BuaNews (Tshwane)
15 September 2007
Addis Ababa — The Ethiopian government says its ability to host thousands of people during the nation's Millennium celebrations, is proof that the country can achieve its developmental goals.
"Our success in celebrating the millennium event which was marked colourfully on September 12, 2007, across the country and the world over attests to our capability of attaining our goals so long as we can stand hand in hand," Ministry of Information said Friday.
The successful celebration of the event is the result of the unrelenting efforts and active participation of all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia across the world.
This week's celebrations came as another African nation, South Africa, marks 1000 days until it hosts the biggest international sporting event to take place in Africa, the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Through the World Cup, the entire African Union is set to benefit, by using the event as a platform to change negative perceptions about Africa and to install long-lasting infrastructure through the Legacy Projects initiative.
"The Ethiopian millennium celebration will continue colorfully all over the year through which we shall forge consensus towards sustaining our efforts of alleviating poverty and backwardness and leave behind us a prideful legacy to the generations to come as well as promote the positive image of the country to the rest of the world", the statement said.
The historic event will continue in an enhanced manner through activities of similar long-lasting significance.
The Ethiopian, or Coptic Calendar, has retained an ancient African system of measuring time, where the year is divided into 13 months, with the last month merely consisting of five days or six in a leap year.
This ancient calendar, traced back from the early Egyptian astronomic calculations, falls seven years behind the Gregorian (Western) calendar, making non Ethiopian visitors seven years younger.
In 1582, the continent shifted to the Gregorian calendar which is still used in the Western world, and now sets most of us in the year 2007. - BuaNews-NNN
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 BuaNews. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
