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Librarian Laura's Great Reads
Book reviews of upcoming and popular books, both YA and Adult Fiction
About Librarian Laura
The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel
2019: A Year of Fabulous Books!
Home Girl by Alex Wheatle
Manhattan by Kandi Steiner
Kind of Cursed by Stephanie Fournet
Books Read in 2019 |… on The Winemaker's Wife by…
LibrarianLaura on WaterColor Wishes by Melissa…
melissachamberswrite… on WaterColor Wishes by Melissa…
Books Read in 2018 |… on Fame, Fate, and the First Kiss…
Books Read in 2018 |… on The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam…
Adult Fiction book review
Adult Fiction Cover Reveal
Adult Fiction Giveaway
Beach Read
Books Read List
Children's Book Giveaway
Children's Book Review
Read Aloud Book
Recommended List
Story Collection
YA book review
Young Adult Fiction Cover Reveal
Young Adult Fiction Giveaway
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Tag / Teenage Pregnancy
12/06/2019 by LibrarianLaura
Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
Adult Fiction, Affairs, Betrayal, Book Review, Car Accidents, Colleen Hoover, Dating, Grief, High School, Loss, Love, Montlake Romance, Mother Daughter Relationship, Regretting You, Romance, romance book review, second chance romance, Secrets, Teenage Pregnancy
Librarian Laura's Review
Having read all of Colleen Hoover's books and knowing how amazing she is, I was overjoyed to see she had another book coming out this December. I had no idea that this book would surpass all her others for me, putting it at #1 in my CoHo lineup. If you don't read any of her others (and I guess we can still be friends if this happens) read this one! This is the one I want you to remember – it's just so well written and so heart wrenching. She ripped my heart out over and over…but in a good way!
First off, let me mention, that compared to the other CoHo books, the romance in this book is very tame (no steam!). So if that was holding you back from reading one of her amazing books, read this one! The story has the typical angst and romance, but it's just a more tamed down version. It still gave me goosebumps and tears, so I'm not knocking it in any way!
Talk about an impossible situation, 34 year old Morgan is babysitting her 2 month old nephew, Elijah, for her younger sister and best friend, Jenny, on Jenny's first day back to work at the hospital where Morgan's husband of 16 years, Chris also works. She gets a call to come to the hospital because Chris has been in an accident. She arrives to find Jonah, Jenny's fiance and father of her nephew also waiting for news. They soon learn that Chris and Jenny were together and both in an accident, and that neither survived. In an instant, Morgan's husband and best friend are gone – her entire support system vanishing in a moment. Now, imagine you were Morgan for a moment – imagine the gamut of feelings you would feel when you then discover that Chris and Jenny were having an affair (for who knows how many years of your marriage) and keeping it secret right under your nose for years! How can Morgan begin to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart while caught in a whirlwind of anger, shock, disbelief, loss, betrayal, and grief. Though she never felt goosebumps or butterflies and married Chris when she found out she was pregnant at age 17, she did love her husband. He was the kind of guy everyone loved. How will she keep the hurt from her daughter, Clara, who thought her father hung the moon? She can't tell Clara, because Chris was an amazing father to her. How can she ruin that for her own daughter? Morgan and Clara's relationship was already a bit rocky before the accident, and now the foundation has shifted, causing an epic battle of the wills.
And then there's Jonah…Morgan is still unhappy with him for leaving town after high school without a word or a visit since. She and Jonah were always able to communicate without words, and she felt a special connection to him back then, even though Jonah was dating her sister Jenny and Morgan was pregnant with Jonah's best friend Chris's baby. So, of course, Morgan stifled her feelings and went on with her life, putting all her energy into raising Clara and keeping a happy household, while her dreams of going to college slowly faded into the distance. But, Jonah, being the upstanding man she knew he would become, has come back home to raise Elijah and marry Jenny. Now, Jonah is left alone with a 2 month old baby and some of the same crippling feelings of anger, betrayal and grief as Morgan. Can you see the writing on the wall, my friends? Only, Morgan is strong willed and selfless. She is determined to keep her feelings for Jonah bottled up, taking the blame from her daughter in order to keep her from knowing the painful truth about her father and Jenny, who Clara was closer to than her own mother. Morgan will have a tough time, however, with the ever-present, ridiculously handsome, attentive and loving Jonah back in her daily life.
