Ruchi Soya takes farm land on lease in Ethiopia
By Hindu Businessline   Ruchi Soya Industries, one of the leading edible oil processors, on Friday announced a major farm land acquisition in Ethiopia for soybean cultivation.

Speaking Truth On Behalf of Ethiopian Women
Alemayehu G. Mariam   Note: This is my fifth commentary on the theme "Where do we go from here?" following the rigged May 2010 elections in Ethiopia in which the ruling dictatorship won by 99.6 percent [1]. In this piece, I express deep regrets over the never-ending subjugation of women in Ethiopian society and call for a movement for the advancement of Ethiopian women’s human rights. I urge Ethiopian women to join hands in building the "future country of Ethiopia" that Birtukan Midekssa, Ethiopia's foremost political prisoner and first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history, dreamed about.

Invitation Letter
Dear Friend:   United Pochalla Community (UPC) cordially invite you to it conference on issues affecting Pochalla County and to elect it new executive committee members and board of directors. 

Of Elections and Diapers in Ethiopia
By Alemayehu G. Mariam   Note: Over the past week, I have received numerous requests from those who read my last commentary “Ethiopia at the Crossroads of History”[1], to share my views on the on the question, “Where do we go from here?” in the aftermath of the so-called May 2010 elections.  I am pleased to oblige in a series of forthcoming commentaries. Here I offer my analysis of the “election” and what I perceive to be the ruling regime's future direction .  

Bad company
By The Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Board The enemy of my enemy is my friend. That was the Cold War creed. No matter how despicable the regime, it was OK if it was properly aligned, meaning capitalist or communist.

Ethiopia at the Crossroads of History
    Alemayehu G. Mariam   There is an old morality tale of The Emperor's New Clothes about a king who is so self-absorbed, vainglorious and obsessed with his appearance that he hired two suit makers and gave them vast amounts of money to sew him the finest silk robes. They agreed to make the robes but warned the king that the types of robes they make are invisible to anyone who is unfit for their official position or hopelessly stupid. As they set out to sew their make-believe robes, the king and his ministers would drop in from time to time and offer their admiration for the suit makers’ craftsmanship of the invisible robes. None would dare challenge the suit makers afraid of being called incompetent or stupid. Finally, the suit makers dressed the king in their pretend silk robe and marched him down the street with his courtiers to the applause and cheers of his obedient subjects. The people could see that the king was naked but were afraid to say so fearing his anger. A child in the crowd suddenly yelled out that the king is naked; and the crowd began chanting: “The king is naked!” The king cringed with shame and embarrassment, but held himself up proudly as he continued to walk naked in the royal procession.

GRO Invitation
Dear Friends:   GRO cordially invite you to a panel discussion on issues affecting our community. You will be treated to dinner, Anuak dance and Ojulu Pwola will sing his songs.

Land grabs threaten Anuak
GRAIN interviews Nyikaw Ochalla Ethiopia is one of the main targets in the current global farmland grab. The government has stated publicly that it wants to sell off three million hectares of farmland in the country to foreign investors, and around one million hectares have already been signed away. Much of the land that these investors have acquired is in the province of Gambella, a fertile area that is home to the Anuak nation. The Anuak are indigenous people who have always lived in Gambella and who practise farming, pastoralism, hunting and gathering. Nyikaw Ochalla, an Anuak living in exile in the United Kingdom, is trying to understand what this new wave of land deals will mean for the Anuak and other local communities in Ethiopia.

Cruel Ethiopia
By Helen Epstein 1. Parts of southern Ethiopia resemble the scenery in a Tarzan movie . When I was there last fall, the green forested hills were blanketed in white mist and rain poured down on the small farms and homesteads. In the towns, slabs of meat hung in the butchers’ shops and donkeys hauled huge sacks of coffee beans, Ethiopia’s major export, along the stony dirt roads. So I was surprised to see the signs of hunger everywhere. There were babies with kwashiorkor, a disease caused by malnutrition, which I’d assumed occurred only in war zones. Many of the older children were clearly stunted and some women were so deficient in iodine they had goiters the size of cannonballs.

Civil Duty in the Ages of Meles Zenawi
By Apee Ojulu After I returned from a rally we held at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Bloomington, MN on April 17, 2010, protesting a meeting an Ethiopian delegation was holding, I met Worku, another activist, to compare our notes. We discussed how many people attended the rally, and what the composition of the democratic activists was. As we were discussing the attendance, I was a little concerned about the lower number of people that attended the rally. Minnesota has five or so thousand Ethiopians, at the lower estimation, to have only one hundred people attended.