’re reaching for that every day but in 20 years it has come five times – that’s few and far between. Oftentimes you have little wins that accumulate, and you gotta celebrate those, and ultimately something good happens at the end of the rainbow.

TADIAS: Your mission and work and the choices you made – your story is a brand new story for us. What advice would you give the young generation. What message would you share with them in terms of moving from being “interested in politics and political campaigns” to actually doing the footwork. Not just getting engaged themselves but getting communities mobilized?

Addisu: I think the key thing that I’ve learned in both doing it and now being in senior roles is how important ‘just doing it’ is. The people who stand out, and grow, and who succeed and ascend in this business, it’s a meritocracy. Hard work and throwing yourself into it and not looking for glory is what really pays off. And also, start your own thing. We’ve seen with the March for our Lives, the Women’s March that a lot of it is grassroots-driven. It’s just people saying “I’m sick of it, I’m doing it myself. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’ll figure it out while I go along.”

The entrepreneurial spirit in our community, and many others, is there when it comes to business, but it’s not there when it comes to politics. Both Yohannes [Abraham] and I, we both started at the bottom. We didn’t try to jump in at the middle, or get jobs that have fancy titles. We were field organizers, which is the lowest on the totem pole when it comes to campaigns, but you gotta start there. Everybody starts there, that’s how you learn. That’s how you meet people. That’s how you grow your network. That’s how you get into positions that we are in right now after years of toiling. And you can’t rush that process. It happens fast if you let it happen but if you force it, it doesn’t happen. Think about Yohannes he went from being a field organizer in Iowa in 2007 to running the transition in 2020. That’s not that long, and frankly four years ago he was running the biggest office in the White House. That’s what you can actually do in this business. But you gotta start somewhere and learn it.

—

Related:

Biden Selects Yohannes Abraham as Member of Transition Team

Interview: Helen Amelga, California Senate Field Rep & Founder of Ethiopian Democratic Club of LA

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

April 6th, 2018

How Ethiopic Script Was Introduced to Modern Computers: Interview with Fesseha Atlaw

New York (TADIAS) — Just a couple of decades ago it was unthinkable to see Amharic and other Ethiopian languages on our phones, computers, and other electronic devices. Today, however, Ethiopic script is ubiquitous and is used in many applications including in our communication via text messages and on social media.

We were curious to find out when and how Ethiopic Script was introduced to modern computers, so we reached out to Ethiopian-American Engineer Fesseha Atlaw, founder of the first Ethiopic software company, Dashen Engineering, and an early pioneer of digitized Ethiopian script.

Fesseha was among those profiled here some 25 years ago in an article titled “Legends of Ethiopic Computing” for his role as the producer of the first usable Ethiopic word processor. The article noted: “Ato Fesseha is best known in the field of Ethiopic computing for providing the genesis for the concept of computerizing the Ethiopian alphabet.”

“The Ethiopian script has come a long way since it was first applied to a computer program in the early 1980s,” Fesseha says. “We have made a lot of progress in the last three and a half decades, and I get emotional when I think of how far we have come in just 30 years.”

While working with the Unicode Technical Consortium in the early 90s (where he was the only African participant for 30 years) Fesseha was also responsible for proposing and pushing Ethiopic script to be the computer name instead of Geez or Amharic. “This I did consulting with Ethiopian linguists,” Fesseha explains. “The implication for this name selection was huge. It not only permanently codifies the computer reference to the language to be associated with Ethiopia but also correctly credits that the alphabet origination or development belongs to all Ethiopians.”

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

For Fesseha it was his passion for writing in Amharic rather than his profession in the tech industry that initially inspired him to design the first known Ethiopic Script Software. “I loved writing in Amharic as far back as I remember,” recalls Fesseha in an interview with Tadias.

In fact he was barely 15 years old when a high school play that he wrote got the attention of the late Poet Laureate of Ethiopia Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin and was staged at the National Theater garnering him a “thumbs up” review in the Ethiopian Herald and a full page interview on Ethiopia Dimts (የኢትዮጵያ ድምፅ).

Years later, after Fesseha moved to the United States and became an engineer working for Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the heart of Silicon Valley, he still wanted to continue his writing and had contacted people in Ethiopia to send him an Amharic typewriter. But there was one huge problem.

“I discovered that it was a capital crime to smuggle an Amharic typewriter out of Ethiopia,” Fesseha says. “It was a political punishment to discourage free expression and dissemination of pamphlets and other material by opponents of the military government of Mengistu Hailemariam. As the saying goes ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ so they did not want anybody to have this writing machine.” He adds: “I even contacted Olivetti in Italy that manufactured Amharic typewriters for the Ethiopian market. They told me that they had a contractual obligation with the Ethiopian government not to sell the typewriters outside of Ethiopia.”

“Necessity is the mother of invention” Fesseha says, explaining that he decided instead to develop a software using the Ethiopic alphabet. Of course there was no such thing as Windows Operating System at the time and personal computers were at very early development stages — home computers were not even in the radar — and buying one was an expensive endeavor. Fesseha rented the cheapest IBM computer (8086 Micro processor) and a “noisy” DOT Matrix printer for $380 per month.

“It was very crude process,” he recalls. “I had to design screen font and printer font separately for each letter pixel by pixel and grid by grid.”

Fesseha held his first major demonstration at Stanford University in the mid-1980s. “It was a well attended event,” Fesseha shares. “Many people came including the touring Ethiopian delegation to the U.S.” Shortly thereafter in 1986/87 Fesseha gave his first interview to Voice of America’s Amharic service.

The touring Ethiopian delegation eventually extended an invitation to him to do a similar demonstration in Ethiopia, which ended up with him hosting a workshop at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa. “It was a dramatic day because Mengistu showed up unannounced,” Fesseha chuckles remembering the moment. “All of a sudden they cleared out the room and a whole bunch of military people with machine guns came in. I kind of sensed that it might be Mengistu and he was not my favorite guy. I had demonstrated against him, I used to write articles in U.S. newspapers about the atrocities and killings at that time, so I was a bit nervous to meet him face-to-face.”

Just as Fesseha guessed, after a few hours of waiting, Mengistu strolled right into the room with his entourage heading straight to the demo table to meet Fesseha. “So I quickly wrote on the screen his favorite slogan: “Hulum Neger Wede Tor Ginbar,” (“ሁሉም ነገር ወደ ጦር ግንባር”), Fesseha says. “To my relief Mengistu found it humorous and smiled from afar.” Although Mengistu was impressed and asked a lot of questions there “was not much productive follow-up afterwards,” Fesseha notes. He returned to California and continued on improving on it and making it available to the public “without any help from the Ethiopian government.”

Fesseha Atlaw hosting the first Ethiopic software workshop at the Hilton Hotel in Addis Ababa in the mid 1980s. (Courtesy photos)

What were the most significant milestones in digitizing Ethiopic Script?

“The most important development in the history of Ethiopic software came in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Voice of America (VOA) international service gave Xerox a contract to develop multilingual computers and one of the languages they requested was Amharic,” Fesseha says. “Collaborating with Joe Becker from Xerox I pushed for “Ethiopic” to be the unicode name in the Unicode list of languages,” Fesseha emphasizes. “I am proud of that struggle and I consider it to be my biggest contribution. Now the computer knows our alphabet as ‘Ethiopic’ and even a brand new computer will be able to display and allow you to write Ethiopic characters without having to download or install fonts or programs.”

What is Unicode?

“Unicode is an international encoding standard for use with different languages and scripts, by which each letter, digit, or symbol is assigned a unique numeric value that applies across different computer platforms and software programs. Ethiopic was included in the Unicode standard in 1990. I feel honored to have had a part in the inclusion of Ethiopic in the Unicode standard working with the founder of the Unicode Consortium himself, Dr. Joe Becker of Xerox Corporation. I have been working with Dr. Becker and others in proposing improvements and additions to the set of Ethiopic characters. Members come from high tech companies including IBM, Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon. While I was at Hewlett Packard and Dashen Engineering I participated representing the two companies, now I am an individual member since I no longer work at HP. I am still the only member from Africa.”

What is the state of Ethiopic in 2018?

“The state of Ethiopic is thriving as never before,” says Fisseha enthusiastically. “Now almost all, I would say 90%, of software applications can easily be done in Ethiopic.” Some of these include Amharic Translation such as in Google browser, as well as Amharic OCR and Amharic Natural Language Processing.

“Regarding the Amharic OCR (Optical Character Recognition), it’s a relatively new technology even for English language users,” Fesseha explains. “The way it works is, the computer takes a picture of a character and matches it with a UNICODE equivalent. The implication is huge. We can now search for a sentence or a word in old scanned books or Amharic documents that were written long time ago before the advent of Ethiopic Software. It also means you can now edit old books and scans as the OCR engine converts any written Ethiopic into editable format after it has been scanned as PDF.”

As for Amharic Natural Language Processing, “this is where a computer can actually read a book for you (in a synthesized voice) and one can also give instructions to the computer via natural spoken language,” Fesseha adds. “Again the implication is immense. You can speak to the computer or mobile device in Amharic and it will start writing your words. You can do this within an application or cut and paste the written words into any application like Facebook or Twitter or Excel etc. This natural Language processing AI is also allowing us to have our own robot that takes instructions and provides an answer in Amharic (Much the same way as Alexa of Amazon and Siri of Apple). One young developer has called his robot “Meron.” An actual sample conversation looks like this:

ጤና ይስጥልኝ
ጤና ይስጥልኝ ስሞትን ማን ልበል?
ፍሥሓ እባላለሁ
ሰላም ፍሥሓ እባላለሁ ፣ ሜሮን እባላለሁ
አማርኛ ትችያለሽ ?
አዎ
ጎበዝ

Fesseha points out that modern graphics design and animation can likewise easily be done in Amharic and cites examples such as TV program graphics, neon signs and animated words and phrases.

“The sky is the limit,” Fisseha enthuses. “The basis for all this was the foundation that was set some 30 years ago to include Ethiopic in the globalized world language ranks.” Now many young Ethiopians such as MetaAppz, Ethiocloud, Agerigna and many many more have taken it to the next level and are developing applications at a very fast rate.”

There have been some recent discussions and debates about whether or not Ethiopic should be used to write Afaan Oromo, and Fesseha who also advises the Oromo community in helping to standardize Qube writing system, adds that he does not believe in imposing Ethiopic on anyone.

“That’s a political issue that Oromos must decide on their own as to the value of using Ethiopic script for Afan Oromo” he says. “As you know Oromiffa has several dialects so Qube is not standardized yet and there are some related technical issues that we are working to resolve at the moment.”

“Some 40 years ago, Oromo intellectuals felt that Ethiopic/Geez script was too cumbersome to computerize and developed the Qube system,” shares Fesseha. “Now in 2018, Ethiopic can do everything a Latin script can do and in my humble opinion, if Afaan Oromo started using Ethiopic, it would be easier to have Google translate and other technological advances include Afaan Oromo and the rich Oromo language can benefit from the technology sooner than later. I will continue to do my best to help in this regard. I call on Oromo scholars to consider using Ethiopic to write Afaan Oromo not for political reason but for simple technical reasons. Ethiopic script belongs to all Ethiopians like Adwa belongs to all of us.”

Cover of an old Afaan Oromo Bible መጫፈ ቁልቁሉ reprinted from the 1800′s version.

Ethiopic Unicode has had characters that represent unique Afaan Oromo sounds such as “በዻኔ” “ዻባ” “ዼሬሳ” … These are not new developments but have been incorporated in the Unicode some 30 years ago as shown in this chart.

Fesseha emphasizes that the development of Ethiopic Script incorporated the participation of many individuals over the years in helping to fine-tune the process. He notes: “From the beginning it was a community-based effort and the credit goes to lots of people and especially the young engineers who are continuously refining the use of Ethiopic in various technology platforms.”

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You can learn more about the history of Ethiopic Software and contact Fesseha Atlaw at fesseha@optmax.com or through www.ethiopicsoftware.org.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Sunday, July 24th, 2016

The Aslan Project: Focus on Pediatric Cancer Health System in Ethiopia

New York (TADIAS) — A few years ago two children from Ethiopia, Temesgen Gamacho and Eyoel Fanta, were pediatric cancer patients at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. when the unthinkable happened for their parents and loved ones. Both children did not survive their illness. Eyoel had been diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, which was one of the most curable pediatric cancers. The loss of these two children drove their physician, Dr. Aziza Shad, who was Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Georgetown Hospital at the time, to launch The Aslan Project in Ethiopia in 2012 and jumpstart a large-scale commitment to set up a world-class cancer treatment program for children in Ethiopia.

Fast forward to 2016 and that dream has become a reality on the ground through an international network of volunteer pediatric cancer specialists and parents who are behind Ethiopia’s new Pediatric Hematology/Oncology programs at Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion) Hospital in Addis Ababa as well as at Jimma University Hospital.

In an interview with Tadias from Washington, D.C. Julie Broas, Executive Director of The Aslan Project, said “in addition to giving children a chance to survive a curable cancer the organization’s mission was to provide equitable access for families in low-resource settings to high standard local treatment.” Broas added: “What we chose to do in Ethiopia is to focus on medical education and training of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, because that’s how you would build a comprehensive program that’s locally supported and sustainable.”

Broas, whose daughter is a cancer survivor, said she knows first hand “the great grief and agony” of parents around the world who yearn for the best treatment for their children. “I want people in low-resource settings to have the same opportunities that I have in this country,” she said.

The program in Addis Ababa is now being managed by Dr. Daniel Hailu Kefeni, one of the first graduates of the pediatric cancer fellowship set up by The Aslan Project three year ago at Tikur Anbessa Hospital.

Dr. Tenagne Haile-Mariam of the Department of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University Hospital, who is also a board member of the The Aslan Project, pointed out that in addition to “the allied healthcare professionals such as doctors, nurses and other support within the unit, an effective system must also have all other related services that can support such treatment, including pathologists, laboratory services and pharmacists.”

“When we say ‘locally trained’ we want people to understand that we are talking about implementing the highest of international standards,” Dr. Tenagne explained. “They are tested by the same people that do testing all over the globe. So you are putting a staff in place that’s locally trained and internationally vetted. And what that means is that they will have colleagues all over the world whom they can consult and converse with scientifically, they can stay up-to-date as new research comes in their field, but also it puts them in a position where they can conduct their own locally relevant and internationally approved research. This what makes it a sustainable program.”

“The whole Aslan model is that you improve and work through the kinks of the system as you are teaching and training local staff,” added Dr. Tenagne. She emphasized that improvement of the program includes upgrading the physical plant “because in order to have a care unit you have to have an area where you can deliver an appropriate care.”

(Photo: Courtesy of the Aslan Project)

Dr. Tenagne reiterated that “the key is to create a whole system that’s linked to locally existing initiatives, not a situation where you can just send a doctor and say ‘go at it’ because they will fail,” she said. “This is why The Aslan Project is a catalytic program, because in order to implement it you have to put into place not just the right people, but you have to put them in a system where they can work in order to ensure sustainability.”

Last month The Aslan Project hosted a successful fundraiser in New York City co-hosted by Ethiopian American Attorney Jote Kassa, who is Managing Director at J.P.Morgan Private Bank. Broas and Dr. Tenagne said they encourage involvement not only from medical professionals but anyone interested in addressing the much needed pediatric cancer treatment center in Ethiopia. Dr. Tenagne said The Aslan Project’s next fundraiser will be held in Washington D.C. around Ethiopian New Year in September.

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You can learn more and supprt the The Aslan Project at www.aslanproject.org.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Thursday, May 5th, 2016

New York (TADIAS) -- Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, the grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie, recently made a successful and highly publicized trip to Jamaica, along with his wife Saba Kebede, where he led an Ethiopian delegation from the U.S. to participate in the 50th anniversary of his grandfather's historic visit to the Caribbean nation in 1966. Five decades later, the nine-day commemorative visit by Prince Ermias (from April 21-30, 2016) included a meeting with newly elected Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Michael Holness; a lecture at the University of the West Indies (UWI); a motorcade stop at Heroes Park, Mico College, JC, UTech; and a speech on education at Kingston's Haile Selassie High School that was established by his grandfather during his landmark visit there as a gift to the people of Jamaica.

