Poor Farmer

This is not a joke, the government's mouthpiece, Ethiopia News Agency, has in fact published the following news on April 17, 2012. It does not make sense to me, but here is a caption for your musing: While responding to questions posed by parliamentarians during the 25th regular session of the House of Peoples' Representatives here on Tuesday April 17, 2012, PM Meles called on the public to rally behind the government in the efforts to expose individuals engaged in corruption. Meles said lack of transparency, efficiency and accountability in the civil service sector resulted in dissatisfaction on part of the public. H e said measures are being taken to address problems in the civil service sector. Full story here . --- UPDATE July 21, 2012 It has come to my attention that visitors see an error message when trying to access the news article: Server Error 404 - File or directory not found. The resource you are looking for might have been remove...

Note : This email statement was issued by Ali Suleiman, External Relations Manager for Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) in response to the recent article titled " Is the government serious about fighting corruption? The case of alleged fraud and corruption at ECX ". The statement which characterizes the article as one that "has overstepped the boundaries of factual and honest commentary," does not deny the allegation or condemn corruption but it correctly points out that I had an open and frank telephone conversation with Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin , CEO of ECX in which we had raised and discussed a wide range of topics, including the complaint pertaining to the alleged fraud and corruption. This conversation was not included in my article because: 1) as mentioned in the statement, Dr. Eleni was not at liberty to comment directly on the investigations being conducted by other organizations; and 2) our call was off the record and I had promised to keep it that way. ...

The case of alleged fraud and corruption at Ethiopia Commodity Exchange By Wondwossen Mezlekia March 19, 2012 The Ethiopian Federal Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission’s annual report presented to the Parliament in May 2011 added Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) to the list of institutions whose practices are open for corruption, without disclosing what impelled the Commission to review ECX's working procedures and practices. [1]  Curiously, what the Commission avoided mentioning is the purported scandal involving an international procurement worth 4,855,800 USD or 84,102,456 Ethiopian Birr, which led the World Bank to cancel the loan it had previously granted. In so doing, the Commission is apparently giving ECX a slap on the wrist for a serious allegation that warrants nothing short of a full and in depth investigation. In 2009, the International Development Association (IDA) approved the government's request to funnel part of the money it borrowed for th...

By Leslie Josephs The Wall Street Journal March 18, 2012 Coffee roasters are battling for both market share and raw materials as supplies of coveted handpicked beans dwindle. The industry will be abuzz over this and other issues facing the changing marketplace at the National Coffee Association's annual conference this week. Starting Thursday, executives from roasters such as  Starbucks  Corp.,  SBUX +0.26% Maxwell House-maker  Kraft Foods  Inc.,  KFT +0.21%  and  J.M. Smucker  Co., SJM +0.41%  which produces Folgers, will join growers groups, commodity trade houses and banks at the Charleston, S.C., meeting. Another topic of discussion around the table will be the explosive growth of single-cup brewing machines. Starbucks is at the center of the single-serve frenzy. It currently sells its coffee in K-Cup pods that work with the Keurig machine. The machines, made by  Green Mountain Coffee oasters ...