There's also a parallel story going on with Clara and her love interest, Miller. Her father was against her dating Miller, but Jonah "Uncle Teacher" is both she and Miller's history teacher, and he assures Morgan that Miller is in fact one of the good ones. Clara and Miller's story feels like a wonderful YA book that is interspersed with Morgan and Jonah's story and I loved them both so much! Clara and Miller's story has humor, awkward dating moments, setbacks and so much love.
I will forever associate watermelon jolly ranchers and the color orange with these wonderful characters you have created, Colleen. You are everything that I aspire to be as an author someday. And, pretty please, keep 'em coming!
Thank you to Montlake Romance for the advanced reader's copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Q&A with Author Colleen Hoover
You are 'label-less' in the fact that you write in several genres. Readers never know what to expect next. If someone asks, how do you label yourself?
When I self-published my first novel I had no idea what genre to put it in. I thought I had written a drama but it turns to that I had written a romance. I've learned a lot since then, but I still don't put a lot of weight in genre when I write. When your best friend is begging you to read a book, it's not going to matter what genre it is when someone you trust is passionate about the story.
To keep all of your stories and characters straight, you must be very organized.
I'm the most disorganized person you will ever meet! I have no schedule. I can't wake up before nine in the morning. I probably don't go to bed until like three in the morning. I usually work about 16 hours a day.
What happens if you get blocked when you are writing?
If I get stuck writing, I go for a drive and play music. Music really helps me plot. I love The Avett Brothers, X Ambassadors, Airborne Toxic Event…I could go on and on.
What can you tell readers about your latest release Regretting You?
I would spoil it if I told you about it! Most of my books are like that. I can't say what they are about or it spoils it. But I can say that Regretting You is told from a dual point-of-view centered on the inner lives of both a teen and adult protagonist.
Sounds like lots of different types of readers will be interested!
Absolutely. I wanted to write a book that bridged the gap between young adult and contemporary romance so that mothers can read with their daughters. I think it's exciting to see people sharing reading experiences.***
Excerpt: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
Despite knowing I just pissed my mother off by being half an hour late for curfew, I still can't stop smiling. That kiss with Miller was worth it. I bring my fingers to my lips.
I've never been kissed like that. The guys I've kissed in the past all seemed like they were in a hurry, wanting to shove their tongue in my mouth before I changed my mind.
Miller was the opposite. He was so patient, yet in a chaotic way. It was like he'd thought about kissing me so often that he wanted to savor every second of it.
I don't know that I'll ever not smile when I think about that kiss. It kind of makes me nervous for school tomorrow. I'm not sure where that kiss leaves us, but it felt like it was a statement. I just don't know what exactly that statement was.
My phone buzzes in my back pocket. I roll over and pull it out, then fall onto my back again. It's a text from Miller.
Miller: I don't know about you, but sometimes when something significant happens, I get home and think of all the things I wish had gone differently. All the things I wish I would have said.
Me: Is that happening now?
Miller: Yes. I don't feel like I was entirely forthcoming with you.
I roll onto my stomach, hoping to ease the nausea that just passed through me. It was going so well…
Me: What weren't you honest about?
Miller: I was honest. Just not entirely forthcoming, if there's a difference. I left a lot out of our conversation that I want you to know.
Me: Like what?
Miller: Like why I've liked you for as long as I have.
I wait for him to elaborate, but he doesn't. I'm staring at my phone with so much intensity that I almost throw it when it rings unexpectedly. It's Miller's phone number. I hesitate before answering it, because I rarely ever talk on the phone. I much prefer texting. But he knows I have my phone in my hand, so I can't very well send it to voice mail. I swipe my finger across the screen and then roll off the bed and head to my bathroom for more privacy. I sit on the edge of the tub.
"Hey," he says.
"Sorry. It's too much to text."
"You're kind of freaking me out with all the innuendos."
