The year 2008 has just ended late last week. From the announcement of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's decision not to run for office in the next election to Barak Obama's election as the first black President of the US, from Ethiopia's drought controversy in March to the global financial crisis that led to a sharp price decline in the international oil market, the year has seen a mix of events as PAWLOS BELETE, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER, gallops over Fortune's issues over the year and summarizes the major stories the paper published.

January 6, 2008

Court Freezes Assets of Suspects in Phony Gold Scandal

In early January, the Federal High Court, First Criminal Bench, froze properties belonging to six individuals accused of cheating the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) of 158 million Br by passing off gilded bricks as solid gold. Based on the charge brought by the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the court on December 31, 2007 banned the transfer to a third party of any vehicles, residences, deposits or precious metals belonging to the suspects.

The suspects were Mohammed Awel Seid (a.k.a. Mukemil Sheriff), Kefyalew Umeta Jotte (a.k.a. Asmare Ayalew and Mesfin Wolde), Mudesir Mohammed Sofam, Beharedin, Nursebo Abdi, Mekides Gebremichael Haile and Solomon Gebremichael Haile.

February 24, 2008

Chamber Finally Gets City Partnership for International Trade Centre

It was in late February that the Addis Abeba Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations (AACCSA) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Addis Abeba City Caretaker Administration to jointly carry out the construction of Addis -Africa International Trade Centre after painstaking negotiations that took six months. To construct the trade centre, the chamber acquired 110,000sqm plot in March 2006 with a lease price of 2,300Br per square meter for 90 years. AACCSA had made a down payment of 1.56 million Br for the plot promising to settle the balance in 20 years.

March 30, 2008

The Grim Face of Drought

Three days after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had a showdown, on March 18, with his parliamentary political rivals over their allegation of neglect of the drought in the eastern and southern parts of the country, Fortune dispatched its reporter - Tesfalem Waldeyes to Borena, one of the 17 zones in Oromia Regional State. What he witnessed was an alarming and escalating drought and insufficient humanitarian responses by local authorities that caused a rising death toll of cattle. Local people felt neglected.

According to reports from rapid assessment conducted by experts from the zonal office and non-governmental organization (NGOs) operating in the area, such as SOS Sahel and Goal Borena, the drought situation in Borena had, at that time, undoubtedly increased in its scale since January 2008. For instance, the needy population increased from 88,000 people in January to 314,907 by end of March 2008. In February alone 14,334 livestock perished in Dillo, Dire, Dahas, Teltele, Arero, Miyo, Moyale, and Yabello, Weredas, all found in Borena, according to United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Meles admitted that there was water shortage and problems associated with it in the southern and eastern part of the country. However, he rejected assertions by opposition MPs that drought had caused the death of humans and cattle in some parts of the country, including Borena.

April 13, 2008

This is Likely to be My Last Term: Says Meles

In mid April, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi once again emphasized his strong desire to leave office at the end of his term in 2010, after being in an office since 1991.

"This is to be my last term," Meles told NEWSWEEK.

This was yet one more statement he had made to foreign media signalling that he plans to relinquish his duties as head of Ethiopia's government.

"I have had enough," he once told the CNN.

Locally though the Prime Minister is known to voice a less assertive position: he indicated that the decision is for his party to make. The previous year he told members of the youth he had met in Addis Abeba that he sees himself as the "EPRDF soldier" thus implying he would comply with whatever the party says.

His repeated signal not to hold office after his current term was a very sensitive issue within the party's leadership and the general public.

May 11, 2008

Helpless in the Face of Nature's Rebuff

This month of last year was characterized by massive electric supply shortfalls. Preoccupied by a popular view that the state utility monopoly, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), was miserably failing to meet the public interest in supplying electric power, authorities in the sector had a mass turn out to a meeting with members of the media on May 9, 2008 in EEPCo's sports club near Mexico Square. The officials were desperate to explain the factors that had led to power shedding and the efforts that had been undertaken to economically and equitably distribute the power available.

There was a bid to dispel criticism that they had failed to prepare themselves, and the public, for what was to come, but instead deceived the public about a possible surplus power that could be exported to neighbouring countries.

Mehret Debebe, then general manager and now CEO of EEPCo, had attributed the power shortage to a 15pc increase in energy consumption the preceding year that exhausted the abundant water catchments held from the heavy rains of previous summer. For every one per cent growth in GDP, there is an increase of two per cent in electric consumption, he had said.

A weather phenomenon known as La Lina had also caused an anticipated evaporation of 20pc of water from all the seven dams, as opposed to 10pc evaporation originally forecasted, Asefaw Dingamo, minister of Water Resources, had said at the same press briefing.

June 8, 2008

The Inconvenient Truth

In early June last year controversies over the drought crisis shocked members of the Ethiopian Parliament once again. Deputy Prime Minister, then also Minister of Agriculture, Addisu Legesse told parliament that the crisis is "too exaggerated". The then Disaster Prevention and Preparedness chief, Simon Mechale, had claimed at a press conference in the same month that the problem was "under control"; UNICEF's Country Representative, Bjorn Ljungqvist, said the drought is not a "famine". Even though, Ethiopia once again claimed international attention following media reports of a looming drought that had affected a disputed number of people. Fortune's reporter had toured the most affected places in the southern and eastern parts of Ethiopia for two weeks and came back with horrifying stories and images of children.

"High levels of malnutrition and increased admission of severely malnourished children to treatment centres had been reported in lowland and highland Weredas of Ropi- a small town in west Arsi Zone of the Oromia Regional State," disclosed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), in its monthly bulletin, Focus on Ethiopia. Another report by the same organization revealed that approximately 2,000 cases of severely acute malnutrition were reported in Siraro by mid May.