In an interview with Tadias Magazine this week Prince Ermias described his visit to Haile Selassie High School as "the highlight of my trip" and personally moving. "It was emotional and overwhelming to visit the school that was donated by my grandfather," Prince Ermias told Tadias. "The school has been in existence since the late sixties," he said. "Many have graduated and many have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, government leaders, pastors. Some have migrated abroad and are serving their adopted home well." Ermias added: "My grandfather believed in education. Education enlightens and enriches one’s life and for society there is no better security than to educate its citizens."

Regarding his meeting with Jamaica's head of state, Prince Ermias said: "The newly elected Prime Minster of Jamaica the Honorable Andrew Holness is going to be a great leader for Jamaica. I was happy to congratulate him on his win." Prince Ermias emphasized that their discussion primarily focused on education and the youth. "We all have great concern for our children," he said. "We talked about the opportunities and challenges of our friends in Ras Tefferian community." In addition, Prince Ermias said, "The subject of Jamaican teachers for Ethiopian schools was briefly discussed, I am grateful to the Prime Minister for taking time out of his busy schedule to meet local leaders, my delegation and myself."

In addition to his meeting with Prime Minister Andrew Holness Prince Ermias said he also had an opportunity to meet with the country's opposition party leaders and was given the key to the city of Kingston by Mayor Dr. Angela Brown Burke of the People's National Party. Moreover, Prince Ermias also visited the Ethiopian consulate among other stops. "I am happy to report that we also visited the Governor General Residence," he said. "The visit to all the Ras Tefferian events was exceptional. Ras Tefferians have stood through thick and thin with our family. I am grateful for the warm reception we received in Montego Bay from the residents of that city."

Prince Ermias, who is also the grandson of Dejazmach Habte Mariam Gebre-Igziabiher -- the heir to the former Welega kingdom of Leqa Naqamte, which today is part of Ethiopia's Oromia region -- was barely a teenager when he managed to escape to England after his famous grandfather was deposed from power by a communist junta of junior military officers in the early 1970's. He was just six-years-old when Emperor Haile Selassie made his historic visit to Jamaica 50-years-ago, but Ermias has been on a mission to preserve his family's contribution to the history of modern Ethiopia and beyond. Late last year he mounted a successful legal battle in Geneva, Switzerland against the international auction powerhouse Christie’s demanding that the institution halt its planned sale of Haile Selassie’s personal wristwatch. Lawyers representing the family convincingly argued in a Swiss court that the rare gold-timepiece was likely a stolen property from Ethiopia that belonged in a museum.

Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, pictured at the National Heroes Park in Kingston, Jamaica on April 21st, 2016, pursued his academic studies in Ethiopia, Great Britain, and the United States, receiving his undergraduate degree in social studies with a concentration in economics from the University of California, in Santa Barbara (UCSB). He also attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy from 1983 to 1985. Prince Ermias speaks Amharic, English and German fluently. (Photo by Mel Tewahade)

Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie (Right of center) meetings with Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica (left of center) on Friday, April 22nd, 2016 in Kingston, Jamaica. (Photo by Mel Tewahade)

Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie (Right) and his wife Saba Kebede with Prime Minister Andrew Holness of Jamaica (center) on Friday, April 22nd, 2016 in Kingston, Jamaica. (Photo by Mel Tewahade)

(Photo by Mel Tewahade)

In addition, Prince Ermias shared that another memorable moment was the time spent with students at Jamaica College. "Jamaica College is one of the finest boys school in Jamaica that have produced the likes of former Prime Minster Bruce Golding and Dr. Michael Bennett," Ermias pointed out. "My grandfather visited the school on April 21, 1966 on Thursday. I am pleased to report that was able to replicate the event 50 years later. Jamaica College reminded me of my own school [in England] Haileybury College in Hertfordshire. Outstanding curriculum, detail for personal attention, great teachers, center for discipline and self-control, honor and the desire to serve country."

"The floral tribute at the shrine of Jamaican hero Marcus Garvey was reflective of my own identity," Prince Ermias told Tadias. "The visit to Mico University and the Museum in this school was excellent."

Some of our readers had noticed that when Prince Ermias had arrived in Jamaica on April 21st he was wearing a purple tie. Was it in remembrance of Prince, the iconic American musician and artist who had passed away the same day? "It was a coincidence," Prince Ermias clarified. "As you know Prince was pronounced dead at 11 am Central time. We also landed in Jamaica at 11 am. Jamaica is also on Central time. All of this was a coincidence" he said. However, "listening to Prince's music in the 1980s was comforting to me," he added. "As you know the Ethiopian people and our family were being persecuted by the brutal communists during those dark days. Prince's style of mixing funk, dance and rock music was unique, grand and comforting. Rest in Peace, Prince Rogers Nelson."

Regarding his trip to Jamaica Prince Ermias continued: "The visit to the beautiful island was a magical moment for Saba and me." He added: "The entire program was flawless. It is difficult to say what the best moment was. But if I have to identify one, my favorite will be, that no one got hurt during our visit. There is always a chance that something could have gone wrong with our motorcade; while operated by the finest Jamaica Police force the logistics of accommodating such a large crowd could have been problematic. I am grateful for the hard work our Ras Tefferians invested to make the visit a success." Certainly, the warm reception given to Prince Ermias at Norman Manley airport and the subsequent press conference was unprecedented for an Ethiopian delegation since Emperor Haile Selassie himself arrived in the country on April 21, 1966 for a three-day State visit, which the Jamaica Observer notes "remains, arguably, the most momentous of its kind in Jamaica."

"I want to thank the people and government of Jamaica for a successful trip to the Island," Prince Ermias said.

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Related:
In Pictures: 50th Anniversary of Emperor Haile Selassie's Historic Visit to Jamaica (TADIAS)

Haile Selassie’s visit was a momentous occasion (Jamaica Observer)
Under Pressure from Family Christie’s Skips Auction of Haile Selassie’s Watch
New Book on Triumph & Tragedy of Ethiopia’s Last Emperor Haile Selassie (TADIAS)

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Tadias Magazine
By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016

New York (TADIAS) — Take one look at Azmara Asefa’s laser-cut leather jackets lined with mesh that acts as ventilation for hot summer days, or her 3D-printed wooden jewelry lines held together with gold posts — reminiscent of an architectural project — and you know that her fashion line is a bold runway collection.

Named after the 29-year-old owner and designer who was born in Ohio to immigrant parents from Ethiopia, the Azmara Asefa collection was featured in last October’s Phoenix Fashion Week — following a four month bootcamp session offering training in fashion business and marketing — and selected as one of 13 best emerging designers in the United States. It also stood out as one of the most technology driven fashion lines.

Azmara had prepared several pieces for smaller scale collections before recently rolling out her full and impressive Spring/Summer 2016 collection designed by her womenswear company based in Los Angeles with all materials made and assembled in American fair trade factories.

Azmara Asefa’s Runway Collection at the Phoenix Fashion Week final walk. (Courtesy photo)

Laser-cut leather moto jacket with diamond motif details that are inspired by Ethiopian motifs on traditional dresses. (Photo: Courtesy of Azmara Asefa)

“Fashion was always loved” Azmara told Tadias. “In the back of my mind it was always around, and part of it comes from watching older movies from the 1930s with my mom, and traveling and seeing how people dress.” But Azmara’s first love, since the age of 7, was architecture.

“My interest in architecture first peaked when I went to Ethiopia as a child and my family and I visited the Blue Nile waterfalls,” Azmara recalled. “It would be so cool to have a bridge here,” she remembered thinking. “And soon after that I started drawing and finding out more about what I needed to study in order to become an architect. I learned that math was required, for instance, and I prepared myself for the field.”

Azmara attended Miami University in Ohio where she majored in architecture and met one of her first mentors, Professor Gail Della-Piana. “She was the only Black professor in the architecture program, and her studios focused on culturally-centered projects including the design of a Native American center” Azmara said.

For her thesis Azmara studied refugee and migrant camps in the horn of Africa. “Often individuals at the camps would use what they wear as part of their shelter,” she noticed. “In the migration process individuals retained their culture, traditions and adapted to new situations by using the materials around them including their clothing” Azmara said.

She continued her studies in architecture at the graduate level at the University of Cincinnati, guided by her culture-centered focus. Adding courses in fashion to her class schedule Azmara found another mentor in Ann Firestone at the School of Design. Upon graduation Azmara worked as an architect in Ohio, Atlanta, London and Los Angeles including practicing at Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world.

Azmara cited Zaha Hadid as one of her biggest influencers in architecture “as a woman of color who has this really great firm, is well-respected and has a really unique perspective.”

“If you look at one of Zaha Hadid’s buildings, you know she designed it,” Azmara added. “She has made her mark as someone who uses technology to generate her design concepts, and I love that, of course.”

In the world of fashion Azmara has several role models including Ethiopian-American couture wedding gown designer Amsale Aberra, technology-driven Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake, and Kym Gold, Co-Founder of the True Religion brand who she met at Phoenix Fashion week.

“The link between architecture and fashion is strong, and the leap from architecture to fashion was simple to me,” Azmara admitted.

“Entrepreneurship in the Ethiopian community in Ohio is also really big,” Azmara pointed out. “I grew up surrounded by people who owned a lot of small businesses and were very enterprising.”

Following her participation at Phoenix Fashion Week Azmara decided to commit to creating her first full runway collection of what she called “bold, technology-driven, apocalypse-ready womenswear and accessories that are laden with culturally inspired symbols and yet remain minimal.”

Azmara is incredibly resourceful and creative in the materials she picks for her fashion line, which ranges from natural materials such as wood, silk and leather to meshes and neoprene (scuba fabric). Often she also inserts cultural references from her own heritage. Her 3D-printed jewelry line, for example, is “a play on Ethiopian wooden crosses and traditional diamond patterns.”

“Clothing as armor?” states her website. “Yes. We believe that when you are donned in bold architectural lines, laser-cut geometries, and intensely detailed 3D-printed accessories, you feel strong, bold and confident enough to make it through anything!”

Describing her latest collection Azmara said her intention was to make women feel empowered, confident, and to stand out.

“I am using the term ‘apocalypse-ready’ as a metaphor for my collection in a future-looking sort of way, and reminding ourselves that we all have the ability to overcome challenging events in our day,” Azmara added. “Internally, for the business it also give a really clear and decisive direction as a technology-focused brand. The clothes use architectural lines and silhouettes to enhance women’s forms in an artful, strong and flattering way.”

In addition to emphasizing a blend of architectural technology in her designs, Azmara is also keen on building a company firmly rooted in fair trade principles.

“I try to be very ethical so when I source fabric I want to be able to track it and make sure it is fair trade” Azmara told Tadias. “Right now my designs are produced in America and we can ensure that workers are getting a fair wage. I can see the factory — it’s just thirty minutes from where I live, and I can just drive down there and look at everything.”

Azmara also hopes to grow her ethically sourced runway collection and expand her base to Ethiopia while still making sure it remains fair trade. For now her company has partnered with the Women’s Refugee Commission with 10% of sales going towards their programs. “I really want to work more closely with them,” Azmara said “and do more than just provide proceeds. I want to provide something more immediate and tangible for the women they work with.”

As she prepares to launch a Kickstarter campaign this month, Azmara shared that she would love to design high-tech wearable technology and go digital in the second half of this year while continuing to incorporate architecture and designing pop-up shops in a multi-disciplinary trajectory later down the line.

“I think that growing up with people who came as immigrants to this country — and made the American dream come true for themselves — I was inspired by how the human spirit is so resilient” Azmara said. Her visionary debut runway collection says it all – intriguing, cutting-edge, and exuding resilience.

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You can learn more about Azmara Asefa’s design work at www.azmaraasefa.com.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Monday, October 26th, 2015

Tadias Interview With Real-life Inspirations for Award-winning Film Difret

New York (TADIAS) — Tadias Magazine caught up with the real-life inspirations for the award-winning Ethiopian film Difret — Aberash Bekele and her lawyer Meaza Ashenafi as well as Producer Mehret Mandefro — last week during the movie’s U.S. premiere in New York City.

Below is our conversation with three of the women behind Difret about the case that launched a global spotlight on the practice of abduction for marriage (telefa) and the educational efforts underway to end it.

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Related:
Difret Coming to Theatres Near You (TADIAS)
Julie Mehretu on Helping to Make the Powerful Ethiopian Film Difret (Vogue)

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Tseday Alehegn is Co-Founder & Editor of Tadias.

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Tadias Magazine
by Tadias Staff

Published: Thursday, August, 20th, 2015

New York (TADIAS) — Kidist Assafa’s first stop in the United States in the mid-1990s was a small town in Montana near the U.S.-Canadian border called East Glacier Park (population 363). It was quite a geographical and cultural change for someone who came from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Population over 3.5 million) where Kidist grew up before emigrating to the United States.

“I can truly say it was in the middle of nowhere,” Kidist laughs, recalling the time she spent in East Glacier Park pursuing a degree in Radiology before abruptly deciding to relocate to the Washington, D.C. area the following year.

Today Kidist is the proud owner and chef of Flavor Cake & Pastry, a quaint bakery and coffee shop located in Falls Church, Virginia.

“I stayed in Montana for a year attending college and went to the East Coast for vacation to visit family and friends and I never went back,” Kidist said in a recent interview with Tadias.

Upon arriving in Washington, D.C. Kidist got a job at a French pastry shop, Palais Du Chocolat, while still continuing her education in radiology at a local university. It was at the pastry shop, however, where Kidist fell in love with her current profession as a baker. “That’s where I found my passion,” she enthused. “They made really great pastry. The owner was a well-known chef at the time and once in a while I used to assist him when he gave classes and I used to be fascinated by the process of making these beautiful pastries and seeing the finished product.”

Eventually Kidist changed her major and formally studied Baking and Pastry at Baltimore International College graduating in 1999. She worked as Pastry Sous Chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Tyson’s Corner for four years prior to opening her own business in 2006 (Bethesda Pastry Shop in Maryland), which became Flavor Cake & Pastry after the owner moved the venture to Falls Church, Virginia in late 2007.

Below are images of Flavor Cake & Pastry and some of chef Kidist’s scrumptious desserts:

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You can learn more about the bakery at www.flavorpastry.com.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Friday, March 6th, 2015

Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) — Last week, we sat down for an interview with the new Director of the Washington, D.C. Mayor’s Office for African Affairs, Mamadou Samba, who was appointed by Mayor Muriel Bowser in January 2015. Prior to his current job Samba was Commissioner of the DC Commission on African Affairs, and worked as a Capital Budget Administration Analyst at the DC government Office of the Chief Financial Officer. He moved to the U.S. in the early 1990′s from Dakar, Senegal as a young adult (his father worked at the Senegalese embassy). After his dad’s term ended, Mamadou said, he chose to stay in order to finish his education, and went on to earn a Master of Public Administration degree from Kennesaw State University, and a Bachelor Degree in Political Science from the University of South Carolina Aiken, where he was awarded an NCAA athletic scholarship.

When we arrived at his office inside the Reeves Center at the corner of 14th and U Street, Samba had been working on a speech that he would deliver the following evening at the Ethiopian Community Center on the eve of the 119th Adwa anniversary. “I have a lot of respect for the Ethiopian community in D.C., for Ethiopian history and Ethiopians in general,” he told us. “You guys are the reason why we now have such a strong African community in Washington.”

The D.C. Mayor’s Office for African Affairs, which is the first of its kind in the United States, was created in 2006 following a series of community demands. Samba explained: “There was a need to have an office to help support the fast-growing African immigrant community and also serve as a liaison between the African population and the district’s government.” The task, he added, was to open “an office that was aware of the barriers — language and cultural barriers — and the challenges of dealing, for instance, with lack of information on jobs, health insurance, and immigration matters. So our office came as result of that,” he said. “We may speak different languages and have different taste in music, but employment is a challenge in all of our communities not only just in the Ethiopian community; immigration is a problem not just in the Ghanaian community. So the point is unless we come together as a community we will always remain separated. And we have to be inspired by the Latino community, by the Asian community and other immigrant communities.”

