Yechalal! ...... Awoooooooo .....Yechalal! - Amxambe

Courtesy of Kate Holton and Niclas Mika
Tue Sep 9, 9:50 AM ET

LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Google and Europe's biggest bank HSBC have thrown their weight behind a plan to provide cheap, high-speed Web access via satellite to millions in Africa and other emerging markets.
Google has joined forces with the bank and cable operator Liberty Global to back a group called O3b Networks, which stands for the "other 3 billion" people who do not have access.

It will provide high-speed backhaul for telecoms operators and Internet providers, which can then sell services to businesses and consumers.

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel welcomed the project when speaking at a conference in Germany.

"The information gap is very real and clearly whatever we can do to close it must be encouraged," Manuel told a news conference in Berlin on the U.N.-backed Millennium development goals.

"Any initiative that can leapfrog over traditional means of getting information to people must be encouraged. Information is power and it supports democracy and it supports decision-making."

O3b networks said in a statement the satellites would be constructed by Thales Alenia Space and should be operational by the end of 2010.

The company's founder, Greg Wyler, told Reuters coverage would reach from Spain to South Africa, include most of South America, large parts of Asia and all South Pacific Islands.

The project intends to offer fiber performance over satellite to parts of the world where it is not commercially viable or practical to deploy a fiber network.

Because its satellites orbit earth at lower altitudes than those used to beam TV signals to homes, they work better for Internet access where latency -- the amount of time it takes for bits of information to travel from source to destination -- is an issue, Wyler said.

The project is expected to cost $650 million until the launch, he said. Initial equity of $65 million has been raised, but the final mix of debt and equity has not been set.

In some parts of the world, the company will compete with fiber-optic cables currently under construction -- for instance, over a dozen cables have been announced connecting Africa to Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

"There's some fiber in place on the coast of Africa, there are pieces of fiber around, and this is meant to compliment those pieces," Wyler said.

"We have the ability to offer pricing that is lower than what is being offered today. We have the ability to bring that to everywhere."

The group is also hoping that Internet access will prove as popular as mobile phone services have in recent years.

"The global bet is: will the GDP and the growth and demand in all of the emerging markets grow?," he said. "If the answer is yes, maybe not in some countries but certainly in others, then it's a good bet."

Richard Hurst, a telecoms analyst at global advisory firm IDC, said that, on paper, the project should be a good initiative.

But he warned that the potentially limited capacity for satellite spectrum in Africa means there would still be a need for some fiber optic cables to help boost capacity.

CTP technology, of which Berhanena Selam is finalizing preparations to implement, will enable customers to have their publications delivered in digital format as the technology allows transferring digital data directly onto printing plates. “Basically what CTP does is that it eliminates the need for film and chemical proofs by utilizing PDF files, “explains one IT expert. According to this expert what the enterprise currently does is that it takes pictures of the A3 [in the case of newspapers] or other formats and then the films of the pictures will be stripped in desired size and formats to make plates that are the final products to the printing machine. “The CTP technology avoids all the pre-plate making process as all of the papers [in digital from] will be directly used to make plates, saving costs and the time pre plate making requires,” the expert explains.
Berhanena Selam announced news of CTP technology when it hosted its annual Customers’ and Employees’ Day Saturday, August 2, 2008 at its premises.
The introduction of CTP is expected to ease the printing congestion experienced the Ethiopian press, which mostly utilises Berhanena Selam.

Commenting on the soon introduction of CTP, Capital’s printing officer, Sintayehu Tesfaye, said that the technology will save more than three hours, which is usually required for the average size of Capital under the traditional production of chemical proofs, film stripping and exposing film to plates. “It is not only the three hours time we will save but while filming the paper, we usually encounter problems. For instance when the picture resolution is good it diminishes the quality of the text and sometimes the reverse happens. Now we can bring all of our pages on a single CD and plates will be made with that,” Sintayehu added.
According to an expert, CTP does not only reduce steps from the production cycle and outputs directly to plate but it does so with improved quality in less time if accompanied with the precision and accuracy of the plates and the printers. Digital Precision [plate-setter component of CTP] will also help to eliminate potential human error during the film stripping process.

Founded in 1921, Berhanena Selam Printing Enterprise is a commercial company that prints almost all of the Ethiopian press. To reach to the market early, some of the papers are now forced to go to print 48 hours before their due day. This is expected to improve once Berhanena Selam implements CTP.

