MYSTERY OF THE (Blue) NILE

IMAX is a special type of cinema/theater where they play large screen movies or 3D movies, specially designed for this type of theaters.

There is an amazing documentary film directed by a Spanish filmaker, Jordi Llompart, called "Mystery of the Nyle". It is about an boat expedition along all Nyle river, from the birth of Blue Nile in Ethiopia to Alexandria, where water is poured into Mediterranean Sea, after crossing Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

Despite sometimes it may look a little bit exaggerated the photography is breath-taking, and the adventure is worth seeing.

The boat-trippers start their tour in Lalibela (around Easter time), move then to Bahir Dar to enter the river through Tana lake. You can see how they descend Tis Isat (blue nile falls) and how they do Rafting through the wildest parts of the river, encountering Rinos and Crocodriles on their way.

More about the movie.
"Playing now in a theater near you"

Lalibela or The Dream of the "Bee King"

The main Spanish Newspaper, EL PAIS published last September 10th a short article about LALIBELA.
The journalist was lucky to be there in May, during the Fasika or Orthodox Easter, being "one of the only 20 westerns who were lucky to be there at that time"

This is the type of feeling every visitor will enjoy when visiting the country. The tourism is so undeveloped that you experience a unique sensation. Visit the country before it is too late!

Spanish full article here
English translation here

... or not improving: Lessons from KOREM

Yesterday we saw a BBC video dated 1984 about the famine and hunger in Ethiopia that time. The tape was recorded in Korem, a town north of Addis.

The video is available to download using emule. You can search ETHIOPIA and BBC (If you want full details email me).

It was devastating to us, but still we recommend you to have a look on it. You can't close your eyes to that kind of things. We can't close our eyes to what's happening today in Darfur-Sudan or Niger.

Now 20 years later the same reporter Michael Buerk is back to the same place. This report is a touching story of "now and then".
BBC News story: Ethiopia more aid, more hunger still Also available to download from emule.

The main story is that of Birhan Woldu, the girl that was given as dead in the 1984 famine, but that today is alive and healthy. She was in the "Live 8" concert together with Madonna.

But maybe you want to read the other part of the story. Jennie Bristow is a journalist who claims that these concerts do not make a difference, and their only intention is to make us feel better...
What is your opinion? Feel free to comment.
...

If only we could make a difference.

ETHIOPIA Improving against poverty...

Comparison between Ethiopia and a western country, like Spain, is very unfair:

• Life expectancy at birth: Ethiopia 45 years - Spain 79 years
• Human Development Index: Ethiopia is number 170 of 177 - Spain is number 21 of 177
• GDP per Capita: Ethiopia 780 $ /year- Spain 22391 $/year
• Adult Literacy: Ethiopia 41% - Spain 98%

But Ethiopia seems to be improving. The following chart shows the progress that have been made during the last 10 years in Ethiopia, according to UN:

• Baby mortality rate is only reduced in only 4%. In 1990 19% of children died before 5 years. Today still 17% of them die before that age.
• National poverty has been reduced in only 4 points from 44 to 48%
• Education is improving and today 52% of girls have access to school, while only 29% in 1990
• Maternal mortality rate is reduced to one third

So it looks like Ethiopia is improving very slowly... But is it really improving? See my next post.

Click on chart to see compared figures for Ethiopia in 1990 and 2000.
Full report here

About adoptions in Ethiopia

This news is slightly old, from January this year, but it is full of interesting information for those in process of adoption
Original Source

ETHIOPIA: Coping with increasing orphan numbers through adoption

ADDIS ABABA, 10 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - Wrapped in a bundle of warm blankets and lucky to be alive, four-month-old Thomas Bekele still faces a precarious future.Orphaned three weeks ago when his mother died from tuberculosis, he is one of the almost five million orphans in Ethiopia - a mushrooming crisis that the government warned was "tearing apart the social fabric" of the country.

The rising number of orphans has, however, raised the demand for adoptions to a record high. Some 1,400 children made new homes abroad last year, more than double from the previous year. Adoption agencies also doubled to 30 in the capital Addis Ababa in the last year, a highly lucrative market with some agencies charging parents fees of up to US $20,000 per child.