Mamadou Samba. (Tadias Magazine photo)

In the past, Samba emphasized, “People who have served as directors before me have done a really good job making sure that the office is stable over time.” He added: “So we will keep building on that to make sure that the African immigrant community is more aware than before and has more access than before to services that every resident of the district has access to. We do that by putting in place several types of programs. We have a grant that we use to fund non-profit organizations that serve in different sectors, it could be health, education and other key areas in line with the Mayor’s priorities.”

Aside from that Samba noted that his office also conducts activities that are particularly geared towards empowering young people. “These programs are designed to get African youth engaged, trying to provide them with work experience, leadership opportunities, and just really trying to give them a platform to be part of the discussion,” he said. “But the most important program is our capacity building program where we support small business entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations.” He noted “We do that through workshops an business trainings so they can learn where to find funding, what kind of funding is out there and available for them, how to research and write grants, really put them in touch with each other and to resources.”

“So what’s your goal as the new director?” we asked. “I am going for a more collaborative approach,” he said. “Because I find that as someone who has been here for a long time that our community is not as united as we want it to be.” He added: “There isn’t a lot of intercultural interaction. What I mean by that is Ethiopians are doing things on their own, Nigerians are doing things on their own, Ghanaian are doing something on their own, Senegalese are doing something on their own.” Samba continued: “But when you look at it each one of them is doing the exact same thing that the other one is doing. The only difference is that these are cultural or country focused efforts. So I think there has to be a way for us to work together on commons issues.”

“The Ethiopian community has to be able to go walk with the Ghanaian community because they are more experienced, they outnumber all other immigrants from the continent, so there is something there that we can learn from the Ethiopian community,” Samba said. “There is something that we can learn from the Ghanaian community.”

“The other thing I want to contribute to the office is in raising the visibility of the success within our community,” he said. “We have to tell our own stories. We have to highlight the positive things that your organization is doing, we have to talk about the positive things that other Africans are doing to balance the bad news that we hear daily about Africa.” Samba points out that his office has published a business directory listing African owned businesses in Washington, D.C. covering many sectors from hair braiders to restaurateurs, to proprietors of parking lot management companies, realtors, lawyers, and insurance agents.

“We know that the African Diaspora sends 50 billion dollars annually in remittances to Africa, and that’s projected to reach 250 billion in the next two decades,” Samba said. “What I want to make equally visible is the huge economic impact that African immigrants are making right here in Washington, D.C. in terms of job creation, tax revenue and cultural enrichment of the District.”
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You can learn more about the D.C. Mayor’s Office on African Affairs at oaa.dc.gov.

Related:
Good Question: Where Do African Immigrants Live in US? Interactive Map

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Friday, October 3rd, 2014

New York (TADIAS) – Hilton Addis Ababa first opened its doors in 1969 with an inaugural ceremony for the ages — led by Emperor Haile Selassie who helped celebrate the launch of the hotel by hosting international dignitaries and diplomats while using the special occasion to introduce international hospitality to Ethiopia. “From that early significant opening, Hilton Addis Ababa has been part of the Addis Ababa city landscape and a leading member of the city’s community for 45 years, and has proudly witnessed the capital’s development into the economic powerhouse it is today” says the hotel’s current General Manager Haakon Gaarder-Larsen in a recent interview with Tadias Magazine. He adds: “As one of the first international hospitality operators in the capital, Hilton Addis Ababa was in the unique position to lead the hospitality sector and has served as a standard-bearing role model for Ethiopia’s evolving tourism industry, setting the standard for others to merge in to the city.”

Haakon, who joined Hilton Addis Ababa in April 2013, has been working in the hospitality industry for 26 years in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. “My first experience with Hilton Worldwide was in Cairo in 2007, where I joined as Director of Operations for Nile Hilton, a hotel with extensive restaurant and bar operations,” he told Tadias.

Hilton Worldwide, Haakon points out, is “the pre-eminent global hospitality company” and remains “synonymous with the word ‘hotel.’ From inaugural balls and Hollywood award galas to business events and days to remember, a Hilton hotel is where the world makes history, closes the deal, toasts special occasions and gets away from it all. Today, the brand continues to be one of the most recognized names in the hospitality industry as an innovative, forward-thinking global leader of hospitality.”

Below is our Q & A with Haakon Gaarder-Larsen, General Manager of Hilton Addis Ababa:

TADIAS: Tell us about some of the unique and historic design features of Hilton Addis Ababa (such as its amenities including a pool that is heated from natural hot springs)?

Haakon Gaarder-Larsen: Hilton Addis Ababa has many unique characteristics designed to reflect the pride we have in Ethiopia and in the capital. The building showcases the unique architectural style of the famous Ethiopian Lalibela Church, globally recognized by UNESCO as an important Historic Heritage Site. The renowned hotel swimming pool was specially designed to mirror the Lalibela Cross and is, uniquely, the only geothermal spring water pool, providing a rare and distinctive attraction for hotel visitors as well as local residents.

TADIAS: As Addis Ababa continues to grow dramatically we have also seen the rise of several high-end hotels in Ethiopia. What are some of the services that make Hilton stand out from the competition?

Haakon: Hilton Worldwide is proud to have been the pre-eminent pioneer to Ethiopian Hospitality Industry and to have encouraged other key players to join the market. As Addis Ababa has grown in size and status in the past 45 years, hospitality has become a significant contributor to the capital’s economic welfare.

Another advantage of being a Hilton Worldwide hotel is the company’s Hhonors loyalty program, it is really more than just a guest loyalty program. With more than 40 million members worldwide, the program goes far beyond the standard with regular, exciting update benefits for members across more than 4200 hotels in 93 countries. Ethiopia also benefits from the system, providing exposure for Addis Ababa as a prominent leisure and business destination to over 40 million potential visitors.

Hilton Addis Ababa’s well known advantage is its compound, and its diverse range of restaurants and bars. From the main Kaffa House restaurant serving various Ethnic food such as Asian Cuisine, Italian, Middle Eastern, Ethiopian are few to mention our famous Gazebo Bar & Restaurant poolside restaurant is also serving a la carte menu. The hotel also offers a fully-equipped Health Club with Geothermal Pool, Massage Rooms, Sauna, Steam Room, Jacuzzi and Hair Salon for both male and female guests. We like to think we cater for all guest needs during their stay.

The hidden advantage of Hilton Addis Ababa is the hotel’s fully equipped long stay apartments. With private entrance and parking, this allows an element of privacy for longer stay guests, corporate business and Embassies.

Finally, and equally important, the hotel is served by a team of well experienced and professional staff. The teams not only expect to meet guest requirements but to also anticipate their needs and there are many examples of delighted guests becoming loyal clients as a result of the difference the staff make to their stay at the hotel. Staff instinctively understand the needs of guests and know their preferences and remember the small details that make people feel so much at home when they come to our hotel.

As many have told us on different occasions they feel an attachment with Hilton Addis Ababa one way or another, some had their own or close family weddings at the hotel; others have fond childhood memories from our recreation center or just hanging out with friends, but all feel a connection as part of us. That’s why the hotel has special packages for diaspora community to come and enjoy everything they remember and to create new memories.

Hilton Addis Ababa recognizes the importance of the Ethiopian key personalities and influencers for the industry, and what better way for us to welcome them back then by offering special packages at the familiar and historic Hilton Addis Ababa, which for most has been a positive part of their lives.

TADIAS: Addis Ababa also serves as the headquarters of both the African Union and UN ECA. How does Hilton Worldwide cater to the city’s diplomatic and international conference needs?

Haakon: Hilton Addis Ababa has been catering to the city’s diplomatic and international conference market from the first day of opening until today. With one of the largest and flexible conference spaces in the capital, we attract the vast majority of the country’s high profile delegations, meetings, balls and conferences. As a Hilton Worldwide hotel, our guests know they have the support, reassurance and quality associated with one of the world’s leading hospitality operators as well as the backing of a team of exceptionally experienced staff members, dedicated to ensuring that every hotel event is a successful one. Guests and event booking specialists can also enjoy the benefits of programs such as “Meeting Simplified” by Hilton. Designed for up to 25 delegates, the system encourages repeat business with an inclusive price from $1,000 and has proved a popular option for many guests.

TADIAS: When did you join Hilton Ethiopia and what was your previous professional background?

Haakon: I have been working in the hospitality industry for 26 years in Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa. My first experience with Hilton Worldwide was in Cairo in 2007, where I joined as Director of Operations for Nile Hilton, a hotel with extensive restaurant and bar operations. I then moved on to Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & Spa located in the Northern Emirate of the United Arab Emirate as a Resort Manager and this led me to opening the first Hilton Garden Inn in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where I worked for four years. I joined Hilton Addis Ababa in April 2013 and have been enjoying every moment since.

TADIAS: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our readers?

Haakon: We want to let readers know that any visit to Ethiopia would not be complete without a stay at the hotel that pioneered hospitality in the country. And we continue that proud legacy by welcoming guests from around the world with the highest levels of service and the philosophy that at Hilton Addis Ababa our passionate and devoted staff will always go above and beyond the typical hotel service to make it right for guests at all times.

TADIAS: Tell us more about Hilton’s community involvement?

Haakon: Hilton Worldwide believes in making a difference in every community we are part of, one of the means is to provide opportunity to the next generations. Hilton Addis Ababa has been working regularly with schools like Catering and Tourism Training Institute (CTTI) to boost the future of the Hospitality industry by offering first-hand experience for students in the hotel. To support the program, we recently organized a career day to showcase the benefits to local youth of working with a major hospitality company.

We also work with the Ethiopian Red Cross Society and the National Blood Bank, with staff from Hilton Addis Ababa organizing an annual event to contribute blood and supporting the service. This year we took it to the next level by inviting our corporate customers to join us in our annual blood drive and, as a result, collected a record breaking amount. As a key member of the community, Hilton Addis Ababa organizes numerous activities through the year to help make a difference to local people and local communities.
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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, February 10th, 2014

New York (TADIAS) — As a teenager growing up in Ethiopia in the 1960′s Aklilu Gebrewold, now Executive Director of the U.S.-based non-profit organization, Yessera, remembers rushing to join the long queue to watch musical shows at his high school that sometimes included Charles Sutton playing the Massinko. More than four decades later Aklilu said he was more than pleasantly surprised to receive a message from “Mr. Charles” (as Sutton is popularly known among Ethiopians) wanting to support Yessera, which provides vocational training to young adults in Ethiopia. Sutton, who had served in Ethiopia as a Peace Corps volunteer and music performer in the late 1960′s still keeps close ties with many friends in the country. And recently he dedicated part of the proceeds from his latest album Zoro Gettem to Yessera. In an interview with Tadias Magazine — following last week’s announcement that Yessera has named Charles Sutton as its envoy to help promote its programs — Aklilu warmly recalled: “For my generation he was a delightful presence, his deep respect and knowledge of Ethiopian culture, language, music and customs.” Aklilu added: “If there is anyone who embodies a true global citizen in today’s age of globalization, it has to be Mr. Charles.”

Established in 2001 by a group of friends who spent time in the West Coast in the 70′s and 80′s, Yessera is mostly funded by contributions from its founding members that now reside scattered across the United States. “Whenever we gathered in coffee shops or at our residences, just like many Ethiopians, we talked about home and what we can do to make a difference,” said Kassahun Maru, owner of Zelalem Injera, who has supported the organization from the beginning. “Yessera is a result of that, its few friends finding a way to give back through, small, manageable and meaningful projects that can bring lasting benefits.”

“I first became acquainted with Yessera a few years ago, when I was introduced via email to its Executive Director, Ato Aklilu Gebrewold, and to a Yessera Board member, Ato Negesse Gutema, by Ato Dan Close, a fellow Returned Peace Corps volunteer,” Sutton told Tadias. “I had the pleasure at that time of cooperating with Ato Negesse in the sale of the Zoro Gettem – Reunion CD that I had recorded with former colleagues Tesfaye Lemma, Getamesay Abebbe, and Melaku Gelaw for the benefit of this most worthwhile organization.”

The non-profit covers tuition, room and board, transportation, and other miscellaneous costs for an average of 10 to 12 students per year. Each student travels from various locations in Ethiopia to attend a vocational school in Addis Ababa. “We require that they must have at least a 10th grade education, demonstrate financial need, and most importantly, have the inner drive to succeed” Aklilu added. “Our goal is not only to equip them with industrial vocational skills, but also the ability to start and run their own small enterprises, such as in the construction field, that they can use to employ each other and thereby contribute to the larger community.”

Aklilu also gives credit to their Ethiopia representative, Solomon Retta, general manager of Discovery Consultancy Services (DCS), for overseeing the candidate selection process. He noted that so far participants have hailed from Awassa, Debre Birhan, Bekoji, Assosa, Ebinat, Metu, Bonga and this year from Addis Ababa.

For me, Sutton continued, “this opportunity, and honor, is the culmination of an association going back nearly 50 years with Ethiopia, its music, and its people, that has brought great joy to me and enriched my life more than I can possibly say. Now, as Yessera’s Ambassador, I am looking forward to carrying our cooperation a step further by bringing Yessera’s mission and message, to the best of my ability, before a wider audience both in Ethiopia and in the U.S.A.”
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You can Learn more about Yessera at www.yessera.org.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Monday, December 30th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) — As a teenager in 1978 when Zemedeneh Negatu headed to the United States with his future uncertain, he had no idea that three decades later he would be named one of Africa’s 100 Most influential individuals for his role in promoting economic growth in the country of his birth and in Africa. The current Managing Partner of Ernst & Young Ethiopia (EY) received the accolade last month from New African Magazine, which called him “a truly global citizen” and further noted that “anyone who has done business in Ethiopia will have come across Zemedeneh Negatu” or Zem, as he is affectionately known.

In a follow-up interview with Tadias Magazine during his recent trip to Washington, D.C., Zem said that his decision to return home in 1998 was inspired by “love at first sight” during a vacation trip to Ethiopia in April 1995 when he met his future wife, Julie Ricco, just days after he landed in Addis. “It was a Thursday,” he recalled laughing. “We spent the weekend in Langano and by Sunday we had decided to get married.” At the time he had just finished a two year expatriate assignment in Argentina as a consultant and was in the process of relocating to Brazil. “They were shipping my stuff from Buenos Aires to São Paulo and I had a little bit of free time so I thought why not visit home.” He added: “And I ended up meeting this beautiful woman that would change my life forever and to whom I have now been married almost 19 years and have a wonderful 11 year old son named Michael.”

After studying Business and Finance at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Zem worked as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) before landing a job in D.C. with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the global professional services firm, which would eventually take him to Latin America. “I have always been interested in emerging markets where you feel you are actually making a difference,” Zem said. ” I have gained a great deal of experience by working in South America where the business and investment environment in Argentina and Brazil in the 1990s was similar to what’s taking place today in Africa, where some of the fastest growing economies are located.”

In Ethiopia, Zem said, the economy has dramatically changed in the last fifteen years. “There wasn’t much back then,” he said, sharing that his first investment was a factory for feminine health products that did not pan out. “So I decided to settle for what I know best and opened a consulting firm.” His firm, EY Ethiopia, has been at the center of some of the biggest and most publicized business deals in the country, including the recent purchase of Meta Beer by the British-owned corporation Diageo, the world’s largest spirits drinks maker famous for Guinness Beer and Johnnie Walker. “I like to believe that we have contributed in our own small way to put Ethiopia on the global map as an attractive emerging market,” he said. “Of course the country’s progress has made our effort much easier since we have references we can highlight to global investors such as the significant GDP growth and major infrastructure projects including the $5.0 billion dam on the Nile river, the largest in Africa, and even the new subway in Addis Ababa, which is the only one in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of Johannesburg”.

For Zem, however, his proudest accomplishment came when his firm won a bid to work with the country’s homegrown global brand, Ethiopian Airlines, that he helped advise in their Vision 2010 Plan. When EY Ethiopia was hired in 2004, Ethiopian Airlines had 11 aircraft and less than 400 million dollars in annual revenue. Five years later, Zem said, the airline’s revenues had jumped to 1.2 billion dollars. “Today Ethiopian Airlines generates more profits than all African airlines combined,” he added. And since then his firm’s airline clients have expanded to include Rwandair, Virgin Nigeria Airlines, Mozambique Airlines, ASKY Airlines in Togo and many others. Zem also pointed out that initially while working on the Ethiopian Airlines project he had to outsource some of the tasks to professionals from a foreign firm. “Over time we have managed to build that capacity locally,” he said. “So we are now fully staffed by Ethiopians just like Ethiopian Airlines and we have some of the most sophisticated Transaction Advisory professionals based in Addis who win cross border African deals not just against our traditional “Big 4″ competitors but even big Wall Street investment firms.”