"Oh. No, it's all good. Don't be nervous. I just should have said this to you in person." Miller inhales a deep breath, and then on the exhale, he starts talking. "When I was fifteen, I watched you in a school play. You had the lead role, and at one point, you performed a monologue that went on for like two whole minutes. You were so convincing and you looked so heartbroken I was ready to walk onto the stage and hug you. When the play was finally over and the actors came back out onto the stage, you were smiling and laughing, and there wasn't a trace of that character left in you. I was in awe, Clara. You have this charisma about you that I don't think you're aware of, but it's captivating. I was a scrawny kid as a sophomore, and even though I'm a year older than you, I hadn't quite filled out yet, and I had acne and felt inferior to you, so I never worked up the courage to approach you. Another year went by, and I continued to admire you from afar. Like that time you ran for school treasurer and tripped walking off the stage, but you jumped up and did this weird little kick and threw your arms up in the air and made the entire audience laugh. Or that time Mark Avery popped your bra strap in the hallway, and you were so sick of him doing it that you followed him to his classroom, reached inside your hoodie, and took off your bra and then threw it at him. I remember you yelling something like, 'If you want to touch a bra so damn bad, just keep it, you perv!' Then you stormed out. It was epic. Everything you do is epic, Clara. Which is why I never had the courage to approach you, because an epic girl needs an equally epic guy, and I guess I've just never felt epic enough for you. I've said epic so many times in the last fifteen seconds—I'm so sorry."
He's out of breath when he finally stops talking.
I'm smiling so hard my cheeks ache. I had no idea he felt this way. No idea.
I wait a few seconds to make sure he's done; then I finally respond. I'm pretty sure he can hear from my voice alone that I'm smiling. "First of all, it's hard to believe you were ever insecure. And second, I think you're pretty epic, too, Miller. Always have. Even when you were scrawny and had acne."
He laughs a little. "Yeah?"
I can hear him sigh. "Glad I got that off my chest, then. See you at school tomorrow?"
We end the call, and I don't know how long I sit and stare at my phone.
Title: Regretting You
Publisher: Montlake
Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.
Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn't want to follow in her mother's footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn't have a spontaneous bone in her body.
With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris—Morgan's husband, Clara's father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.
While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she's been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.
Colleen Hoover is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including the bestselling women's fiction novel It Ends with Us and the bestselling psychological thriller Verity. She has won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance three years in a row—for Confess (2015), It Ends with Us (2016), and Without Merit (2017). Confess was adapted into a seven-episode online series. In 2015, Hoover and her family founded the Bookworm Box, a bookstore and monthly subscription service that offers signed novels donated by authors. All profits go to various charities each month to help those in need. Hoover lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys. Visit http://www.colleenhoover.com.
Website: http://www.colleenhoover.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorColleenHoover/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/colleenhoover
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5430144.Colleen_Hoover
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A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult
Abortion, Abortion Clinics, Active Shooters, Adult Fiction, Anti-Abortion Groups, Book Review, Contemporary Fiction, Drama, Family, Friendship, Hostage Negotiators, Hostage Situations, Police, Pro Choice Groups, Pro Life Groups, Teenage Pregnancy, Women's Fiction
A Spark of Light will be released on October 2, 2018.
A Spark of Light is packed with fact-based research on both sides of the abortion debate. Readers will be absorbed into the impossible situations the characters on both side of the hotly debated issue are facing. This novel is thought-provoking and beautifully written. It really made me stop to consider both sides of the issue, even if I have always had my own personal opinion.
The book is written in a unique format, starting with the hostage standoff in terrifying full-swing and then each chapter thereafter going backward an hour in time, as readers see what each person in the abortion clinic at the time it was attacked was doing prior to coming to the clinic for various reasons. The Center is the only abortion clinic in the state of Mississippi, so many women drive for hours just to make their choice. Some (receptionists, nurses, doctor) were there working; some had come for mandated abortion counseling before their surgery. Fifteen -year old, Wren, was taken there by her Aunt Bex to get on birth control without having to tell her single father, hostage negotiator Hugh McElroy. Olive, an older woman with stage 4 cervical cancer, was there for support, so that she wouldn't have to receive the diagnosis alone before she went home to tell her beloved wife, Peg.
On his 40th birthday, Hugh McElroy, receives a call of an active shooter at The Center, the abortion clinic known for controversial and tense situations with protesters. He thinks its just another typical day on the job, until he checks his cell phone to find text messages from his panicked 15 year old daughter, Wren, who is inside the clinic with Hugh's older sister, Bex. Hugh should take himself off the case, but he knows he won't be able to trust the safety of the two people he loves the most to anyone else. So, he begins speaking to the gunman, George Goddard.