Courtesy of www.capitalethiopia.com

Pimp My Ride - Season 4 - Tad s Range Rover - Pimp My Ride - Ethiopian Flag

http://www.spike.com/episode/16272/st/2775595

We all admit that we are living in a world of duality. There is black there is white. There is High there is low, there is NO there is YES, there is rich there is poor.... there are successful there are loosers.... Life has it all from all diffrent kinds of Backgrounds. Today Friday I was @ friends place for un-occasional visit, while I was just fussing around the WWW thing the TV was brodcasting some sort of Hindu Astrologers stuff... I was not giving it my ear even my friend either.... All of a sudden Rosa changed the channel to VH1... then some US hip-hop looking guys appear on screen......Even till now i didn't gave 'em a damn untill they show something which looks like a falg of my birth country.
I saw them doing some sort of wierd stuff, i didn't understand any of the things. I was still focusing on Laptop that was on my lap.....Then suddenly they start calling a name of my country. Ethiopia again and again.
After all who'd resist the temptation of not paying attention to what they say about your country.... i GAVE 'EM MA ATTENTION.


http://www.spike.com/episode/16272/st/2775595
that is wat i found.



a guy called TAD in US had a makeover for his car on Pimp my Car show.

the car was really cool, I hope he paid hell amount of money. If HE think driving that car in Street of Addis it might be kind of paradox, why because people are suffring from famine and hunger....and HE owned the sexiest car in country.

Wather we like it or not we live with dual things in life...Poor and rich, left and right, darkness and light.....
http://www.spike.com/episode/16272/st/2775595

Troubled by a difficult case, doctor Asfaw Atnafu decides to seek advice.


He walks into a consulting room at Black Lion Hospital in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa and greets a doctor at the Care Hospital in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Linked by a high-speed Internet connection, the doctors study X-rays and laboratory results.

Flipping between charts, they use light pens to point out important features. They can see each other in windows on their screens, while medical charts fill the rest of the display.

India launched this "telemedicine" project in Ethiopia last July at a cost of $2.13 million. The project links hospitals in Ethiopia with the Hyderabad-based Care Group of Hospitals, India's leading cardiac institute.

The scheme is part of the pan-African e-network, a 5.42 billion-rupee ($135.6-million) joint initiative between the African Union and India which was launched in Ethiopia last year to improve Internet links and communication.

India is likely to highlight its prowess in information communication technology (ICT) as a way of strengthening ties at summit of African heads of state in New Delhi on April 8 and 9 -- the first meeting of its kind.

"By using telemedicine, a country like Ethiopia, a Third World country with a problem with funding and manpower, can benefit greatly," radiologist Asfaw said.

There is just one doctor for every 37,000 people in Ethiopia -- sub-Saharan Africa's second most populous country and a land where vast distances separate rural communities.

"Rural parts of the country are devoid of medical care. This technology has already helped, but its scope is immense," said Asfaw.

Under the scheme, the Black Lion, Ethiopia's only teaching hospital, has also been linked to the remote Nekempte Hospital, 300 km (185 miles) west of Addis Ababa.

"We want Africans to share expertise with each other and for areas with few doctors to be linked to hospitals in cities so doctors there can fill the gap," said Ratan Singh, project director for the Indian government agency responsible for implementing the technology and training Ethiopians to use it.

Ethiopia's health problems are mirrored across Africa where doctors and nurses are often overworked and underpaid, villagers have to walk miles to the nearest clinic and drugs and treatment are often beyond the means of ordinary people.

Aggravating these problems, rich countries are poaching so many African health workers that a team of international disease experts recently said the practice should be viewed as a crime.

CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY

The Indian project aims to ease some of these burdens but it also dovetails with the country's drive to deepen its links with resource-rich Africa to secure energy supplies and markets.

With ambitious plans to connect Africa's 53 countries using satellites and fiber-optic links with each other and with India, India hopes TO sell more telecoms equipment and services to Africa's fledgling ICT markets before rival China steps in.

Since the one-year pilot project began in Ethiopia, doctors at the Black Lion hospital have used the link more than 50 times to discuss cases with Indian doctors, Asfaw said.