Zem is a highly sought after speaker at many high profile global conferences including the World Economic Forum, New York Forum and Harvard Business School where he completed the LSE program. He’s appeared many times on the international media such as CNN and BBC and was recently a “Power Lunch” guest on CNBC television. Zem has won many awards for his achievements including “Managing Partner of the Year – 2013″ from a top UK corporate finance magazine and “Pioneer Diaspora Business Person of the Year” at the annual event held in Washington in July 2012.

As to those who want to follow in his footsteps to Ethiopia, especially the Diaspora in the U.S., Zem recommends optimism and perseverance as the secret to success. “I say come with the glass half full mentality than the glass half empty attitude and you will enhance your chances of success,” he emphasized. “I put my money where my mouth is and continue to personally invest in Ethiopia because there are still vast untapped opportunities compared to many other emerging economies.”

When asked how it feels to be named as part of the 100 Most influential Africans, Zem stated: “I am honored and humbled by the recognition and I know that there will be many more Ethiopians, including those in the Diaspora, who will make the list in the future.”
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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, September 14th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) — The Ethiopian footwear company SoleRebels, known for its brand of eco-friendly shoes and sandals hand-made in Ethiopia, has won an arbitration proceeding in a domain name dispute against Toronto resident Tal Dehtiar, who had registered the URL “solerebels.com” and is the owner of Oliberte shoe company with a factory in Ethiopia.

On August 27, 2013, U.S.-based attorneys representing SoleRebels filed a complaint against the Canadian individual with the National Arbitration Forum that helps resolve domain name disputes in accordance with the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP). The lawyer for SoleRebels (Alex P. Garens of Grossman, Tucker, Perreault & Pfleger PLLC of New Hampshire) alleges that Tal Dehtiar had hijacked the e-commerce address of his African competition. Last week, the Arbitration Forum sided with SoleRebels transferring the domain name to the Ethiopian company.

“It was with great shock and revulsion that we found that Tal Dehtiar, the owner of Oliberte, had registered the soleRebels.com domain and then redirected all web traffic to his company’s website selling their shoes,” Bethlehem Alemu, Founder and CEO of Sole Rebels, told Tadias Magazine. “This act was deliberate sabotage designed to hurt our company and our brand.”

In response to Tadias’ query about the case, Tal Dehtiar admitted that he had personally registered the SoleRebels.com domain name earlier this summer. “The website SoleRebels.com was available a few months back during a random search I did online,” he told Tadias Magazine. “It was bought by me personally, not Oliberte, without any intention to harm, upset or use it against SoleRebels.” Bethlehem stated that the arbitration panel has found the latter to be “false.” In fact, Bethlehem said, Tal Dehtiar had visited the Sole Rebels facility in Addis Ababa as far back as 2009 in advance of launching his own shoe factory called Oliberte Limited Ethiopia Branch.

“It must be understood that Tal Dehtiar did not appear out of the blue,” Bethlehem said. “He has known SoleRebels for many years prior to starting his company. The same person who illicitly registered our trademarked name as his own domain posed as a buyer so he could gain access to myself and to survey along with his staff our operations on site over a period of weeks.” She added: “This latest and gravest incident, is simply the culmination of a variety of insidious acts that Oliberte has tried against us.”

Dehtiar said he purchased the domain name for $500 via a 7-day auction on Godaddy.com on June 22, 2013. “If the website was so important to SoleRebels, I would have assumed they would have tried to buy it asap, but they didn’t,” he claimed. “Even now, if you try and look for solerebelsfootwear.com it is actually available via auction.” He added: “You would think that would be a website they would try and buy asap too, and should you write about this, I’d encourage you to recommend them to buy that website, before someone gets it.”

Dehtiar denied visiting the SoleRebels’ factory on false pretense. “I never ‘posed’ as a customer,” Dehtiar said. “I had a genuine interest in buying their product, but for some key reasons, it did not work out.” He added: “I did end up buying and working with three other factories in Addis, which were able to produce our specific style under our brand name, which was always key to any partnership for us in Ethiopia.”

However, the complaint lodged by SoleRebels with the National Arbitration Forum asserts that Tal Dehtiar has no rights or legitimate interests in the SoleRebels’ domain name because he has no rights in the SoleRebels trademark. The complainant (SoleRebels’ parent company BOSTEX, PLC) further argues that Tal Dehtiar is not making a legitimate noncommercial or fair use of SoleRebels’ domain.

“Registering and using a domain name that is your competitor’s registered trademark for the sole purpose of redirecting their traffic to your website is about as low down as it gets,” Bethlehem said.

Bethlehem emphasized that Tal Dehtiar was very much aware that soleRebels is a globally registered trademark in the footwear market. “This deliberate act therefore not only violates the Anti Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and the Lanham Act, but more fundamentally it also violated the fair trade standards regarding IP and Anti-competitive actions designed to harm another businesses,” she said. “For Ethiopia and Africa to truly prosper, creating potent homegrown globally successful brands is key and protecting those brands is an equally crucial piece of that endeavor.”

In explaining his side of the story Dehtiar shared: “At any rate, once we heard form SoleRebels that they were not happy, I tried 3-4 times to contact them and even their business agent in Canada directly to give them the website at our cost and to close this matter.” He indicated that the dispute had escalated into a Facebook fight. “They refused to respond and preferred to use lawyers,” he said.

The National Arbitration Forum’s decision on this matter is final and it found that Tal Dehtiar registered and used SoleRebel.com in bad faith.

“Today soleRebels showed the world just how serious we are about protecting our business name,” Bethlehem said. “And in the process sent a very clear warning message that we will use all the legal leverage at our disposal to stop anyone who tries to mis-appropriate our Intellectual Property. It isn’t the first time someone has tried to threaten our Intellectual Property and we know it won’t be the last. But at least the record is clear – mess with our brand and we will take action against you. And win.”
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Related:
National Arbitration Forum Decision: BOSTEX, PLC v. Tal Dehtiar

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Tuesday, August 6, 2013

New York (TADIAS) – 27-year-old Tesfaye Girma Deboch is remembered by his family and friends as a humorous, friendly, focused and sharp student who was slated to earn his PhD in Economics next year from Washington State University. Instead he was found dead on June 30th, 2013 at the bottom of an indoor swimming pool at the Quality Inn & Suites hotel in Seattle. Tesfaye and 14 of his classmates from WSU’s graduate School of Economic Sciences were in the city attending the Western Economics Association International Conference.

Authorities say the investigation is still ongoing, and Tesfaye’s friends say many questions remain unanswered in this case, including why it took the Seattle Fire Department three hours and two visits to properly search for the drowning victim. The swimming pool’s history of chlorine level violations that caused inspectors to shut down the location on multiple occasions in the past, according to The Seattle Times, should also be investigated.

“The water was so murky no one could see the bottom of the indoor pool,” the newspaper reported at the time. “Firefighters used a rescue hook and thermal imaging to search the water, but eventually left, certain that Deboch had left the pool area…even though his shoes, shirt, wallet and phone were still near the pool.”

Tesfaye, who was reported missing around at 5:30 that afternoon, was eventually discovered after his friends and a retired firefighter sitting nearby decided to take a second look inside the pool. The fire department was called back again at 8:12 PM, but it was too late to save the victim. In an article published on July 12th The Seattle Times reported: “The King County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Deboch drowned.”

For family and friends, Tesfaye’s sudden death is a very sad and painful episode. For the community at large, it’s another tragic story of a promising young life cut short too early.

“I have known Tesfaye since elementary school,” said his childhood friend Saba Fassil. “Tesfish and I were often slightly competitive in a friendly way when it came to academics but he always managed to beat me,” She added: “He was extremely brilliant and very humble about it.”

Saba said her friend was a person with an “outstanding” character. “So many of us who have had a chance to cross path with Tesfaye’s life had a great expectation for his future,” she said. “Please don’t take it as an exaggeration, when I say that I saw in him a future Ethiopian leader — not necessarily in the political sense but in terms of doing something revolutionary in Ethiopia and beyond.”

What she misses most about her friend, Saba said, is his infectious personality. “Gentle yet funny, smart and goofy, and his love for life was evident to every soul he has touched in his short stay on this earth.”

Another friend, Egla-Duni Y. Negussie, shared that for her Tesfaye is one of a kind. “I say this because I have known him since 3rd grade,” she said. “We even finished college together abroad. I vouch for Tesfish’s extraordinary personality.”

Saba recalled that a week prior to Tesfaye’s death, the two were talking about possibly meeting up in Ethiopia as both had upcoming trips planned there later this summer. But she said, “On July 7, 2013, I faced the saddest reality of welcoming my friend’s body to Ethiopia gathered at Bole airport among his friends and family members. I dread that day because it made this far away bad news from Seattle an unfathomable reality.” She added: “It was gut-wrenching to see his family and loved ones deal with the unexplained. Truly gone too soon.”

Egla-Duni agreed: “Like every one of his loved ones, I just can’t seem to comprehend the way he passed.”

We send our condolences to Tesfaye’s family and friends, and make a call for a more complete investigation of the drowning incident.

Below are additional photographs of Tesfaye Girma Deboch.

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Related:
Murky water hindered search for man who died in hotel pool (The Seattle Times)

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Wednesday, July 10th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) – New York’s hometown Ethiopian soccer team, Abay, have returned back to NYC after a successful participation at the recently concluded 30th Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) tournament held at the University of Maryland, College Park last week. New York’s team advanced to first division during the annual soccer competition, along with Chicago, after finishing second place at the lower division final games held during the closing ceremonies on Saturday, July 6th.

“I think overall the tournament this year was quite a phenomenal event,” said Samuel Tesfaye, New York Abay’s team Secretary. A large and energized crowd had flocked to Comcast Center, College Park from across the country. “It was one of the best spirited tournaments I have seen in some time,” Sammy said in an interview with Tadias Magazine.

Sammy made the trip from New Jersey to D.C. with his children and noted the big crowed at the arena in Maryland, youthful vibe, the colorful vendors, the ubiquitous presence of the Walia uniform sported by all ages and genders. “For the most part,” Sammy said, he was “also impressed by how ‘smoothly’ things were run.”

Except on the day of the opening [Sunday, June 30th]: “We were informed by the Federation that our Tuesday game with Portland has been moved to Monday,” Sammy recalled laughing. “On Monday we showed up at the field at the apportioned time and there was no Portland.” He added: “Apparently, Portland’s flight was not arriving until the next day. Naturally we demanded to win by forfeit, but they said ‘no’ and rescheduled the game for Tuesday. What can you do?”

Abay was demoted to second division nine years ago after the team came near bottom at ESFNA’s 21st tournament held at Seahawk Stadium in Seattle, Washington in 2004. “We’ve been trying to climb up ever since,” Sammy enthused. “It feels good to be back in the big league.”

Below is a slideshow of images courtesy of Tadias staff, our readers, the Abay team and other promoters who attended the soccer tournament as well as highlights of various musical and cultural festivities that took place in D.C. and the surrounding areas last week.

Click here for our Washington, D.C. correspondent Tsedey Aragie’s exclusive video interview with the Ethiopian Rock band Jano, who played for the first time outside of Ethiopia on July 4th at the historic Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.

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Related:
Mahmoud Ahmed and Teddy Afro Bring Echostage Home (The Washington Post)
Debo Band & Young Ethio Jazz Band at Yoshi’s in San Francisco – July 17th (TADIAS)
Highlights of Ethiopian Music During Soccer Tournament Week (The Washington City Paper)
Summer of Ethiopian Music: Jano to Fendika, Teddy Afro to Mahmoud Ahmed (TADIAS)
Hailu Mergia: A Beloved Ethiopian Musician of a Generation Ago (The Washington Post)
Reissues Songs From Hailu Mergia, Local Cab Driver (The Washington City Paper)

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Thursday, June 13th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) – Yityish (Titi) Aynaw, Miss Israel 2013, was recently in New York where she stayed for a week. At a gathering open to the press on Tuesday, June 11th in Manhattan Titi spoke to the media, and Tadias briefly interviewed her in Amharic. Miss Israel shared that she came to New York City to fundraise for a project she is working on through the Netanya Foundation.

“I live in Netanya in Israel,” Titi said. “And some children who live there don’t have the financial resources to participate in after school activities. For example, if I want to learn music, and my parents have the resources they can send me to take music lessons.” But in Netanya, she noted that some children don’t have these opportunities.

“So I’ve taken the initiative to bring together these children in a community room and help them to learn what they show interest in, whether it’s dance or music. I am fundraising to create these opportunities for them” Titi explained.

We asked what she thought of her visit to New York and she replied “Nice..Betam des yilal. Titi added that only a week ago she was in Ethiopia. When we inquired if it was her first time returning to Ethiopia since she moved to Israel, she replied “No I have been to Ethiopia before, after I completed my military training.”

She noted the fast-paced changes in Addis and said: “Every time I go to Ethiopia I feel that it’s changing. There are always new buildings, more growth.” She added: “Arif bota nech Ethiopia” (Ethiopia is a great place).”

Below are photos from the evening’s event:

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Harvard Gazette

Four years ago this spring, Birtukan Midekssa was in solitary confinement in an Ethiopian prison. Her cell was 13 feet wide and 20 feet long and had no window. She was allowed only two visitors: her elderly mother and her 3-year-old daughter.

Midekssa left Ethiopia in 2011, after two imprisonments that consumed 41 months of her life. She stayed first in Washington, D.C., and then at Stanford University. Today — grateful, happy, and energized — she has an office (with a window) at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, where she is a fellow this year. (A lawyer by training, Midekssa is also a Visiting Fellow with Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program; starting in the fall she’ll pursue a one-year mid-career master’s degree in public administration through the Mason Program at Harvard Kennedy School.)

Most apt of all her local connections, perhaps, is her role as a Harvard Scholar at Risk. The program — based in New York, with dozens of affiliates at universities across the world.

Read more at Harvard Gazette.
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Tadias Magazine
By Tseday Alehegn

Updated: Monday, April 8th, 2013

New York (TADIAS) – When model and philanthropist Maya Gate Haile visited Ethiopia in November 2011 she headed to Togowichale, a small border town sitting between Ethiopia and Somalia – a place needing dire assistance where she delivered resources collected from a fundraiser she had hosted with her husband, Marcus Samuelsson, at their home in Harlem. In return for her work the people of the town gave her three goats as a token of their appreciation. Maya was sincerely touched by their gesture of thanks and vowed to continue dedicating herself to improving the health and well-being of children, women and families in the country.

“We flew from New York to Addis and from there we took a plane to Harrar then went to Jijiga and drove for five hours to Togowichale,” Maya says. “The residents in Togowichale have no clean water, there is no medical clinic, there is hardly any school for young people.” She added: “The place needs many things but what we can do is start somewhere by giving hope.”

Three Goats Organization, a New York based non-profit, has now been established to promote and support social entrepreneurial projects in various regions of Ethiopia. Programs include providing access to clean water via wells and innovative water purification systems as well as focusing on increasing retention rates and access to education for young girls.

By incorporating and designing nutrition workshops and developing recipes from local produce for balanced nutrient intake Three Goats organization aims to reduce the time spent by young girls on cooking chores, which usually keeps them away from attending school as regularly as their male peers. Children are also often pulled out of school to help their families earn income and the Three Goats’ City Food program will focus on increasing school attendance by providing food from local producers to assist struggling families to purchase food and offset inflation and high cost of living. Workshops are also being developed for farmers to assist them on how to diversify their crops. In addition, the Change Through Dialogue program offers funding for seminars, conferences, and academic workshops that focus on developing sustainable and entrepreneurial models to reduce chronic poverty as well as to provide mentoring opportunities for youth.

The inaugural launch of Three Goat organization was held on Sunday, April 7th, 2013 at Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem.