Bulti Gutema, who heads the country's adoption authority, says adoption of orphans poses many moral quandaries to his government. He blames the growing number of orphans and the increasing numbers of adoptions on poverty."We would prefer these children to remain in Ethiopia because it is their country," he says. "Adoption is the last resort because it doesn't help alleviate poverty in Ethiopia."
Bulti, however, admits that the $115 million a month needed to care for orphans in Ethiopia is simply out of the question, when compared to the country's annual health budget of $140 million. It means, for some children, overseas adoption is the only option, he says.

In a move to help stem the growing orphan crisis in Ethiopia, the US government announced a $20 million project in December to help the 530,000 HIV/AIDS orphans."We can't afford to look after every orphan," Bulti adds. "That is why adoption is one of our existing alternative child-care programmes, although it really solves the problems of just a few children.

"Ethiopia has strict adoption laws, but the process can be pushed through in 10-15 days if the paperwork is in order, according to Balti.
An international convention, established in 1993, exists to protect children who are adopted overseas. It has been approved by 66 nations, although the Ethiopian government has not signed it yet.

Most orphaned children from Ethiopia go to France, Australia, the US and Ireland. Couples are turning abroad because of the huge delays - four or five years sometimes - to adopt within their own country.

"Parents adopt from Ethiopia because of the poverty and the children are beautiful and attractive," said Tsegaye Berhe of Horizon Homes, a halfway house where children from orphanages wait until they are selected by parents from the US.
"It is not difficult to adopt here, the Ethiopian government has few restrictions for adoptive parents. Organisations like his will pay orphanages a small amount for upkeep of a child. "This should not be seen as though we are purchasing a child," says Tsegaye. "We are just refunding the costs incurred by the orphanages."Most adoption agencies are non-profit. His organisation, which opened last year, received around $6,000 a month to cover the expense of looking after the 32 children it sent to America. Next year, they hope to send more than 50 children.

For accountant Russell Giles, 33, and his wife Vivian, 30, who have four of their own children, they expect to be in Ethiopia for three weeks while they adopt brother and sister Philimon, 5, and Bersable, 6. "The government here has been very open and willing," said the couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, who are adopting privately from an orphanage, rather than through an agency. "Other countries appear very open, but clamp up once the process has started.
"While they meet Philimon and Bersable for the first time in a nervous encounter, just a few metres away, 15-year-old Genet Girma was trying to give her two children up. "I have nothing to give them," she said of the two tiny eight-week old twins strapped to her front and back. "I am too poor."

Most mothers will simply abandon their children near a police station or church rather than turn up at orphanages, where by law, they must be turned away. Any children that turn out to be HIV-positive cannot be put up for adoption.
Daniel, a three-year-old, bright-eyed boy who is HIV-positive, sits and stares each day as new prospective parents walks around the orphanage, often crying when they leave. "It is very hard for him to see children leave with new moms and dads because he never leaves and he doesn't understand why," says Sister Camilla, who has worked in the country for more than 30 years.

11 Sept: A link between Ethiopia and Catalonia

As you know Mayte and me are based in Barcelona, Catalonia, a region/state in Spain.
There are some traditions that link Catalonia and Ethiopia.

The 11th. of September is the National Day of Catalonia, and it is also a remarkable day in Ethiopia.

Also the "protector saint" or master of Catalonia is 'Sant Jordi', Saint George in English, a saint very important for the Ethiopian orthodox church. More about Sant Jordi tradition.

What is Catalonia?

Happy New Year 1998

Despite the title of this post may seem odd to Westerns (and for the rest of the world, probably), today September 11th. 2005 according to western calendar is 1/1/1998 for the Ethiopian calendar.
So it is the day to wish all Ethiopians a Happy New Year.

The Ethiopian calendar has 13 months: 12 of 30 days, and a last one of 5 or 6 days
Also there is a different type of time counting.
This contributes to make Ethiopia a unique country in the world.

Information about the Ethiopian calendar can be found here

Link to a useful calendar conversion (Find your birthday in Ethiopian calendar and get 7 years younger!!)