The Care Group is also in talks to extend the telemedicine program to Nigeria and Libya.

Indian officials estimate that 100 patients in Africa have benefited from the pan-African e-network which is plugged in to 12 specialist hospitals in India.

The Ethiopian project uses fiber-optic technology and a satellite hub is being built in Senegal, to be used once the pilot ends.

"Indian doctors have been very excited by this development," said India's ambassador to Ethiopia, Gurjit Singh. "They see it as providing the cutting edge of Indian healthcare and education at low-cost to Africans."

India plans to fund the projects and train Africans for five years before handing the scheme over to African countries.

LONG-TERM TIES

At the Black Lion, patients throng the corridors and rooms, the lucky ones sitting on wooden benches while others lean against the peeling walls and some lie on the floor.

Cocooned from the chaos, the four rooms housing the Indian-funded telemedicine equipment are an oasis of calm.

Computer servers whirr in a corner as Indian technicians ensure things work smoothly and chat to colleagues back home.

Hyderabad's Care Hospital has also trained 12 Tanzanian surgeons, nurses and technicians in the past year, and treated children suffering congenital heart problems free of charge.

"Our doctors will go there (to Tanzania) and make the local surgeons conduct surgeries in their presence. This will boost their morale," L. V. Rajendra Kumar, who heads business development for the Care Group of Hospitals, told Reuters.

Ambassador Singh said India's involvement in these projects was separate from its attempts to capture a share of the continent's resources.

"We are the beneficiaries of a relationship between Africa and India that is based on long-term historical friendship," he said. "Colonization is a one-way street but I think the India-Africa relationship is most clearly two-way."

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was launched officially on April 4, 2008 in the presence of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. A national forum on ECX was held from April 4-5, 2008 at the UNECA’s Africa Hall.

The forum discussed the environment in which the ECX will operate, including the role of the newly established regulatory body, the roles and vision of the exchange market actors and the national exchange actors association that is being formed.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on his opening remarks at the ceremony that a commodity exchange system enables and customers to be confident in quality, price and delivery and payment of commodity and he added that the system will bring about transparency, efficiency in market, quality in production, and enhance productivity.

“The purpose of this national forum over the next two days is to bring together all stakeholders producers, cooperatives, domestic traders, exporters, processors, industrial buyers, financial sector, transport sector, insurance sector, information and communication technology sector, policymakers, donors, NGOs, academics, and others- in order to present and discuss the design and operational systems of the Exchange,” Dr. Eleni Zewde Gebremedhine, CEO of ECX, said on her speech.

Eleni added that, the goal is that all may understand as well as possible how the ECX will work. “This involves understanding first of all the vision and objectives of the ECX and from there, the design of the ECX model, the operations of the various components of our system and also introduce the management team of our new company.

ECX currently uses the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Dashin Bank for its banking system and it has started the exchange with maize, wheat, haricot bean and sesame grains, but will include teff and coffee, and has prepared warehouses in Addis Ababa, Bure, Humera, Nazreth, Nekemte and Shashemene, referred to be the main centers of the market, but has plans to increase the centers to ten.

ECX has been established to revolutionize Ethiopia’s tradition bound agriculture through creating a new marketplace that serves all market actors – farmers, traders, processors, exporters and consumers.

This Generation(i mean the new one) needs a lot to cope up with the ever changing technology and world as well....this is one way to address the problem. I'm greatful for this project or Concept. This is cool thing for the kids, they'll start enjoying it then who knows most of them they'll end up like those Computer savvy geeks in US and India. Then Guess what? .....They'll change the history of Country by taking IT to the next level.

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative is a revolutionary approach to education in developing countries. Providing children with the cheap and robust XO laptop means providing them with a unique opportunity to learn, discover, and express themselves.

This learning tool will change education around the world. Developed in the legendary Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), OLPC is now being brought to Ethiopia through ecbp. See this documentary about the first steps of the program in Ethiopia and witness how a vision becomes reality.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has confirmed (last November) his commitment of giving 50,000 laptops to Ethiopia. The importance of the funding is its exemplary nature - it is model for other European countries and the EU itself to follow.