Click here for Photos from Three Goats Org Inaugural Launch at Ginny’s Supper Club.
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To learn more and support please click here.

Video: “HORN OF AFRICA” by THREE GOATS ORG. (ThreeGoatsTV)

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Tadias Magazine

By Tseday Alehegn

Updated: Thursday, January 10, 2013

New York (TADIAS) – Last week we highlighted an upcoming documentary entitled Girl Rising, which is scheduled for release in Spring 2013. The feature-length film displays the power of access to education in the life of a girl residing in a developing nation. Each girl’s story is told by a talented writer from her native country. The script writer for the segment on Ethiopia is Maaza Mengiste, author of the critically acclaimed novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze. In preparation for the documentary, Maaza spent time with a young girl from a village outside of Bahir Dar.

Below is our interview with Maaza Mengiste.

TADIAS: Please tell us about how you got involved with the film?

Maaza Mengiste: I was living in Rome when Richard Robbins, the director of the film, contacted me about the project. I learned more about it then spoke further with two of the producers, Martha Adams and Alex Dionne. I was skeptical at first about whether this could really happen, but soon, I was on a plane to Addis, then a smaller plane to Bahir Dar, then on a very shaky Land Rover through mountain roads to Yilmana Densa to visit Azmera and her family.

The main focus of the 10×10 campaign is to show audiences how educating one girl can impact her entire family and her community and make positive changes. Each of the 10 segments in the 10×10 film highlights a country and the biggest obstacles preventing girls from getting their education. It’s different in each country and in Ethiopia, the biggest issue is forced early marriage. This film is different from so many of those charity programs or other documentaries we see. It’s not about the tragic lives of people in poor countries. This film is about how these young girls took their own first steps in making their lives better. They aren’t asking for charity. They only want the right to fulfill their potential and go to school. The idea of working on a project that told stories of how young girls were changing their own lives, rather than waiting for adults, fascinated me.

TADIAS: Can you also tell us a bit about your script and character?

Maaza: This is a documentary film, but Richard gave me full freedom to create what I wanted based on the time I spent with Azmera and her family. I talked to her and found her to be painfully shy, like a typical abesha girl. But something else was there also, a quiet strength and a stubbornness I saw when she played with her cousins. I also witnessed the intense love her family has for her. She is adored. I was interested to put this picture next to the image of a young girl forced to marry a stranger when she wasn’t even a teenager. But I had a chance to talk to her mother and other family members and the story that emerged helped me to write my script and find a focus of how to write about their lives.

TADIAS: The 10×10 site also features a book club focused on your novel Beneath the Lion’s Gaze as well as articles and policy briefs on Ethiopia. Can you tell us more?

Maaza: Each of the writers on the project (there are 10) has a specially designed book club tool kit available on the 10×10 website. That tool kit gives you step-by-step instructions on how to host your own book club, how to invite people, how to facilitate discussions, what questions you can ask, and even has an in-depth interview with the writer. It’s a wonderful way to get involved with the 10×10 project beyond the film.

TADIAS: What do you see as the primary challenge for girls seeking access to education in rural Ethiopia?

Maaza: It was heartbreaking to see how hard young girls were trying to go to school and get their education. They are intelligent, they are eager, they are determined, but they don’t have the simple resources to attend school. They are needed to work at home and take care of family or bring in extra income. I think the primary challenge involves finding ways for families to be able to send their daughters to school and still survive financially. It wouldn’t take much, and there are good organizations helping, but more needs to be done and I hope this film raises that awareness. I hope the film shows the world that these young Ethiopian girls have had the courage to fight for their future, and now they want the ability to continue living their dream of going to school. I am so very proud of each of them, and of Azmera and her family.

TADIAS: Thank you for sharing with our audience!

Maaza: Thank you, Tadias!
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Watch the trailer:

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Related:
Learn more about ‘Girl Rising’ Film + Campaign (10 x 10)
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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, December 24, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – We recently had a Google hangout session with Ethiopian American Journalist Bofta Yimam, who is a reporter for Continue reading ‘Bofta Yimam of Fox 13 News – Video’

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Wednesday, November 14, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – Judging by her Amharic you wouldn’t guess that Metasebia Yoseph was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She is currently a graduate student at Georgetown University studying Communication, Culture and Technology and also the writer and creative director of a transmedia project called A Culture Of Coffee, which focuses on the development of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony and its significance within the culture.

“I try,” Metasebia said, humbly referring to her language skills and pointing out that she spent a year in Ethiopia working at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies’ Ethnographic Museum in Addis Ababa after graduating with a B.A. degree in Art History from the University of Maryland in 2008.

Metasebia said her stay in Ethiopia was what gave inspiration for the project. “I met people who produce artifacts, the Amharic Bible, and so many other things,” she said in a phone interview. “That experience very much impacted me in ways that encouraged me to build a bridge between my upbringing here and my Ethiopian heritage.” Metasebia added: “My parents are part of the first wave of Ethiopian immigrants to the United States. I am a first generation Ethiopian American. What better way to highlight that link than our rich and famous coffee culture?”

Metasebia is not waiting until graduation to get the ball rolling. “My partner and I have already registered an organization focusing on cultural development,” she said. “The corporation has been formed and we are in the process of getting our 501(c)3 status.”

According to Metasebia, the multimedia efforts will culminate in the production of an artful coffee table book in the near future, for which “I will be traveling to Ethiopia in December and finalizing research,” she said.

Metasebia recently launched a fundraising page for the coffee-table book project. She noted: “We are offering donors who give us $100 or more the opportunity to be mentioned in the upcoming Book: From Ethiopia With Love as a co-collaborator.”
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Click here to learn more and support the project.

Watch: A Culture of Coffee Launch Event at Kaffa Club

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Published: Tuesday, October 9, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – While working in the non-profit world with multilateral organizations such as The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Human Rights Watch, and managing the Africa portfolio in more than 20 countries on the continent through the Global Fund for Children, Solome Lemma says she “saw first hand the ways Africans were moving, shaking, and transforming their communities — from Egypt to Zambia, Senegal to Ethiopia.” She adds: “So here and there we have Africans with ideas, innovations, skills, and resources, yet we continue to be painted as a continent of need and dependency. This needed to change.”

After meeting like-minded colleague, Zanele Sibanda from Zimbabwe, Solome co-founded and launched Africans in the Diaspora (AiD) an organization focused on consolidating the financial, intellectual, and social capital of Diaspora Africans to advance social and economic change in Africa.

Solome explained the organization’s acronym stands not only for ‘Africans in the Diaspora’ but is likewise an effort to re-imagine the meaning of foreign aid. “We want to disrupt and re-shape the meaning of aid,” she said in a recent interview. “For too long, “aid” has been exported to Africa. Africans are really the continent’s most important resource, whether we are back in our home countries or in the Diaspora, and we have all the skills, resources, and ideas necessary to transform our communities. We need to claim our rightful place in the ecosystem of change and transformation in Africa, as leaders, drivers, and designers of development. AiD unleashes that.”

AiD has developed a three-pronged approach to development, which includes Funds, a platform that enables Diaspora Africans and allies to invest directly in innovative African social change organizations; Connections, where exchange of expertise is facilitated between Diaspora and Continental Africans; and Voices, which amplifies the voices of people in and out of Africa who are committed and contributing to the continent’s progress.

Solome said individuals interested in joining this collaborative community effort can engage by sharing tools, resources, information, as well as facilitating dialogue through various social media venues, including Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.

Solome, who was previously featured as a White House Champion of Change in January 2012, reflects on the concept behind AiD: “The idea of giving back, is something I have carried for a while. As someone who has dedicated all of my studies and work to Africa, I often asked myself, what’s the best role for me as an African? How do I give back responsibly? How do I use the access and privilege that I have had and transfer it back home?”

AiD focuses on Africans as resource agents to encourage more investment in philanthropic and social causes built by African-led organizations.
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To get involved or learn more about this initiative please visit http://www.africansinthediaspora.org

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Tadias Magazine

By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, July 9, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – The day before TADIAS sat down with Marcus Samuelsson at Red Rooster to interview him about his memoir entitled, Yes, Chef, he received the congratulatory news that his book was listed at number 7 on The New York Times Best Seller list. And as NYT’s book review had highlighted a week earlier: “Mr. Samuelsson, as it happens, possesses one of the great culinary stories of our time.”

From contracting tuberculosis at age 2, losing his birth mother to the same disease, and being adopted by a middle-class family in Sweden, Marcus would eventually break into one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, rising to become a top chef with a resume including cooking at the White House as a guest chef for President Obama’s first State Dinner 3 years ago. Since then, Marcus has morphed into a brand of his own, both as an author and as owner of Red Rooster in Harlem.

“I first started to work on the memoir about five years ago”, Marcus told TADIAS. “I have been asked for many years to do a book. I just started to get to know my journey myself.” He added: “You know, there was always new layers, whether it was leaving Aquavit, coming uptown, building Red Rooster, getting married, or learning about my birth father.”

Marcus who lives in New York with his wife, Ethiopian-born model Maya Gate Haile, said he feels at home in Harlem as he does in Sweden and Ethiopia. “Harlem has a sense of home to it,” he said. “It’s a neighborhood in a very busy city, every time I come back to Harlem I feel I am at home in a way that I feel like when I am in the West Coast of Sweden and even when I am in Addis I feel like I am at home in a different way.”

Describing Harlem Marcus said, “You see signs of the Ethiopian and the Harlem community constantly, whether it’s when Haile Selassie visited Harlem or you see the Abyssinian Church, still to this day they do so many trips back to Ethiopia. So it’s something that I am extremely proud to continue on the tradition of the link between Ethiopia and Harlem.” He continued, “Obviously my space is food so it’s also a way to break bread. You know, when I serve dried injera here or berbere roasted chicken, I am continuing a legacy that has been here way before me and hopefully it’s going to continue way after me.”

You can watch the video below for our full interview with Marcus Samuelsson.

We say rush to get your own copy of Yes, Chef, it’s a fantastic read!

Video: Interview with Marcus Samuelsson About His Memoir ‘Yes, Chef,’ (TADIAS TV)

Tadias Magazine

By Tadias Staff

Updated: Saturday, January 21, 2012

New York (TADIAS) – As part of their bicentennial celebration, Harlem-based Abyssinian Baptist Church organized a historic first trip to Ethiopia in 2007 with more than 150 members. Their visit coincided with celebrations for the Ethiopian Millennium. Upon return, the church created a non-profit organization called The Abyssinian Fund (TAF) that is dedicated to sustainable development projects in Africa.

Today TAF is a partner with a co-op of 900 farmers in Ethiopia, assisting them with production of premium coffee for export. “We work with the farmers by helping them grow higher quality coffee beans so they can reinvest in their communities,” Reverend Nicholas S. Richards, President of the Abyssinian Fund, said in a recent interview with Tadias Magazine. “The farmers work with our field director Zerihun Tessema Fanta and field coordinator Demeke Hailu, who are based in Chaffee Jenette.” He added: “Together, our staff has over 40 years of expert coffee experience and agronomy training. We hire experts who introduce farmers to modern equipment, coffee nurseries and innovative techniques to produce better coffee.”

TAF is the only non-governmental organization operating in Ethiopia founded by an African-American church. And according to Rev. Richards, the NGO is making an impact not only in Ethiopia but also here in Harlem. “The Abyssinian Fund was born after a life-changing trip to Africa,” he said. “I became convinced that black people in America had to reconnect culturally and economically with Africa.”

Rev. Richards has made several trips to Ethiopia in the last couple of years. “Ethiopia means so much to me,” he said. “While I love how cosmopolitan and hip Addis has become, I continue to enjoy the rural experience of Harrar. I enjoy driving for long stretches in Harrar, where the scenery is filled with green plains and cattle grazing in small ponds.” He added: “It’s a great way to clear my head of all the stresses of living in New York.”

(Rev. Nicholas Stuart Richards – courtesy photo)

Reflecting on memorable moments that he spent in Ethiopia, Rev. Richards said: “On my first trip to a village I camped on the floor of the local school so we could conduct a research study. I’m an adventurous eater but village cooking is something else. I had to purchase two goats and oversee the slaughter for a week’s worth of tibs. Good times! Television depicts Africa as a place of poverty with desperate and warring people. This is not true. One visit to Ethiopia proves that.”

Rev. Richards pointed out that TAF has rekindled a long but dormant relationship between Ethiopia and the African-American church. “The Church was founded by a group of Ethiopian sea merchants and African Americans more than 200 years ago,” he said. “During this time, when church seating was segregated, the group decided to take a stand and start their own church.” He added: “The name, Abyssinian, is a sign of respect for those pioneering founders. The members officially organized to become The Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York, the oldest African-American Baptist church in New York State.”

How can the Ethiopian-American community get involved with the fund’s projects? “The Abyssinian Fund needs your partnership,” Rev. Richards said. “Ethiopian culture is so vibrant and there is a huge presence here in America. It would only make sense for all of us to get together and have a discussion about the needs of Ethiopia and how we can address them. Who better to speak on Ethiopia than those who have a personal connection with the country.”

As TAF continues to grow and expand it is also paying tribute to the diverse cultures in Harlem and finding ways to give back to a neighborhood that continually supports the church’s movement. TAF has created partnerships with approximately 17 local businesses in New York and 10% of every purchase goes to supporting the mission of The Abyssinian Fund.

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You can learn more about The Abyssinian Fund at www.abyfund.org.

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Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

New York (TADIAS) – In a video interview Ethiopian-born Model and Social Activist Gelila Bekele recently discussed her career and humanitarian projects with Tadias Magazine.

Gelila is currently signed with Ford Models, appearing in ads for Levi’s, Pantene, L’Oreal and Colgate as well as being featured in various fashion magazines including Essence, Marie Claire, and Allure.

“I couldn’t take credit for being good at modeling, but of course you have to be a business woman to have longevity,” Gelila said, speaking about her modeling work. “It’s one of those situations where you say to yourself I have not changed but I am not the same.”

Regarding her humanitarian projects Gelila focuses on access to clean water, food, and education. “Those are the three things for me that are important as a human being,” she said. “Life is a perspective, but for me if a child…has basic access to clean water, food and school and proper health care, it’s one of those situations where you are not creating for people to wait for foreign aid.”

Watch Tigist Selam’s Interview with Model Gelila Bekele

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Friday, December 9, 2011

New York (TADIAS) Last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched the NYC Venture Fellows program, designed to connect promising entrepreneurs from around the world with mentors and investors from leading companies. The fellowship encourages national and international start-ups to locate and grow their businesses in New York City. The class of 2012 includes Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, the Founder & Managing Director of SoleRebels — a fair trade certified green footwear company based in Ethiopia.

Bethlehem, who was born and raised in one of Addis Ababa’s most impoverished neighborhoods (Zenabwok, Total area), established SoleRebels in 2005 hoping to increase employment in her community. SoleRebels has not only created hundreds of local jobs, but it has since become an internationally recognized eco-fashion brand.

“Bringing SoleRebels directly to consumers worldwide is an integral part of our revenue and brand growth strategy,” Bethlehem said in a recent interview with Tadias Magazine. “With our unique focus on eco-sensible, recycled products as well as cultural artisan crafting, we feel strongly that it will excite footwear customers globally for a long time to come.”

The SoleRebels brand is offered online through both Amazon and Endless.com, as well as through the company’s own e-commerce website. Its products are also sold via brick-and-mortar locations like Urban Outfitters, a boutique in Addis, and a shared retail space in Asia. “We have implemented franchise agreements in Taiwan that opened two weeks ago,” Bethlehem said. “And we have franchise proposals for Australia, Italy, Canada, Israel, Spain, Japan and the United States.”

Bethlehem estimates the retail roll-out will generate over $10 million in revenue by 2016. “We feel strongly that people all over the planet want comfy, stylish and unique value priced footwear” she said.

What makes SoleRebels unique? “In three words: authenticity, style and value,” Bethlehem told us. “At our core we are artisans who aim to create the coolest and most comfortable footwear. We do this by combining our heritage with modern design sensibilities.”

SoleRebels shoes are made by hand using indigenous practices such as hand-spun organic cotton and artisan hand-loomed fabric. Tires are also recycled and used for soles. “The process is zero carbon production because historically that is the way it’s been done in Ethiopia,” she said.

