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Popular or unpopular, you can still be President – or maybe not

 

Tomas Mega, Las Vegas, Nevada

Here is a quick American Civics trivia quiz:

  1.  What did Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Clinton & George W. Bush all have in common?

Answer:  All became Presidents without a majority of the American people voting for them. Clinton became President twice without the majority of Americans voting for him.

  1.  What did Presidential candidates Samuel J. Tilden in 1876, Grover Cleveland in 1888, and Al Gore in 2000 all have in common?

Answer:  All failed to win the American Presidency despite the majority of American people voting for them.

How can this happen in the world’s foremost democracy?

The story of infrastructure in Africa is simply depressing. That may be about to change now but the final push is hanging in the balance of its leaders’ resolve

 

Addis Standard’s exclusive with:

 v Donald Kaberuka – President of the AfDB

 v Ibrahim Mayaki – CEO of the NEPAD Coordinating and Planning Agency

 v Aboubakari Baba Moussa – AUC Director of Infrastructure & Energy and

 v Jay Ireland –  President & CEO of GE Africa

 

by Tsedale Lemma

In the midst of the stormy gathering in Addis Ababa of the 18th AUC summit at the end of January this year, on Monday Jan. 30th 2012, a sideline meeting of the 54 heads of state and government officially endorsed the launching of an ambitious yet little known initiative called Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), a multi-billion dollar initiative that has first surfaced in July 2010 in Kampala, Uganda, on the sidelines, again, of the 16th AU summit.

A year and half later PIDA succeeded to become one of the few common agendas that have brought the 54 African countries into a rare harmony. The lead agenda during January 2012 summit was the election of the next Chairperson, which the leaders have failed to do. It would have been a complete waste of yet another chance for Africa had they have also failed to throw their backing behind PIDA.

In a frantic attempt to contain Islamist extremism in Ethiopia, the government is getting close to shoot itself in the foot

 Selahadin Eshetu Getahun

 

 

Mohammed Mustafa (not his real name) is a third year Computer Science student in Ambo University, 114 kms west of the capital Addis Ababa.  Like any ordinary student he was more interested in the pursuit of his education than anything else, least religion, and has never been bothered about being a Muslim. Six months ago Mohammed’s otherwise calm world towards his religion was turned upside down when a group of government officials came to discuss with the University community the state’s concern about “religious extremism”. The three days discussion mainly focused on how to curb the growing trend of Islamist extremism in Ethiopia. Their agenda included proposals to introduce new dressing codes and ban prayers in the University compound, an issue dear to many Muslim students.