It is better to light just one little candle
Than to stumble in the dark.
Better far that you light just one little candle,
All you need is a tiny spark.
If we'd all say a prayer that the world would be free,
A wonderful dawn of a new day we'd see...
And if everyone lit just one little candle,
What a bright world this would be.

When the day is dark and dreary
And we know not where to go;
Don't let your heart go weary,
Just keep this thought in mind...

It is better to light just one little candle
Than to stumble in the dark.
Better far that you light just one little candle,
All you need is a tiny spark.
If we'd all say a prayer that the world would be free,
A wonderful dawn of a new day we'd see...
And if everyone lit just one little candle,
What a bright world this would be.

unknowen

ኢትዮጵያ

Dr Eleni of ECEX

It is difficult to explain the continued increase in price levels from 2003 to the present, when Ethiopia has had three consecutive years of good to above average harvests, according to official statistics.

Three researchers from IFPRI-EDRI Ethiopia Strategy Support Program (ESSP) said recently that at present, in early 2006, it is especially puzzling why prices have reached peak levels, despite the predicted bumper crop, with an estimated increase over last year's production by 16 to 24 percent.


The researchers, Dr. Eleni Zewde Gebre-Medhin, Kindie Getnet and Senishaw Tamiru, who produced an overview of patterns and trends in the Ethiopian grain market, said that a quick overview of different grain prices across terminal and regional markets revealed another puzzle. Addis Ababa is normally considered the central market for the country, and is supplied by regional markets in surplus areas, and in turn supplies terminal markets in deficit areas, such as Mekelle and Dire Dawa.


However, they said, in December 2005 prices were higher in some of the supply markets such as Debre Zeit than they were in Addis Ababa. This, they indicated, suggested that trade flows may have changed from traditional channels recently, from Debre Zeit to other markets, including potentially export markets, instead of Addis Ababa.


The current high grain prices are not only a result of the price increases over last year's levels but the preceding year's increase as well, according to them. Thus, while wheat prices have gone up by 30 percent over December 2005 levels, this is combined with last year's increase of 18 percent. Similarly, maize increased by 40 percent last year, which is combined with a more modest increase this year. These cumulative increases are therefore resulting in current prices that are significantly above the trend prices.


Regarding the rapid appraisal of the current market situation, the researchers said that given the current price puzzle, a number of possibilities emerge as possible explanations. On the supply side, there is the possibility of a decline in supply, while on the demand side, a demand surge could have occurred. A third possibility is that of market manipulation by different actors: cooperatives, traders, or others. Given the importance of grain in the consumer food basket, possible intervention may be necessary.


To this end, a team from the ESSP undertook a modest rapid market appraisal in six markets, selected to represent the wheat, teff, and maize growing areas as well as two major terminal markets in January 2006. The objective of the appraisal was to collect firsthand information from different informants (farmers, consumers and grain traders), with the objective of identifying the most likely explanations for the price hike.


In most of the cases, farmers around Nazareth (Adama) as well as Nekempte attributed the observed grain price hike to a supply shortfall, which, in turn, is believed to be a result of lack of rainfall during the flowering stage and bad weather (frost) during the maturity stage of this year's crop production. All the farmers contacted during the appraisal mentioned that their crop yield had shown significant reduction this year. The farmers mentioned that they were getting good prices currently for their crops although they feared that their total income from crop sales would be limited due to the limited marketable surplus that they had as a whole.


The views of private grain traders show that under normal circumstances, traders perform temporal arbitrage by storing grains during the harvest period when prices are low and selling grains during the lean season when prices are high, provided that the cost of storage is low enough to enable them to gain some profit. However, grain traders interviewed in the rapid appraisal stated that they were neither buying grain in significant amounts nor storing grains this time as prices were very high and prohibitive. This is in direct contradiction to the views expressed by consumers, who believe that traders are hoarding grain. Traders also hold the view that prices will remain high for the rest of the year and emphasize the importance of three factors as possible explanations for the current price hike.


The researchers, in their policy options to the current situation, demanded that short-term options involve a combination of measures that might address both the underliying market fundamentals as well as market expectations. These options involve, with varying emphasis, such as public announcement and release of grain stocks held by cooperative unions; release of stocks held in the emergency food grain reserve and by the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise; measures to discourage grain exports; and consideration of increasing share of in-kind transfers in the safety nets program.


However, they said, the short-to-medium term critical challenge was to address the market intelligence gap, and more profoundly, to build the appropriate market institutions to manage market risk through a better coordinated marketing system, a more transparent price discovery mechanism, and open bidding of both domestic and export demand and supply.


By Melaku Demissie

Top Ten Differences Between People from Bole and Arada…

10. Bole names: Mimi, Kiki, Chuchu, Tati, Nani

Arada names: (more descriptive): Aschalew, Agonafir, Wederyelesh, Andargachew, Yewibdar, Shibabaw

(Ye Bole Lij ke L.A.)