The point of view switches between Hugh, Bex, Wren, Olive, Joy (who has just had an abortion), Janine (a protestor who came to the clinic to spy), Izzy (a nurse who is pregnant and considering abortion), and the doctor who performs the abortions safely and responsibly, all the while comforting the young mothers in unthinkable situations, even though he considers himself pro-life. As the hours wind down, the characters are humanized with their many faults, but also highlighted by their bravery and love in the face of a terrifying situation.
Readers will encounter a few surprises by the end of the book which I didn't see coming. I flew through this book and loved every page. Jodi Picoult never lets me down with her stories. They always have a hotly debated issue at their core, and she does a fabulous job of giving information for both sides and remaining unbiased. I very highly recommend this novel, as I do with all of Picoult's novels. Can't wait for her next one!
Thanks for reading! Be well.
Librarian Laura


A must read. Very useful. Especially for some of us aspiring space opera writers.
Yup, spaceships again. Between Star Citizen, the new Halo, the new Star Wars, a couple of key mods for Sins of a Solar Empire that I keep up with and have done some voice work on, and Destiny, my mind has been buzzing with them. I'm a huge nerd who thinks of things in my free time like "if I were a shinigami what kind of Zanpakutō would I have?" and "I wonder if I'd rather be a ranger or a mage" and "ff I were a Jedi in the New Jedi Order, what kind of ship would I have?" And alongside that sort of inane theorycrafting and imagination comes obvious questions, like "would I want to captain a cruiser or a carrier?" But then, what exactly is the difference?


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Read the Albion
We All Follow the Albion
Why The New Spine Of Brighton's Side Could See The Seagulls Into The Top Ten
Brighton and Hove Albion ended their 2018/19 campaign with a 4-1 loss at home to Manchester City on the final day of the season, leaving them on 36 points and manager Chris Hughton without a job. It had been a serious regression from a debut season in the Premier League that had shown real signs of being a good platform to build from. Transfers had flopped, squad morale was through the floor, the attitude and style of football was negative and a particularly poor record against the teams around them indicated the Seagulls were more than a tad fortunate to remain a top-flight side.
Fast forward to the end of the following season and Brighton had implemented a far more vibrant, astute and modern way of playing, their transfers had all been noticeably more successful and there was even time for the emergence of talismanic young individuals such as Aaron Connolly to help round off Albion's most successful season in recent memory.
With manager Graham Potter continuing to rejuvenate his squad with fresh promising talent, a new spine of players has emerged on the south coast that could see Brighton soar up the football betting markets when the 2020/21 season kicks off. With Aaron Connolly leading the line, and Shane Duffy, Glenn Murray and Aaron Mooy all departing the club in the summer window, here's what the next phase of Potter's spine could look like.
Defence – Ben White
One of the undeniable greats of last season's Championship campaign for Leeds United, Ben White looks every inch a superstar in the making. Having seen off competition from Bielsa's side for his signature, Albion tied White down to a new four-year contract earlier this month, effectively securing his services for the foreseeable future.
White is steady, athletic and has already demonstrated having a level of maturity to his game unlike most his age. Most importantly for Graham Potter, his best attribute is easily his ability on the ball however. An absolute staple for the modern defender, the ability to play the ball to touch and across the ground was what saw the Seagulls swoop in with a record bid for Adam Webster in the summer, and what ultimately sealed the fate of Shane Duffy.
Centre Midfield – Jayson Molumby
Like White, Jayson Molumby spent all of the 2019/20 campaign on loan in the Championship playing for Millwall. His energy and work rate was exceptional, and his engine-like attitude off the ball particularly won him plenty of plaudits at the Den. The Irish youngster was on the radar at the Amex as early as the club's debut season in the Premier League, making the bench for the side's historic 0-3 win at the London Stadium in 2017, but chances in the top flight were few and far between under Chris Hughton.
That looks set to change with Molumby getting plenty of minutes in Albion's latest warm up fixture against Chelsea earlier this month, and the midfielder is still a member of Brighton's squad at the time of writing.
Attacking Midfield – Steven Alzate
We've put attacking midfield, but it seems like Steven Alzate is a man who can play anywhere on the pitch after his breakthrough campaign last year. The young Colombian talisman has been deployed seemingly everywhere from left wing back to the number ten under Potter, showcasing his plethora of skills, and whilst he was most commonly found as a full back we still think his best attributes lend him most fittingly as an attacking midfielder.