Nicholas Negroponte has recently said in an Interview that a Give 1 Get 1 program for Italians to donate more laptops to Ethiopia was under consideration to be launched very soon. Perhaps the program could even provide a second donated laptop by the Italian government as a donation matching incitement. So for perhaps 300€, Italians will give 1 to Ethiopia, the government will match the donation with another to Ethiopia and 1 laptop will come to the Italian person who donated. The exact way the donations are considered in Italy has not been detailed but this is how I expect it could happen.

For more info on OLPC project go to ecbp.biz site down here:- http://www.ecbp.biz/metanav/media/newspage.html?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=28&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=45&cHash=72e7af4110
Don't forget watchin' the video show on OLPC-Ethiopia.

Yes, yechalal! We can do it!

MOJO, Ethiopia -- This country has some of Africa's most fertile land, with fields of wheat and corn stretching to the horizon. Yet a few years ago, 14 million Ethiopians stood at the brink of starvation, saved only by vast international aid.

Now Ethiopia has hopes of breaking its deadly cycle of famine. Not with a Green Revolution, but with a market revolution.

The means is the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange, which is expected to open next month in the capital, Addis Ababa. The dawn of modern trading here comes 160 years after the Chicago Board of Trade transformed American agriculture ...

Ethiopia - FAQs answered about Nokia Ethiopic Phone

As the person within Nokia responsible for Ethiopia, I have been monitoring your user's comments closely and wanted to let you know that we appreciate their feedback. Based on what I have read, I would like to provide some clarification on some of their comments:

1) Why are the 'Ethiopic' mobile devices only in Amharic?


As Ethiopia entered the new Millennium, Nokia introduced five 'Ethiopic' mobile devices which are the 1200, 1208, 1650, 2630 & 2760 with more to come in the future.The 'user interface' and the 'user manual' on the current 'Ethiopic' mobile devices are in Amharic and English. Amharic was obviously selected as it is the national language. Users will however be able to save contacts, send/ receive text messages in any Ethiopian language that uses the 'Ethiopic' or 'Latin' characters. Lastly, depending on demand and feedback from our customers, we will also evaluate whether to add the 'Ethiopic' characters to additional mobile devices within our portfolio and whether to add additional Ethiopian languages to these mobile devices.

2) Why does the 'Ethiopic' mobile device use 'meret' vs. 'mereche' or 'yemritu'?

There were several factors that led to this during the translation process (one being limited space) and it is something we're trying to improve on subsequent 'Ethiopic' mobile devices.

3) Do these 'Ethiopic' mobile devices work outside of Ethiopia?

These current 'Ethiopic' mobile devices are GSM and are made for the Ethiopian market which uses the 900/1800Mhz frequency band. For example, if an Ethiopian were to roam in other countries that use 900/1800Mhz (which is most of the world except the US and a few other countries), the user would be able to use these mobile devices. For text messaging to work, the operator would need to support the UCS-2 feature in their messaging center which basically would recognize characters other than Latin characters. This is something we continue to test, however, based on our experience, it appears that many operators around the world support this feature for transmission of Chinese, Indian, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic characters, among others.

4) How does 'texting' work?

Nokia has worked closely with the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC) which has ensured that the messaging center supports the UCS-2 feature. Therefore Ethiopians with these mobile devices can send each other text messages in any Ethiopian language using 'Ethiopic' characters. One can also continue to use 'Latin' letters with these mobile devices.

5) Why is Nokia launching these 'Ethiopic' mobile devices now?

Based on our research, 'localization' is extremely important to users and therefore Nokia embarked on a multi-year project to develop these 'Ethiopic' mobile devices. This initiative required that we develop a solution whereby all the 'Ethiopic' characters and numerals are accessible on a keypad of a standard mobile device. That was the challenge which has been overcome. All the various forms of the 'Ethiopic' characters are accessible on the mobile device. In terms of the timing, we were very happy to launch this during the Ethiopian Millennium which is also the same time that ETC re-launched the text messaging service and started expanding the mobile network.

6) What are the other benefits for consumers in Ethiopia?

The main benefit to consumers is that they'll be able to utilize all the features of their mobile devices which is not always the case, especially for those Ethiopians who are not fluent in the English language. Consumers would also be able to communicate via text message using their own language. Lastly, Nokia provides a '13 month' warranty in Ethiopia (based on the Ethiopian calendar: 365 days) for consumers who purchase these mobile devices from our official distributor and its retailers in Ethiopia.

Thanks.
Levi Girma