Bethlehem has garnered international recognition, and earlier this year was also named one of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. In that role Bethlehem has been tasked to launch a program in Ethiopia called Global Shapers as a key initiative to create opportunities for the youth. With Addis Ababa preparing to host the 2012 World Economic Forum Africa meeting, the Global Shapers community will be able to collaborate with the Forum of Young Global Leaders while operating out of more than 75 city hubs – from New York to Mexico City, Johannesburg to New Delhi, and Addis Ababa to Adelaide.

“I have created a strategy to build our Global Shapers community by selecting my group based on input through outreach conducted via social media,” she said. “Under the title ‘Come Change Your World’ I am inviting individuals to express why they, or someone they know in the greater Addis Ababa area, should be chosen as a Global Shaper.” The process of outreach and selection includes gathering real-time input, insights and feedback. Global Shapers can jumpstart their entrepreneurial careers by interacting with Young Global Leaders, social entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, foundations members, global agenda councils and more. Bethlehem is also selecting one Global Shaper to address the upcoming annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mayor Bloomberg is scheduled to address the 2012 New York City Venture Fellow program at a gathering here this month. As a Fellow, Bethlehem said, “I feel strongly that this is an amazing opportunity to take SoleRebels to the next level.”
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Update:
Sole Rebels Wins 2011 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship (Click here to view photos)

Related links:
NYC Venture Fellows
Come Change Your World on FaceBook
SoleRebels’ e-commerce website
World Economic Forum

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Related Videos:
CNN Video: Turning old tires into shoes (7:10)

CNN Video: Young SoleRebel (8:07)

CNN Video: Creating window to world market (7:24)

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Monday, July 18, 2011

New York (Tadias) – The following video features the full version of Tadias Magazine’s recent interview with couture bridal-fashion designer Amsale Aberra.

Amsale discussed her reality TV show Amsale Girls, her success in the wedding-gown industry, her memories of Ethiopia, her musican daughter Rachel Brown, and more. Amsale also offers tips to brides and advise to aspiring fashion designers.

We have also included a second video highlighting a tour of Amsale’s luxury Boutique, taped immediately following our interview with the designer.

The interview took place at Amsale’s office in New York City on Tuesday, June 28, 2011.

Watch: Tadias Magazine’s Interview With Bridal-Fashion Designer Amsale Aberra

Watch: Tadias TV Exclusive – Inside Amsale Aberra’s Luxury Manhattan Boutique

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Click here to join the discussion on this topic.

Update:
Click here: Full version of the interview With Amsale

Tadias Magazine
Interview by Tsedey Aragie

Updated: Monday, July 4, 2011

New York (Tadias) – In a recent interview with Tadias, Ethiopian American couture bridal-gown designer and entrepreneur Amsale Aberra discussed her new reality TV show Amsale Girls, her success in the fashion industry, her memories of Ethiopia, her musican daughter Rachel Brown and more.

Amsale, 58, who came to the United States from Ethiopia in 1973, is one of the most sought after bridal and evening-wear designers in the United States. Her sophisticated and elegant dresses are favorites among celebrities and she has dressed Hollywood’s A-list, including Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Salma Hayek, Kim Bassinger, Uma Thurman, Anna Paquin, Heidi Klum, Selma Blair, Lucy Liu and Katherine Heigl, among others. Kate Hudson filmed the big screen adaptation of Something Borrowed at Amsale’s Madison Avenue boutique.

Model Maya Haile wore an Amsale gown during her wedding to renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson at their reception in Addis Ababa.

Amsale Aberra’s new reality show, Amsale Girls, is currently airing on the women’s network WE TV. The six-hour episode series goes behind-the-scenes of this luxury bridal salon that caters to high-maintenance clientele, with gowns donning price tags of $4,000 to $75,000, revealing Amsale’s sales consultants as the best in the business.

Below is the preview of our interview with Amsale. It was taped in her office in New York City on Tuesday, June 28, 2011. The full video will be posted next week.

Watch:

Tadias Magazine
By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2011

New York (TADIAS) – The scientific quest to find alternative sources of fuel is an expensive endeavor. And when Dr. Sossina Haile, Professor of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering at California Institute of Technology, prodded fuel cell makers in the late ’90s to come up with a cheaper prototype, they hesitated. She decided to work on a solution and created the world’s first solid-acid fuel cell at her laboratory. By 2008, two of her former students had taken the lab idea and created a start-up to develop a commercial prototype. Dr. Sossina Haile’s work has been praised for helping to push the green energy revolution, and last October she was invited to give an ‘Outstanding Women in Science’ lecture at Indiana University.

We asked Dr. Sossina Haile a few questions:

Tadias: When did you first discover your love of science? What was the catalyst?

SH: I have enjoyed science as far back as I can remember. I have always loved the fact that it makes sense and as I child I discovered I was good at it. We have a tendency to gravitate towards things in which we excel.

Tadias: Can you tell us a bit about where you grew up? The influential individuals and role models in your life?

SH: I was born in Addis Abeba, and we moved permanently to the US when I was almost ten. In all honesty, there was not a particular individual who served as a role model for me in the pursuit of a scientific career. I was extremely fortunate in that my parents supported my choices. This was particularly important since many of my classmates were, shall I say, uncomfortable, with a girl in the industrial arts class rather than home economics.

Tadias: As a Professor and Researcher at Caltech you created a new type of fuel cell. Can you tell us more about the new material discovery and the implications of its real world application?

SH: The new material allows fuel cells to operate at temperatures that are hot enough so that the fuel cell is efficient, but not so hot that the fuel cell is too expensive. Fuel cells convert chemical energy, like hydrogen or natural gas, into electricity. There are many, many reasons why a consumer can’t go out and buy a fuel cell from the hardware store today. Our fuel cells take an entirely fresh approach at trying to solve those problems.

Tadias: Last October you were invited to give the Outstanding Women in Science lecture at Indiana University on the topic of “Creating a Sustainable Energy Future.” You note that “the challenge modern society faces is not one of identifying a sustainable energy source, but rather one of capitalizing on the vast, yet intermittent, solar resource base.” Can you tell us some of the additional ways that you envision capitalizing on clean energy sources?

SH: If we are to use the sun as our primary energy source, then we definitely need to develop ways to store its energy for use on demand. In my lab we have started to do this by converting the sunlight to heat, and then using the heat to drive reactions that create fuels like hydrogen and methane from water and carbon dioxide.

Tadias: In 2008 you served as Advisor for Superprotonic, a start-up founded by a few of your former Caltech students who wanted to develop commercial prototypes of the world’s first solid-acid fuel cells created in your lab. Can you elaborate on this venture? What are the future prospects for the commercialization of your work?

SH: Superprotonic, Inc. has as its mission the commercialization of fuel cells based on the materials, the solid-acids, developed in my laboratory. Due to the economic upheavals the work has transferred to a new company, SAFCell, but the mission and the key participants are unchanged. We remain hopeful that the company will be able to manufacture fuel cells that are ultimately more efficient and less costly than others being developed today.

Tadias: What aspects of teaching and research do you enjoy the most?

SH: I delight in the discovery. When results make sense and we are able to explain something, I am thrilled. When that discovery has potential to solve critical societal problems, I am ecstatic.

Tadias: What words would you share with other young, aspiring scientists?

SH: I am asked this frequently and I find myself repeating the advice “follow your passions.” I think the corollary is that you should not be constrained by what others think of you. The beauty of pursuing scientific endeavors is that really the only thing that matters is what your brain can deliver, not all of the superficial things that can so easily distract us.

Tadias: What is your favorite way (or activity) to unwind and relax from a busy, challenging schedule?

SH: The wonderful thing about what I do is that generally I have no desire to ‘get away from it.’ But I confess that occasionally I will indulge in a good book to keep me company on the long flight back from a meeting or conference. I recently finished Chains of Heaven by Philip Marsden. It was fantastic.

Tadias: Thank you for taking the time to share your outstanding work with our readers, and best wishes in your research endeavors.
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Tadias Magazine
By Martha Z. Tegegn

Published: Thursday, August 19, 2010

Washington, D.C. (TADIAS)- The last part of our exclusive interview with Ethiopian music legend Teshome Mitiku features his years abroad, his musician daughter Emila, and his plans to return to Ethiopia in the near future.

The artist, who is set to make a historic appearance at the upcoming Chicago Jazz festival, says he is also planning a trip home in connection with a documentary movie being made about him and his daughter by a German production company. The film entitled “Father to Daughter,” is about the transfer of music from one generation to another.

In last week’s segment, Teshome discussed the tense political climate of the late 1960′s that would eventually force him to abruptly leave Ethiopia for Denmark.

Click here to read part one.

Click here to read part two.

What was the first thing you did when you got to Denmark?

I took a cab from Copenhagen airport, and told the cab driver “Take me anywhere where they have music, club, bedroom and food” (Laughter). The cab driver took me to a place called British Pub. It was cold, there was a hotel and I slept for a while, got up and took a shower and dressed sharp in a nice Italian suit, and then went downstairs to get something to eat. I ordered steak and whisky (Laughter). A few minutes later the band started playing and more people started to come in and the mood was getting better and better. I moved to the bar stool and ordered another whisky. Later, I asked the piano player on the stage if I can sing with the group? They were stunned. Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Then the piano guy said, “I have to ask the manager first.” I replied “go ahead and ask.” The funny thing is my character had apparently convinced them that I was some sort of royal. I was not aware of it at the moment but I was later to learn that it was not very normal in those days for a sharply-dressed black man to show up in a Copenhagen bar, order a steak and whisky and request to play the piano (laughter). They were not used to it. The manager came and immediatly asked, “Where do you come from, are you a Saudi Arabian prince?” (Laughter). They have never seen a black man dressed like that in their life. I was in a nice Italian suit. The manager said “Ok. Let me ask the band leader.” The band leader was named Stefan. He said “Okay, come on,” so I went up there and did some Nat King Cole song, I think it was Monalisa and about three more songs and people liked it and wanted more. Well, I said okay! Then the lady of the house, the boss, the owner, she came and invited me for a drink and asked me all about myself. I told her that I just arrived that morning from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. And she asked me, “Would like to continue to play with the group?” I said yes. Then she formally introduced me with the band leader Stefan, who to this day is my great friend. There I was offered a job, free lodging, laundry and food. So I started singing there.

Wow, how long did you stay there?

I played at the pub for about three months. Then we had a show at a nursing college in Malmo, an international city in Southern Sweden. We stayed there for a while and I begun to contemplate to move to Sweden because when I was there I discovered that they have a great music academy in Malmo. I also learned that you have to be fluent in Swedish in order to attend the school. So I applied for language school in Sweden and they accepted me, that’s how I moved to Sweden.

How difficult was it to learn the new language?

It wasn’t difficult. People think language is difficult, but if you are a musician you shouldn’t worry about language. After I studied Swedish things became easier. I started reading the newspaper. I could communicate with people. So I went ahead and applied to the music academy. I took the test. My dream was to be a conductor. They accepted me at the music school. But I changed my mind and enrolled at the University to study sociology and history instead.

What led you to change your gear from music to sociology and history?

I did not leave music but I wanted to study more. I was in a state of mind where I was struggling with several personal questions. It was a transformational period for me. In a way, I was still maturing and still growing up. I have done music but I also wanted to fulfill the high hopes my father had for me in education. My father always emphasized the importance of getting an education. He was a lawyer, he knew law and loved academia. He was dissatisfied with the Ethiopian justice system till the day he died. Our house was made of intellectuals, we talked a lot (laughter).

How was school like for you in Sweden?

I lived in the library for so many years. I would get up 6 AM like a soldier and at 7 o’clock I am at the library reading. I would do that until 12 or 1 pm and take short lunch break and get back and read. I was a good reader. I used to read five to six books a week on all subjects including philosophy, psychology, history, you name it. Books eventually became my friends, my house is full of books. I can not go anywhere without a book. So, I wanted education and knowledge. I wanted to learn everything. Whatever it takes. I remember trying to push myself to understand Albert Einstein’s theory, “ if he can understand it, I sure can,” I would say to myself. I was pushing myself. That part of me still exists.

Does that mean you weren’t playing music then?

Oh no, I was still playing music. In fact, I was part of a 12 piece jazz band and we used to play on weekends in Sweden and even travel to different states. In summer I was playing Swedish polka. So I earned money as well. I also had a full scholarship for my education.

How were you able to balance all that – new culture, language, school, music, life?

It was a lot to process. The Music part was easy, it came naturally to me, it was part of me. However, school was a bit unnatural, out of my tempo, so I had to work harder at it.

What drives you?

What drives me? Curiosity, discovering the unknown drives me. I like being surprised through new knowledge. In my university life I was an A student.

Were you ever homesick? Did you miss Ethiopia?

I longed for Ethiopia. For me she is embedded in my heart. I love her. Yes, I was very lonely and always longed for my country. I would wake up in the middle of the night when everybody is sleeping and walk to the dorm where there was a piano. I would improvise until sun break. That’s how I released my homesickness.

I am going to ask you a sensitive question. Does this mean you haven’t seen your mom since you left forty years ago?

I have not seen my mother since I left Ethiopia, yes. I haven’t seen her, we talk on the phone…but I haven’t seen her and she always…her dream is to see me before anything happens. But, God willing we will probably see each other soon.

Do you plan to go back?

Yes

When?

Sometime soon (laughter). I have certain core principals that I cannot compromise. We have to have mutual respect for our cultural diversity. My wish for Ethiopia is peace, stability and prosperity based on just principals. I have confidence in the new generation.

Well, you are going to be very surprised. For example, your Sefer (neighborhood) Qebena is different. Even the river has dried.

(Laughter) Yes I know, Qebena doesn’t exist in the way I knew it, only Mama. But I will go there, hopefully, soon…

Let’s talk about your daughter Emilia, the Swedish pop singer. You must be proud of her.

I am very proud of her. I have no words to express it. I used to call her my pearl, my life, my everything.

Is she the only one?

Yes, she is the only one. She has given me a reason to live ever since she was born. She is very smart. Emilia speaks five languages French, Swedish, English, German and Spanish fluently. She got the linguistic part form her mom and the music part from me. She is my everything. My pride. We text each other all the time, we communicate often. She is based in Sweden but lives in Germany and Hungary. I wanted her to be a musician. I encouraged it very much. Even when she was a baby I used to play Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky for her. When she was just two years old, I put her on the piano and told her “This is what you will be doing all your life” (laughter). So she fulfilled that dream for me. I clearly remember the night when she won the Swedish Award. It is equivalent to the American Grammy. She won for best singer, best video, best composer of the year. I mean, I was excited. She was in Japan and watching it via satellite. I was here that night. I was so proud and happy. I picked up the phone and called Voice of America and declared that my daughter has done it, just as Abebe Bekila did it for Ethiopia (laugher) . I was so proud!

Does Emilia speak Amharic?

A little bit, yes. She used to go to Sunday school to learn Amharic as a child. But she stoped when her teacher moved to another place. She also used to take piano, and ballet. She was a very busy child.

Does she plan to do a show in the U.S?

Yes, she actually has an album coming up that will be released in the U.S. market. We are also planning an album together.

Why did you relocate to US?

Well, everything with me has to do with music. I came to visit my brother Teddy sometime in the early 90s. When I came here I was shocked. I never thought that such a large number of Ethiopians had migrated to this part of the world. I mean everywhere I went there were Ethiopians. I said to myself, “ What am I doing in Sweden? This is where I need to be. Then I went back to Sweden, discussed my idea with Emilia. I said “now that you are grown, it is time now for papa to go discover life” (laughter). I gave my apartment to a friend and I was gone. As soon as I arrived here, I got involved in a lot of Ethiopian activities, including music, fundraising for different causes. I became socially involved with the community. That kept me going. I am currently working on a CD.

When is that coming out?

Perhaps in December. I would like to get involved with a lot of musicians, both legendary and contemporary and mix it with American music.

You are scheduled to collaborate with the American Jazz band the Either/Orchestra at the prestigious Chicago Jazz festival in September. How did that come about?