9. An Arada boy can take a girl on a date even if he has only 35 santim be-kissu.

(Sammy Debebe)

8. An Aradan approaches business like lovemaking. In Bole, lovemaking is approached like business.

7. This particular Top Ten is much ado about nothing—an Aradan would know that.

(Yilkal Abate Kassa, London)

6. Arada parents teach love to their children; Bole parents make love to Arada children.

(Ariwos)


5. When in jail for not attending Derg meetings, Bole kids wanted the guard to help them set a campfire "just like at Sodere". Arada kids suggested that a Bole kid be used as the starting log.

(Z. G, San Francisco)

4. BolewoCH know the exact dimensions of the back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle. Most of us Aradoch know how much weight you can balance on a listro berCHuma.

(AkalaCH Zebene, in Arada)

3. When you say to y'arada lijoch 'tadiass!', they reply, 'allenna!',

when you say it to ye Bole lijoch you get "Huh? What...? Huh?

Ican't hear you... a 767 just about scraped our foq bet...!"

2. Ye Bole lijoch leave Addis via Bole... y'arada lijoch, via Tolle...

(SELEDA Editor, ke Ammanuel Hospital.)

and the number one difference between Bole and Arada people…

1. Ye Bole lijoch sell their mothers’ watches in Arada; ye Arada lijoch sell the mothers of ye Bole lidjoch.

(Eskindir

I want to respectfully invite us all to have great conversations. Conversations that are powerful and life-giving. Conversations that stimulate our brains, warm our hearts and point to endless possibilities and opportunities. As we interact through language and words, we shape our culture through our conservations.


We can have conversations that entrench our assumptions and trap us in a deficit mode which in turn reinforce our culture of acrimony, adversity and polarity. Or, we can have conversations that give life, that value different perspectives and promote norms of tolerance and mutual understanding.


I want to invite us to move away from argumentative conversations that aim at scoring points or imposing one's will on others. I would like to see us shift towards conversations that invite opinions and appreciate differences as sources of energy and dynamism.


When we engage in conversations, I want us to think of the words and ideas in terms of giving and receiving gifts. Often, when we receive a gift wrapped in a box, we are excited and eager to unwrap and unpack the box and marvel at its content. Conversely, we take pains to pick the best gift item that the intended recipient of our offer would most appreciate.


What will be different if we display the same concern and carefully choose the words we employ in our conversation and take the time to unpack what others are saying to us and listen to their words in the way that they would like to be heard?


The result, I think, would be that we will have a great conversation. I think we would move away from the "I win; you lose!" state of mind to a 'both-gain' scenario. This will allow us to engage with one another with curiosity and foster in us a willingness to listen to those that hold different views, opinions and ideas.


Listening to those with different perspective does not always mean we have to agree with them or endorse their perspective. It only means that if we happen to disagree with them it would be in a way that does not silence or stamp a label on them. Invariably, labelling creates a dichotomous psyche of "us and them" that forces one to be judgmental with no space for exploring a common ground.


I hope that you will agree with me that, if unenviable, we have done a great job in embedding the habit of labelling in our pattern of public conversation. Over the years we have cultivated a culture in which the courage of one's conviction is measured by how harshly one demolishes and dismisses the beliefs that others hold. In this culture, any effort aimed at reaching a common ground is labelled as weakness, reflective of infirmness in one's convictions and beliefs.


The interesting challenge, it seems to me, is how we can remain true and committed to what we believe in and create an atmosphere to work with others without demanding them to abandon theirs beliefs; and without feeling threatened by the differences that others bring into the equation. An atmosphere, as it were, where no one is shut out on account of their opinion but where each concerned individual can contribute for a life-giving outcome based on a consciously built common ground.


We are a nation of written and unwritten history that is traceable to ancient times that features periods and legacies that we must honour and build on as we journey into the future. We are also a nation of profound articulation skilled in communicating our ideas not only in plain words but through the trope of 'Wax and Gold'.


I want us to build on this heritage, but not as a devise to hide what one means that leads to suspicion that there is always a secret meaning to everything - the stuff that that makes one vulnerable to conspiracy theory - but as a potential tool that allows us to express the plurality of meaning and multiplicity of reality.


Indeed, we must come to recognise that there is no one unchanging reality but layers of realties that are shaped by the language we use and recreated by our conversations. Such a light-touch approach to what we perceive as hard and frozen will allow us to listen to one another to reach a common ground without negating our beliefs and repudiating the views of our partners in conversation. Cheers to great conversations!




I want to invite us to move away from argumentative conversations that aim at scoring points or imposing one's will on others. I would like to see us shift towards conversations that invite opinions and appreciate differences as sources of energy and dynamism.

I love selome with no particular reason, when I read about her I found the above, it was my dream too... make it your also...

Peace to Ethiopia.