Calm, composed, agile and beautifully balanced on the ball, the only thing perhaps missing from Alzate's game at the moment is a bit more of an end product. That naturally comes with experience and exposure to the game, however Alzate's 1.07 key passes per ninety for the campaign was still comfortably ahead of the likes of Davy Propper (0.92), Dale Stephens (0.63), Yves Bissouma (0.27) and Neal Maupay (0.81).
Forward – Aaron Connolly
Blessed with blistering pace and a bullish amount of power, Aaron Connolly has all the traits needed to become one of the most dangerous forwards in the Premier League. Having banged in the goals for the Albion youth ranks, the Irish forward broke onto the scene with a brace against Mauricio Pochettino's hapless Spurs side back in October.
The goals didn't exactly flow following that performance, but Connolly's performances were generally solid throughout the season. His work rate is unquestionable, running down the channels, splitting defenders and causing a nuisance, and his link up with fellow striker Neal Maupay has undoubtedly led to the Frenchman looking far sharper than when Connolly isn't in the side.
His goal on the final day of the season against Burnley was a strong reminder of the qualities the young Irishman possesses however, bursting through the defence, outmuscling the onrushing centre back before coolly slotting the ball into the net.
There's no doubt a brilliant player on the cards for Brighton if they can unlock more of those moments of magic.
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Station Koniecpol Magdasz is een spoorwegstation in de Poolse plaats Koniecpol.

Koniecpol Magdasz

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


With each rank advancement comes new challenges, new adventures, and new friends—for Scouts and those that accompany them along the way. BSA alumni share memories that last a lifetime. Tell us about your favorite Scouting experience, and reconnect with your past.
This is a onetime opportunity to recognize living Scouts, leaders, and Scouting volunteers (past or present) for the extraordinary difference they have made through leadership. Honor someone who inspires you.


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Dear List,
Please note that Lambeth Archives is currently closed to the public and to staff. It has been closed since Friday 8 April. This was not our decision and staff found out about it after they arrived for work that morning.
It will remain closed until concerns about security in the building are dealt with. We have not been given a date for its reopening, but will inform the list when this takes place.
In a limited way we can deal with written enquiries: [log in to unmask], but please do not make in-person referrals to us at the moment.
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Archives and Library Manager
Lambeth Archives
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For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra


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Posts Tagged 'Ethiopian Famine'
The Challenge for Ethiopia
Source: http://www.anglo-ethiopian.org/publications/publications.php?type=O
The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
The Challenge for Ethiopia – Jonathan Dimbleby (2003)
The following address was given to Society members by Jonathan Dimbleby after the 2003 Annual General Meeting. One of the Society's policies is to publish Occasional Papers whenever it has interesting or significant Ethiopia-related material. While the Society must remain strictly non-political and cannot therefore endorse everything which appears in its Occasional Papers we believe in this case that what Jonathan Dimbleby said on May 8th ought to reach a wider audience. We feel that although parts of it might be deemed controversial by some it has a message of obvious importance which deserves our considered thought.
It is a daunting prospect for me to address the Anglo-Ethiopian Society. I look around and see that collectively – and in many cases individually – you know far more about the subject than I do.
I must remind you of the essential difference between a specialist and a journalist. The specialist starts off knowing a lot about a little; the journalist, a little about a lot. As they go through their respective careers, the specialist knows more and more about less and less while the journalist knows less and less about more and more. By the time they retire, the specialist knows everything about nothing while the journalist knows nothing about everything.
In the case of Ethiopia, all I can say is that I will yield first place to no-one in my concern for and delight in this remarkable country. Ethiopia eats into the soul and the country and its people have eaten in to mine to lasting effect.
For me, this relationship began 30 years ago this September. Then, in 1973, I was a 'fireman' reporter – covering political crises, wars, earthquakes and famines all over the world. I was working for This Week which was ITV's answer to the BBC's Panorama – where my father, Richard Dimbleby, had been the founder anchorman and where my brother, David, then worked as his successor.
In the early summer of 1973, I reported from Senegal in the midst of a serious drought. This was at the time when people were beginning to worry about the southward movement of the Sahara. This was my first visit to Africa and my first contact with what everyone used to think of as 'natural' disaster.