The Either/Orchestra had re-recorded one of my songs called Yezemed Yebada and one day I was driving in the area and heard the song on WPFW radio. I am like, what is that? This is my song? So, I pulled over to the side and called the DJ at WPFW. I asked him, “who is the composer of the song?” He read the album and said Teshome Mitiku. I said: “You are talking to him now.” They were pleasantly surprised. I asked about the orchestra and they gave me information about them and the DJ said they were located in Boston. I picked up the phone and called the leader Russ, I told him who I was and eventually we became friends. He called me about a month ago and invited me to join the group for preparation in Chicago and Boston. When I rehearsed with them, it was a great feeling. The band is fantastic. Our show in Massachusetts was sold out. I saw a lot of people there that enjoyed Ethiopian music, friends of Ethiopia and Ethiopians. They loved it. We are now getting ready for the Chicago festival. I am honored to join the band; I am actually going to be doing a couple of more shows and we are talking about more future projects, I am excited.

Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

Yes, I would like to mention that a German production company is currently filming a documentary based on my life and Emilia’s entitled “Father to Daughter.” It’s about the transition of music from one generation to another. They are half way done. They came and filmed here. They have also been filming in Europe. Now, they want us to go to Ethiopia to complete the shoot. I plan to go. So that will be my first trip back to Ethiopia since I left four decades ago.

Is your daughter going with you?

Oh yes, but that will not be her first time though. Emilia was in Ethiopia last year. She was in the middle of preparing for the 2009 Eurovision Song competition and she was very nervous about it. So one day she calls me and she says: “Papa I have to go to Ethiopia to get a blessing from my grandmother before the contest. Can you come with me?” I said to her, “I want you to do that. I can’t come with you becasue I am working, but I want you to go.” So she did. She went to Addis Ababa straight to her grandmother’s house and stayed there for a week. So the two women call me up. My mother was crying, Emilia was crying. My mother said to me, “ Teshu now my life is fulfilled. Today is the happiest day of my life.” When Emilia was there she took a photo of my old house, the house I grew up in Qebena. When I saw that picture, it brought back so many memories that I had to write a song about it. It will be in my next album. It is called Enen Ayew (I saw myself).

Thank you so much Tehsome for your time and good luck.

Thank you so much to Tadias for giving me this opportunity to tell my story. You are the very first magazine that I talked to. I really appreciate your magazine and your writers, you guys are great. Tadias is one of my favorite Ethiopian publications. Don’t change anything unless you have to, let it change itself.
—
Related:
Part One: Exclusive Interview With Ethiopian Legend Teshome Mitiku
Part Two: Exclusive Interview With Ethiopian Legend Teshome Mitiku

Listen to Gara Sir Nèw Bétesh – song written by Tèshomé Mitiku and played by Soul Ekos

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine
By Martha Z. Tegegn

Published: Thursday, August 5, 2010

Washington, D.C. (TADIAS) – Teshome Mitiku has not returned to Ethiopia since his abrupt departure in 1970. In a recent exclusive interview with Tadias Magazine, the legendary artist who is scheduled to make a historic appearance accompanying the Either/Orchestra at the prestigious Chicago Jazz Festival in September, talks about his extensive music career, his memories of Ethiopia and his famous daughter, the Swedish pop star Emilia.

Teshome burst into Ethiopia’s music scene during a period in the 1960′s known as the “Golden Era.” He was the leader of Soul Ekos Band, the first independent musical ensemble to be recorded in the country. The group is credited for popularizing Amharic classics such as Gara Sir New Betesh, Yezemed Yebada, Mot Adeladlogn and Hasabe – all of which were written by the artist.

Prior to settling in the United States in the early 1990′s, Teshome spent over 20 years in Sweden, where he continued to hone his music skills, earn a graduate degree in Sociology, and witness his daughter grow up to become a Swedish ballad and pop music singer.

We spoke with Teshome Mitiku over coffee on U street in Washington, D.C. in what the artist says is his first exclusive interview since his hurried journey out of Ethiopia 40 years ago. The soft-spoken and humorous artist, who sprinkles his answers with sporadic laughter, discussed with us his distinguished career spanning four decades and three continents.

Here is part-one of our 3-part series, which will be published in weekly installments.

Teshome Mitiku, courtesy Photo.

You began your career as a teenager in an era known as “Swinging Addis.” What was
the music scene like in Ethiopia at the time?

It was fantastic. It was an upbeat time. The 60s was an era where things developed from one form of life to another. So it was a transitional period for the whole country. New ways of thinking and doing things were emerging in singing, playing, and producing. The big band era was giving-way to small bands including groups such as the Soul Ekos band, the Ras band, etc. Music instruments were changing as well. Everywhere you went there were groups playing, clubs were packed. I was still in high school at the time, but I was already playing in different clubs with several settings. Then we ended up forming the Soul Ekos band. For the last two years of the late 60′s, I played with this band, which was the most popular band in Ethiopia. Although more such bands have flourished, I don’t think anybody could replace that group.

You were one of the founding members of the band. What are your memories of Soul Ekos?

My memories of Soul Ekos band is just full of love. We were ahead of our time in many ways. We were very organized, disciplined, we had a manager and each guy in the band loved his instrument. There was no question of when to rehearse or how to rehearse it. We were playing in clubs, touring and taping. Our ideas of bringing about modern ways of playing music was getting popular. We did the recordings like Gara Sir New Betish, Hasabe, Yezemed Yebada, Mot Adeladlogn and many many more. Each one of us loved playing together. So what we did was that we rented a big house in Entoto, which had nine bedrooms and a giant living room.

So you guys also lived together?

(Laughs) Yes that is how much we enjoyed each other, we lived together. Each one of us had our own bedroom though (more laughter). We would get up at 7 o’clock and by 9 we were on stage in the living room for rehearsal until 1 o’clock, and we take lunch break until 3 and get back and rehearse until 6 then we go home. But home is where we practice so everybody did whatever they wanted to after 6. We saw too much of each other, but it never felt like that at the time.

Were you making enough money to support yourself?

We were the highest paid band. But we never placed money at the center, the music was our center. But we had income. I mean we were playing on weekends at Kangnew station in Asmara (then part of Ethiopia) and we used to play at hotels, clubs, schools, universities so the income was there. We were booked everywhere. We were flying left and right nationwide and internationally. We went to Sudan, Kenya all kinds of touring. We were a busy band.

Do you still keep in touch with some of the band members?

Yes, Teddy (Tewodros Mitiku) the saxophonist, is my brother, so we keep in touch. He lives in Maryland and I live in Virginia, so we meet and we call every now and then. I also keep in touch with Alula Yohannes, the guitarist we call each other on the phone we are even thinking of performing together. There was sort of a small reunion way back in 1995 but that reunion wasn’t really a soul Ekos reunion it was a reunion of guys playing in the 60s. So we got together and played at the Hilton here, it was the relaunch of my carrier in music. So, we might do that again. But some of our guys have passed away: the singer Seifu, the trumpeter Tamrat, the drummer Tesfaye. Among the original Soul Ekos band, only four are still living: Teddy, Fekade, Alula and I.

Members of the former Ekos Band: from the left Alula Yohannes, Tesfaye Mekonnen, Tamrat,
Amha Eshete (band manager), Teshome Mitiku, Feqade Amdemesqel & Tewodros Mitiku. (CP).

When did you start playing music?

I started playing music in zero grade. At the time they actually had zero grade (laughter). When you pass zero grade then you go to first grade. Zero grade was where you learned your ABC’s and after you master the basics then you pass to first grade. Otherwise, you can stay in zero grade for a long time. It is after completing Kes temhirtbet, fidel and Dawit that I landed at Haile Selassie day school (Kokebe Tsiba) in Kebena, where they put me in zero grade. When I got there, I already loved singing. I loved music. I remember while getting ready to pack for school I would listen to songs on the radio, and I would just stand there and listen to the music and be late for school. I had that much love. I especially loved begena and kirar instruments. I used to stand there and listen. I also remember some of the zebegnas (guards) in Aswogag Sefer area where they used to play accordions, flutes, washint and stuff so I used to sit there with the zebegnas while the class was waiting for me.

You have made up your mind then?

Yes, early on– and I used to drum around the village. So, when I came to first grade I had a chance to study under a Danish music teacher named Paul Bank Hansen at the Haile Selassie day school music class. They gave me an entrance exam on singing, rhythm, and the concept of music and I passed it. And Mr. Hanson, who was my teacher then, said to me he would like me to become a member of a group he was building. So, there were about 40 to 50 students selected for music education. My brother Teddy Mitiku was one of them, and some of the guys from our band Tamrat Ferendji and Tesfaye Mekonnen, etc, most of them are from there. So, my teacher’s wife, Margret Hanson, started teaching me piano. I went to her once and asked: “Mrs. Hanson, can you please teach me how to play this thing.” I was referring to the piano, the grand piano in her house. She was shocked by my question and said: “Oh I will do that but you also have to promise me something. You have to keep time and come everyday from 4pm to 5 pm and I will teach you piano.” So she used to buy me candy, cookies, there was a Coca Cola and other some soft drinks. I sat beside her and started playing. That’s how I started playing the piano and went on to learn trumpet, violin, and drums. But the trumpet, my father didn’t like it. He said it will probably hurt your lungs. But I used to get up at 6 o’clock and go to school at 7 to raise the flag, so the entire neighborhood will hear my trumpet. Then in the afternoon I will blow my trumpet again and put down the flag and return it to the director’s office and go home. I used to do that on a regular basis.

You are also a song-writer. What is the writing process like for you?

The writing process for me is based on happenings, what happens in your life. All these songs didn’t come out of the blue, each one of the songs got their own history and their own rhythm. Even right now too, writing is based on situations and conditions. It is the state of mind I am in. Most of the songs that I wrote are really a reflection of the condition that I was in at the time. Like Gara sir new betish, for example, is about our house in Kebena where I grew up. When I wrote it the title was kebena new betish, that was the idea. And the house where I was born in and grew up in Ethiopia was just right under the hill (gara) and Kebena river is right under the bridge very close to the water. So I was in a state of mind where I was unemployed at the time because of a disagreement I had with the owner of the clubs. So I used to stay home, sit at home on the balcony and drink Saris Vino. My mother used to say, “Teshu what are you doing? “and I would say “just thinking” my mother would respond “don’t worry everything will be alright.” That’s when I sat down and started writing about our home, school and the girls at school and everybody that I know around me. So I wrote kebena new betish and after I wrote that song I went to the band and said lets hook this up. The band loved it. Then I started working at a club again, when we started playing the song and everybody at the club loved it. I mean the whole setting was different, the orchestration was different, the beat was different and the singing style was different. And it just became tremendously popular, even today. A legendary song. I don’t think they can replace that song.

It’s been re-recorded so many times by different artists. How do you feel about that?

I love it. I love the young generation. You know, that is the reason we recorded it so the next generation can pick it up and change the style and play it in different modes. I really appreciate them. Other radios talk shows have asking me about it and I said it is good. I wish all Ethiopians were like that. We should renew the style and do it again. The song is very open and you can add anything you want to it. One just needs to invest a little time on it.

–
Related:
Part two: Exclusive Interview With Ethiopian Legend Teshome Mitiku
Part Three Exclusive: Teshome Mitiku Plans to Return to Ethiopia

Listen to Gara Sir Nèw Bétesh – Tèshomé Meteku (Ethiopiques)

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook.

Tadias Magazine

By Tseday Alehegn

Published: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

New York (TADIAS) – It has been a busy year for Marcus Samuelsson. A few weeks after the release of his book New American Table, Samuelsson was invited by the White House to prepare the Administration’s first State Dinner honoring the Prime Minister of India.

“It was an honor for me not only to be asked but also to do it,” Samuelsson tells Tadias.

Samuelsson says he was primarily thinking of diversity while preparing the State Dinner assisted by ten members of his own staff. “I tried to think of diversity on different levels, not just the food,” he tells us.

Below is our interview with Marcus Samuelsson about the White House State Dinner, his new book, and living in Harlem.

Tadias: When did you begin thinking about writing New American Table?

Marcus: I began working on the book in my head around 2004/2005, right around the time I became an American citizen. I really started to think about diversity. How do I explain Ethiopian heritage? How do I define my Swedish heritage? I am privileged to be in America where I can actually be Ethiopian, Swedish, and American. And as Maya and I got more and more together we started thinking about how to keep our identities through food. And not only that but I realized that all my friends are immigrants. It’s Jewish people marrying Arabs, Pakistanis marrying Germans, Latin people marrying Swedish people. And all of them are keeping their food heritage. And more so than language, it’s through food that they are keeping their identities. Food is a celebration of diversity in America. I don’t know any other nation where you could keep all these cultures alive and on top of everything you are also American. And I thought that it was really cool. There is also the recognition of the growth of immigration. Think about how Ethiopians came to this country. In cities now we have on average about six or seven Ethiopian restaurants. That’s incredible. And it’s a way for us to keep our identity. And it’s not only the Ethiopian community that I’m talking about. I’m talking about Vietnamese community in Minneapolis, Latin community in Chicago, Nigerian community in Boston. We know it’s Latin in Los Angeles and Texas and so on. Those are the obvious ones, but I’m talking about the not-so-obvious diversity; the Koreans in New Jersey, Middle Easterners in Detroit.

I always write. I always take notes wherever I am. Food is my language. I cook with friends, I cook in the restaurants, for magazines. I always write and connect my recipes to my outlets. My creativity goes with the diversity. I didn’t want to make a narcissistic book about me, but about everyday people. That’s why I do the collages in the book. The book only works if it’s about the everyday person, the New American. Everyone from kids to the elderly can recount stories of food. Whether it’s stories from the Second World War or stories about leaving Ethiopia, or stories about leaving Sweden, they are all stories about us.

The other thing to note is the enormous Farmers’ Market boom. I wanted to include this in the book. When I came to New York you could barely buy cheese or great bread. Now you have a resurgence of artisanal food makers, and I wanted to touch on that. People are going back to ‘local’ to ‘organic’ to ‘seasonal.’ I wanted to celebrate that. We are slowly going in a greener direction. And that’s the conversation about food that I want to keep having. I’ve already written a book about restaurants. I’ve done that. Going forward it will have to be about people, and how people inspire me. I’m not a politician, I’m a chef, and so I tell my stories through food. Like an artist’s paintings would show what he’s going through or what he’s reflecting on.

Tadias: When was the moment, during your work or travels, where you felt that what you were experiencing should become a book?

Marcus: I’ve been American for a while now and in the beginning of the book I talk about becoming American. As a Black person I wanted to come to America rather than stay in Europe because there are more opportunities here as a person of color. I think a lot of people can relate to that feeling. Of course you have doubts and you don’t know if it’s going to work out, but you work hard and it will. This book was also written at a very particular time. This was written post 9-11, in the middle of the Iraq/Afghanistan war, very patriotic stuff. I feel that sometimes the image of America in the rest of the world is not that great, but I feel that diversity, food, these are things that we are getting right. These are things that we can be inspired by. This book was written in a time of transition. I began writing in the Bush era and the book is out in the Obama era.

Tadias: Can you share one or two of the untold stories behind the food that you describe in New American Table?

Marcus: There’s a couple, friends of mine. She’s Pilipino and he’s Swedish and African-American. Every year they have a dinner where when you go to their house they have about 25 different dishes. And the food is from Black culture, Pilipino culture, Swedish culture. And they’re not chefs. That’s inspiration. Their friends are just as diverse, from Ethiopia to France. This is the diverse food life that I wanted to live, and now I’m living it. You know even when Maya cooks Doro Wat and our friends who are not Ethiopian are enjoying the dish, what are we doing? We’re telling a story about Ethiopia. So all of us who are Ethiopian-American are actually ambassadors for our own country. There is an exchange of culture here but we’re not asking you to change your religion or faith or beliefs. We are simply the culture and we are sharing the food. So we’re shifting the dialogue to something positive, something tangible.

Tadias: Looking back at the history of food in America and the traditional American dining table, how would you describe it now?

Marcus: Well this is an evolution. We were very much England/Europe-inspired for a long time. And now you’d hear someone say “Hey I had sushi last night, and I had Ethiopian the night before.” So you’ve gone a complete 180. We’re completely embracing diversity through the food, and before we were taught to hide it. So it is a sense of arrival to say “I had sushi, I just tried a Moroccan restaurant, I had Indian the day before.” Even in cooking the State Dinner we were cooking an ethnic meal at an American State Dinner.