"I did not receive any information that indicated the death of children from hunger," Addisu Legesse, told members of Parliament, on June 3. "But when such problems happen, children can die from previous medical problems." However, UN's situation report - Drought in Ethiopia, in that week had showed 55 deaths in Siraro alone.

July 6, 2008

Djibouti Port Revises Series of Tariffs

Early July was, perhaps, one of the times the Ethiopian business community and government were caught by surprise; unexpected news was heard from Djibouti; a new set of tariff rates all over the services at the port of Djibouti had been introduced. The suddenness of the announcement stunned Ethiopian authorities. This was the first comprehensive adjustment of tariffs on port operations since Ethiopia and Djibouti signed a port utilization agreement in May 2004. The new rate increased marine charge and storage service charge by up to 25pc, cost of container stevedoring 15pc, and cargo port dues by the same percentage.

August 17, 2008

Djibouti Suspends Port Tariff Increase

As the announcement of port tariff increases the preceding month worried the authorities in Ethiopia, the August suspension of the tariff delighted them for a while. The government of Djibouti had suspended the planned tariff increase on port services, a day before it was due to come into effect on August 15, 2008. The board of Djibouti Port Authority, chaired by powerful businessman Abdourahiman Boreh, decided to suspend the average 15pc hike. The board's decision came following an executive instruction from the country's president, Ismael Omar Guelleh, sources in Djibouti told Fortune at the time. Authorities in Addis Abeba were pleased with the decision, as the increase would have cost the Ethiopian economy an additional 22.5 million dollars annually.

September 21, 2008

Status Quo Maintained

The revolutionary democrats believed that the reforms they had launched following internal strife seven years ago "has born fruit." That is what the first line of a report submitted to the EPRDF's seventh congress and fully endorsed by its delegates declared; it said the time is not about change but reinforcement.

For the over 800 delegates of the ruling party who had met in Hawassa town, the only venue to have hosted the ruling party's convention for the second time in 17 years, the country is changing, and trickling along the right path of "democracy and development." The revolutionary democrats were convinced that the reform agenda launched in 2001 had shown them light at the end of a tunnel; for them the moment was rather a time to reinforce the policies and strategies they claim have begun to produce results, particularly in the past five years, where the structural transformation of the economy began.

Contrary to expectations of some form of change, from those within and outside, the revolutionary democrats appeared to have felt this was the time to maintain the status quo, both in policies and leadership. "There is nothing new we are seeking to implement," Meles Zenawi, re-elected to lead the party as a chairperson for the seventh time in row, told the delegates.

October 5, 2008

Guerrilla-Cum-Novice?

In early October, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, former guerrilla fighter, shown up at a memorial ceremony of one of the world's most well-known advocates of peaceful struggle, Mahatma Gandhi. Obviously, Meles Zenawi will go down in the path of history as one of the most controversial person for he increasingly becomes a dual figure. "The place of the individual in history remains controversial," Meles said at a lecture on October 2, 2008, held at the UNECA.

In his address on the Second International Day of Non-Violence, Meles said that some of them might have been "surprised to find a former guerrilla leader asked to speak about Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest ever exponent of non-violence." Meles did not see a contradiction in his early years' involvement in the armed political struggle. "It is not really as much of a contradiction as it might appear." He argued that the rebellion he led was in response to violence and waged to defend the "dignity and self respect of the people of Ethiopia;" that it was meant to create a non-violent society "in which all problems, however large, could be addressed peacefully," which Meles said Gandhi would understand.

Meles, however, said he saw non-violent means of struggle being abused in Africa and elsewhere contrary to "the reality and truth and in order to advance "anti-democratic "purposes.

November 9, 2008

With Promises; America up for Renewal, Change

Most of the world's population was filled by the spirit of joy in the night of November 4, 2008. Some screamed while others were deep in tears. Most worried extremely for one historical event; the event that shines in history forever. That was the announcement of Barak Obama as the first African-American president-elect of United States of America; the most powerful country on the planet.

Many argue that the election of Barak Obama as the first black president of America marks a great transformation within American society. It is a too-good to-be-true phenomenon paralleled only by such times in American history by the advent of Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan.

Obama was challenged by a high profile republican. After all, John McCain, 74, is a war hero admired by the American public for his credentials as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, as he did not mind breaking ranks with the republican establishment.

"We have seen so much; we have come so far," said the President-Elect Barack Obama, a few hours after the announcement of his victory and a gracious concession speech made by his rival, Senator McCain, who described him as a former opponent and now his president.

"This is our moment; this is our time to reclaim the American Dream," said the President-Elect.

The 'American Dream' has long been viewed in the country as one that gives opportunity for individual growth and merit, no matter who and where the person comes from. It is about a country that represents to many a place for fulfilment of one's dreams, whether in education or carrier development. It is a 14 trillion dollar economy that largely benefits the middle working class.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dreams of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy; tonight is your answer," Obama told the crowed gathered to celebrate his victory on the night of November 4, 2008 at Grant Park.

December 21, 2008

Free @ Last

The warmest and attention grabbing news in the late December, which is still fresh in the memories of the public, was the release of veteran ANDM fighter and former senior government official Tamrat Layne. After 12 years and two months of imprisonment he was freed at last on December 19, 2008.

When marching to Addis Abeba in 1991, along side his comrades-in-battle, Tamrat Layne, prime minister during the transitional government in the early 1990s, did not need to have his own home, as he did not have one when he left to join the armed struggle against the Derg in the late 1970s. The new government furnished his residence where he lived until he was jailed over a decade ago. In a bizarre twist of fate, he did not have his own home to go on his release.

"I am a man of God," Tamrat, who has become a protestant Christian since 2001, told Fortune. "I have no desire to engage in personal or party politics. I would like to preach faith, peace and love."