Then in September, by chance, I stumbled on something which has had even more influence on my life – professionally and personally – than any other: I got a 'phone call from a friend of mine from university. She was Sri Lankan and doing a PhD in Amsterdam. She had met a group of Ethiopian students there who told her about what they said was a terrible famine in the northern part of Ethiopia. They were desperate for someone to take an interest, but no newspaper or politician in Holland could be persuaded to take notice. Students in the town of Dessie had allegedly been shot and killed by the military authorities for drawing attention to what was happening. On This Week, we decided to send a researcher to Addis Ababa. We knew that the Ethiopian authorities had acknowledged that there was a 'problem of drought' but they had made no request for international aid.
Our researcher met a remarkable Catholic priest working for the Irish agency, Concern, which had long been established in Ethiopia. Kevin Doheny took him to the north and he then got in touch with our office in London. The message that he wired from Addis was couched in very discreet language to protect Kevin Doheny and to ensure that we had some chance of getting into the country.
I thus became the first foreign journalist to witness what became known as the 1973 Famine.
I will never forget the journey up from Addis to Dessie. The beauty and majesty of the country was breathtaking. And it still has the same effect, even though I have now made that pilgrimage many, many times.
And then in Dessie: stumbling upon human suffering on a scale that I could scarcely believe. People dead and dying on the road side and in make-shift camps in the towns and villages round about. I saw piles of bodies waiting to be buried, entire families: mothers and fathers, children and tiny babies. In that famine, 200,000 people perished.
One image I shall never forget: three little children, lying entwined on a wooden pallet of branches, naked, eyes wide open, skin like parchment over empty bellies, the flies tormenting their dead bodies.
There was no-one – or almost no-one – to help. There were no relief supplies and virtually no food or medicines. That was the price of calling it a 'drought' and not acknowledging that it was a famine on a massive scale.
Later I discovered that key ministers knew what was going on, though I remain convinced that they had kept the bad news from the Emperor until it was too late.
No less disgraceful was the fact that five months before my arrival the UN agencies in Addis had a pretty good idea of the looming catastrophe. A good friend of mine in UNICEF travelled in the region and discovered overwhelming evidence that cholera had broken out in a variety of locations. Cholera is, of course, a notifiable disease but the Ethiopian government refused to acknowledge the facts. As a result, UNICEF failed to report this grim news. As a direct consequence of this, scores of thousands died who might otherwise have survived.
It was not 'a natural disaster'. In fact hardly any so-called 'natural disaster' is really natural. It is true the rains had failed. But the soil was also eroding fast. Trees and forests had been cut down to provide fuel. Water storage and irrigation systems were conspicuous by their absence.
And, most notably to me, it was notable that only the poor succumbed while the rich – the landowners, the merchants, the officials, the ministers and the generals – continued to prosper.
This was a country where one in five children died before they reached their fifth birthday; where there was very little clean water and almost no medical services; and where only a tiny proportion of the children went to school.
It was also a country in which cruelty and corruption flourished. Where human rights were flagrantly violated. And where freedom of speech was denied.
It was the poorest country on earth.
To witness the suffering and the courage and dignity in adversity was – for me – an unforgettable and terrible experience.
Then, as now, Ethiopia was a country which relied on coffee as its main export. It was dependent on coffee for its foreign exchange – without which it could not purchase from abroad the means required – equipment, the tools or the skills – to escape the vicious circle of poverty and degradation.
It was a country which was at the mercy of international cartels which controlled and manipulated the global market in coffee to drive DOWN prices for producers while always putting them UP for consumers.
Ethiopia was part of the global economy but a victim of the way in which it operated. It was on the losing side of a grotesquely distorted and outrageously unfair and unequal global market.
I came to realise that so far from being 'natural', most disasters are usually the product of a complex set of interwoven causes – among the most obvious of which are poverty, injustice, corruption, repression and war.
As I say, I only came to appreciate this later.