Tadias: How was the experience of preparing the White House State Dinner?

Marcus: It was the highest honor. That was Barack Obama’s first State Dinner so it was extremely important for him. And it was an honor for me not only to be asked but also to do it. Michelle wanted a vegetarian dinner as much as possible as Mr. Singh is vegetarian so we came with fresh but very humble ingredients. These were not the ‘best dishes of Marcus Samuelsson.’ For me, when I did the State Dinner I wanted to show the best of America and the best of India. I also wanted to show the White House as someone’s home. Therefore we introduced a bread course, where we broke bread and had both corn bread and naan bread, which they’d never had at a State Dinner before. It was the first time that all fresh ingredients and herbs were supplied from the White House garden. We had lentil soup, which was very Indian for me, but we also had American seasonal apples. The dumplings and green curry prawns were Indian but we also served All-American dessert, Pumpkin Pie, and we served All-American wine. So it was a complete marriage for me looking at both cultures. The smoked collard greens served were from African American culture. Why not serve that as a testament of diversity instead of making the best possible Foie gras that you could do? I also brought my staff, half of them were girls and half were guys. Some were African-American, some of them were Jewish, so I tried to think of diversity on different levels, not just the food.

Cover of Marcus Samuelsson’s book ‘New American Table.’ (Courtesy photo)

Marcus at the White House kitchen chopping herbs that he picked from the White House garden in preparation for the Obamas’ first State dinner. (Courtesy photo)

Tadias: How many staff did you take with you?

I brought 10 with me.

Tadias: So what are your next steps? What’s in the horizon? What kind of ventures are you thinking of now?

Marcus: Moving forward, I’m thinking, “What can I do in Harlem?” I’m thinking about public school and food. I’d also like to bring more Farmers’ Markets to Harlem. I live in Harlem and I go in stores and there are no green vegetables in the market. You can go to any market in Ethiopia regardless of income and you can get local eggs and organic. Here, if you don’t have money you eat poorly. It’s one of the only countries where low income and eating poorly is connected. I would like to change that. At least I would like to raise awareness by cooking in the community, or definitely enabling people with low income to have better choices when it comes to food. So those are the kinds of things that I care about.

Tadias: What do you like most about Harlem?

Marcus: Harlem? I always wanted to live in Harlem. Harlem was the community that I knew about when I was in Sweden. It was what I knew about America and African-American culture. I’ve always thought about Harlem. And I also think that if Harlem’s going to change then people like myself and others should stop talking about Harlem and move to Harlem. Harlem is not going to change because we talk about it. It’s going to change because we do something. And I put my money in the economy. For me it’s not a PR stint. For me it’s a lifestyle. I sold my place and moved to Harlem to experience it. And I can’t write about an experience without having lived it. When I shop at C-Town, for example, it’s not because I’m happy to shop there, it’s because I want to have the same experience that the person who lives in this community has. When Maya wants to go to Whole Foods or somewhere else, I say, “Well we can do that too but we also have to buy from here as well because we gotta know what the hell we’re talking about.”

Tadias: Any other thing you’d like to add?

Marcus: I look forward to going to Ethiopia for New Year’s and I look forward to eventually have a cooking school in Ethiopia. To have a hospitality school in Ethiopia – that’s my ultimate goal. I’ve experienced a lot of stuff, and it’s also my job to give back and to challenge people who have money to contribute. It will bring a different dialogue. It’s like what bringing Lucy here does – it starts a dialogue. Same thing with the Discovery Show about the oldest human being, or what Ras does with his film, ‘The Athlete’ when he narrates the story from an Ethiopian perspective. It’s what you guys do; it’s bringing a different view, which is incredible. It’s important to keep producing, keep writing. Even what Maya does; she’s in Korea right now doing a shoot for Olympus Camera. For other people to see that that’s possible is incredible. I’m in awe of all that. I also love one of the pieces that you wrote about Ethiopians that have done stuff in America, because you do exactly what I think about a lot – to inspire to aspire. You read that article, and if you’re not in that article, you want to get in that article. It’s fantastic. It’s inspiring. Regardless of who it is, it’s more about the message.

—
Tseday Alehegn is the Editor-in-Chief of Tadias Magazine.

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Tadias Magazine

By Shahnaz Habib

Published: Wednesday, September 09, 2009

New York (TADIAS) – Earlier this year, Tadias reviewed Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone, an epic novel about a young man’s coming of age in Ethiopia and America. From fascinating social and political portraits of Ethiopia in upheaval, Cutting for Stone zooms into a territory where few have gone before: the drama of the operating theater and the mysteries inside the human body. There can be no doubt that this novel is the work of a seasoned writer who has led many lives in many places.

Time and again, Dr. Verghese has dipped heavily into his own life for furnishing the material for his writing. His experience as a physician in the rural south, caring for terminally ill AIDS patients has been heartrendingly documented in his memoir My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story. Later, in The Tennis Partner: A Story of Friendship and Loss, he described a beloved friend’s struggle with drug addiction, rendering a poetic, raw tribute to male friendships. In his latest book and first novel, Cutting for Stone, the protagonist is a young doctor, raised in Ethiopia, who seeks his fortune in America.

Verghese’s own career as a physician in the United States has taken him from his grueling days as a foreign medical graduate (recounted in The New Yorker article, The Cowpath to America) to becoming the voice of empathetic medicine. As founding director of Center for Medical Humanities & Ethics at the University of Texas and in his current role as a senior professor at Stanford University, Dr. Verghese is a champion in the field of Medical Humanities. He is passionate about bedside medicine and physical examination and values the human element that these rituals bring to the facelessness of modern medicine.

In an exclusive interview, Tadias Magazine spoke with Abraham Verghese about writing, medicine, the healthcare crisis, and how to lead double lives.

Abraham Verghese (photo by Joanne Chan)

Can you begin by telling us a bit about all the different places that are a part of you?

My identification with place is complicated. Ethnically, I feel very much Indian. My parents are Indian and I feel very conscious of their legacy, But countrywise, I strongly identify with Ethiopia, having grown up there. And then of course, America is the place that welcomes everybody. So this is home unequivocally, and I am very proud to be American. So there are all these different threads that run through my life.

I remember the passage in the book where Hema speaks of Addis as an evolving city whereas Madras seems to have finished evolving. Was that something that struck you as a primary difference between both places?

Yes, when I went to India and lived in Madras, that was one of the things that struck me about the city. Traditions and ways of life were very established in Madras whereas so much was in transition in Addis. And then when I came to America, it was very different again. There’s a scene later in the book where Marion arrives in America and feels completely unprepared for the scale and scope of America.

You also show how, even through its upheavals, Addis was a cosmopolitan city of the twentieth century. You help the reader picture the different peoples who had congregated in Addis. Can you give us a sense of your relationship with Addis?

I don’t have any family in Addis but I do have friends there and I have strong connections to the medical world in Ethiopia. Also, the present Prime Minister of Ethiopia was a medical student one year behind me. When civil war broke out and the military took over the medical school, he became a guerilla fighter and I left. So I have been back twice – once to do an interview with him for a magazine and the other time for a medical symposium.

Could you tell us something about your writing process? You must have drawn a lot on your memories of growing up in Ethiopia but it is also clear you did a lot of research on Ethiopian history and politics.

I think the research happens in parallel with the writing. I was consciously trying to learn more about the Italian time in Ethiopia because it was a very colorful legacy. Every colonial power leaves their stamp on their country and we are very familiar with the English stamp on India or the French stamp on Cameroon but the Italian stamp on Ethiopia is not very well-known. So I spent a lot of time on that. But the research was in parallel with the writing because as I wrote I would stumble on something that I needed to know more about and so that would set me off in another direction. One of the great joys of research is that you find unexpected things in unexpected places. You are looking for one article but you find another right next to it that leads you to include something you might never have otherwise written about. There’s a lot of serendipity.

Elsewhere you talked about the incremental method of writing in which you write a little bit everyday.

I think I was talking about the incremental method of doing anything. If you do a little of something every day, you gradually get better at it. Instead of finding great blocks of time, you just have to find a little time every day.

So do you have a daily writing practice?

Not really. I write whenever I can and sometimes it winds up being everyday for several days at a stretch of time but sometimes I cannot get to it every day.

I also heard that you have a room on the campus, something like a secret bunker, where you can go and write. Tell me it is true and not a legend.

No, it is true. When I took this position I negotiated for a second office, separate from the student-related, that I could disappear into.

And you also negotiated two days a week to write.

Well, everybody here has protected time to do their research and so during my protected time, instead of going to a lab and doing experiments, I go to my lab and conduct my kind of experiments. In fiction, nonfiction. In any kind of writing, really.

How important is it as a writer to have a place for writing?

I actually don’t think it is very important. I think people make much too much of having a place and how it has to be just right. I can actually write anywhere and often do. The most important thing when you are trying to write is to simply sit down and try to write, it doesn’t matter where. If you are waiting for the right environment before you can write, then you are probably not prepared to write.

What would you say is the unlikeliest place that you have written in?

(Laughs) Probably airports. Everyone’s waiting to take off and frustrated that we are late or whatever and I am barely aware that anything is going on.

Pico Iyer talks about airports as the ultimate postmodern metropolis. He probably gets a lot of writing done in airports as well.

I am not surprised. He travels a whole lot more than I do.

In fact, in his book Global Soul, he talks about a new generation of transnationals who belong to so many cultures that they belong to nowhere. He calls them Nowherians, or fulltime citizens of nowhere. Do you think you are a global soul?

I feel I am not completely a global soul. I have sequential interactions with different countries and even within the US, I have steadily migrated from Tennessee to Iowa to Texas to California now. I hope this is the last stop. I hope I am not destined to go to Guam and Hawaii!

But even when our migrations are sequential, our memories are not, right?

Yes, very true. They are seamless and overlapping and the only constant is you. You are the only one linking the different places.

There is that beautiful passage in the book where you talk about how listening to Tizita takes the narrator right back to Ethiopia, whether he is in Adams Morgan or in Khartoum.

Yes, music is so mysterious that way in its connection to the brain and its ability to transform us. We all probably have a song that can transport us back to a different part of our life. And it is very difficult to make that song come alive for someone else us. I could not bring the song to the reader but I could try to bring that sense of identification, the nostalgia that it evoked. And of course, that song [tizita] itself is about nostalgia. I worried a great deal about whether I could pull it off. But we all have our tizitas, our songs of some kind.

To get back to the subject of medicine and writing. You speak in this book as well as in interviews about the ritual of examining the patient. Examining the patient is a lot like reading, isn’t it, with the patient as the text?

Yes, but it’s also much more than that. At one level the patient is a text to decode, a mystery to unravel, and that is certainly important, it’s the most attractive part of being a diagnostician. But this is not a natural relationship, between the doctor and the patient. In fact, it is terribly unnatural. They are coming to you because they are in some sort of distress and you are meeting them because you have made this career choice to help people and so it’s a very strange relationship and even though it seems routine, there is nothing routine about it. Its’ really quite loaded. So after you meet them and decode the text, you are, by your presence, by your engagement, providing the kind of comfort no one else can provide. The analogy I use is “when you are drowning, the only person who can save you is someone who knows how to swim”.

I find it terribly important to be conscious of that dynamic, even if the patient is not. Somebody else once described this by saying “one of our roles is to save the patient from their nihilistic tendencies.” A sick individual’s instinct is taking him or her towards nihilism, to imagine that the world is cruel, that there is nothing worth living for, and the doctor’s job is to counter that.

Have there been other writers who write about medicine whom you count among your influences?

There are a lot of writers who write well about the business of medicine. Atul Gawande for instance. And I have always admired that kind of writing. But I feel that by writing fiction about medicine, you are conveying a higher form of truth. I guess that’s my bias. (Laughs) If you pull it off well, like in “The Citadel” for instance, then you have captured the reader’s imagination. If I manage to get you to enter the world of the novel and completely forget your everyday life, you don’t just find out about medicine, you live medicine. You live it through Hema, you live it through Ghosh, through Marion, and you come out at the other end and its 2009, but you feel like you have lived a lifetime and you have all the lessons of a lifetime. So I am drawn to those fictional narratives, not necessarily written by physicians, but which convey medicine in a convincing and inspiring way.

And in many ways, reclaiming the humanity of medicine is also the focus of your field of medicine, isn’t it? Can you tell us a bit about why that is important?

I think we live in an age of tremendous fracturing in medical care. It’s very difficult to find one person to take care of you, you end up going to six different people. We are in great danger of getting lost in the technology. We can easily mistake data for wisdom but it is not the same as wisdom. So I have been emphasizing the physican-patient relationship, that this interaction is timeless. No matter how routine it seems, no matter how many imagings and scans can help us see the patient inside out, we still need our presence with the patient. We should never underestimate the patient’s desire to get some help and that subtext of wanting comfort to be comforted, and that all-important ritual of baring their soul and baring their body and allowing you to touch them. And if you shortchange all that, you lose the patient’s faith.

Is there more attention paid to medical humanities now than, say, fifty years before?

I think there is more conscious attention to it as a field of study. It is amazing to me that there is a label that says “medical humanities” on it. But it’s a double-edged sword because medical humanities as a discipline has been hijacked by the English literature and semantics people. In many medical schools, the medical humanities division is run by someone with a Ph.d in English Literature and they have made this into a discipline that I worry is getting disconnected from the field of medicine. Some of those people look down on a physician who wants to teach medical humanities as if the physician does not have the right credentials for teaching this. And I wonder what is their credential to teach this, if they have never walked in a physician’s shoes?

I ran a program on medical humanities in San Antonio and I felt that my mission there was to restore medical humanities to medicine and take it out of the abstract. I am not against someone getting a Ph.d in medical semiotics and breaking down narrative and all that, but let’s not confuse that with talking to a medical student who is trying to picture himself at the bedside of a dying patient and introducing that student to Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilyich. And that’s what medical humanities is to me.

In a way it actually mirrors the other disconnect, the one between patients and doctors at the bedside.

That is exactly right. They are parallel disconnects and in both cases there is a hubris – “don’t talk to us about medicine, we know all about it though we have never seen a patient, and we have no idea what a medical student is going through, we know what’s best for them, we are going to teach them about medical humanity.”

What do you think of Obama’s vision for healthcare and how do you think that will affect medical humanities?

I am convinced that some change is forthcoming. But at what level? The bottom-line is that this is a very expensive healthcare system. And I worry that Obama’s plan is to expand coverage and do all these wonderful things but he’s going to find the money for it, not by saving costs but by saying, well if we do preventive medicine, we will save this much money; if we do IT, we will save so much money. And all those are laudable but it’s somewhat pie in the sky. I think what we really need to do is cut costs. But every dollar spent on healthcare is a dollar of income for someone. So when you try and cut costs as Hillary Clinton tried to do, you are taking away income from doctors and pharmaceutical companies and x-ray manufacturers, and you run into this buzz-saw of lobbying that will simply decimate you. So Obama is trying to sidestep that by not addressing the cost issue, but I really think the hard solutions are painful, and will cause a lot of people to make less money than they are making and that will make them unhappy but I really don’t think there is another real solution. Frankly, we badly need more primary healthcare providers so that when you are ill you can go to your doctor. But right now there are more people who can put a catheter up your coronary arteries than treat you if you have the common cold. I think as a nation we have to understand that we cannot replace the presence of the physician with machines.

You have a fulltime job as a doctor and then you have this other life as a writer. How do you balance both – what does a writer need to balance two completely different lives?

See, I don’t accept that premise, that these are two different lives. I see it as one seamless life. I am always puzzled when people make this distinction between writer and physician. Really, its all one enterprise. But in terms of getting a piece of writing out there, the fact that I am a physician has nothing to do with it and putting MD next to my name would be irrelevant. So in that sense, if you were asking me what is the primary ingredient a writer needs, whether they are also a doctor or an actor or a garbage collector, I think it comes down to perseverance, and the willingness to revise revise revise until you get it right. The art is really in the revision.

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About the Author:
Shahnaz Habib is a freelance writer, based in Brooklyn.

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