In and around Dessie we were free to film what we wanted, essentially because our minder was so shocked by what he witnessed that he stayed in the hotel and said, "Do what you can and let us hope we can save some lives". We returned to Addis with our film. By this time, news of what we had seen had filtered back to the Ministry of Information. The Minister berated me for my distorted filming. We had a furious row and though I did not fear for myself, I suspected that they might try to take the film away. We devised a variety of ruses to get the film out of the country, but in the end, I took it myself. I had a huge sense of relief as we taxied down the runway with the film safe in my hands. Then suddenly the plane braked and we went back to the apron. I assumed at once that the government had finally decided that the film would do such damage to Ethiopia's reputation that it would have to be confiscated. In fact, our departure had been arrested by the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
We finally left a day later.
In their ignorance and innocence, the Ethiopian government sent an envoy to London in the hope of persuading ITV to drop the programme. Their envoy was Tafari Wossen who knew he was on a fool's errand and merely went through the motions. He subsequently became a very good friend and I am delighted that he now plays such a prominent part in the Anglo-Ethiopian Society.
When the film was transmitted, the Ethiopian Ambassadors were instructed to write identical letters to leading newspapers in Britain, Europe and the United States, denouncing the film as fiction. Mercifully, they were ignored. Our film, which we called The Unknown Famine, had a huge impact, first in Britain and then around the world. The film was, of course, not a concoction, nor was it in any way political. It was in effect a simple plea for urgent assistance. As it happened, it worked. People all over the world responded and within six months, in today's money, it raised in excess of £75,000,000.
Later, The Unknown Famine became a catalyst in the downfall of the Emperor, edited – crudely doctored – by some of those who later formed the Dergue. The Hidden Hunger as they called it, juxtaposed images of famine and death with the imperial high life. On the eve of the Emperor's overthrow, this film was transmitted round the clock on Ethiopian television. It provoked fury, despair and shame – precisely the atmosphere the new guard required to ensure that there would not be a popular uprising against their removal of the Emperor from his palace.
I have been back to Ethiopia many times since. I witnessed the first years of the revolution – and, to my embarrassment, I was regarded as a hero. I met Menghistu and used the opportunity – to no avail – to urge the release of other members of the royal family and an end to the war in Eritrea. Though I was free to report, I became increasingly dismayed by the course of events. Finally, I witnessed the horror of the 'Red Terror' and denounced the Menghistu regime, not only in my film for ITV, but – probably more damagingly – on the BBC World Service. As a result, I was banned for almost a decade. Because I retained friends in Ethiopia, I knew all about the encroaching famine of 1984/85 but, despite strenuous efforts, I was forbidden a visa.
When I was finally allowed in again in 1987 I witnessed the worst excesses of the land reform programme – villagisation and the forced transfer of people from one part of the country to another. I also committed the cardinal sin of filming in Eritrea with the EPLF. Once again, I was banned by Menghistu. As you know, the regime finally crumbled in 1990, and I was welcome to return once more.
I was there most recently last summer to make a couple of radio programmes for the BBC and as President of VSO, to visit our volunteers and to promote our work in Ethiopia.
Today, 30 years on, this beautiful and beleaguered country is still one of the very poorest states in the world: it also by far the largest in that desperate category – a state which, by many millions, has the largest number of the poorest people on earth. And the population that has more than doubled in the last 30 years to more than 65 million.
But there is some good news. The risk of mass famine in Ethiopia is now, I am confident, low unless there is a catastrophic breakdown of order in the form of military conflict. There is an effective system for the early warning of impending crisis and a network for the distribution of relief that can stand severe strain. The principal anxiety therefore is that the 'pipeline' for the supply of relief is not allowed to empty. In 2000, this system managed to provide food aid for 10 million people. In any year, the figure is at least 4 million. Last October, the government of Ethiopia, in the person of the Prime Minister, waved his shroud to warn that 12 million people would be at risk of starvation in 2003. The reason why this has not happened is that the pipeline has continued to supply the food relief required.
In parenthesis, I should say that, unlike the Anglo-Ethiopian Society, which laudably focuses on much that is fine about Ethiopia – its cultural heritage, its religions, its arts and its peoples – my focus has always been on the negative. I regret this, though I think it matters. But my urge to be positive is made more difficult by the prevailing assumptions of my trade. Ethiopia is seen by the media as a 'basket case'. So last October I was asked by a television programme that must remain anonymous to report on the 'impending famine'. I said that I would do so but that I thought famine was unlikely (for the reasons I've indicated). I also said that there were some crucial, long-term issues that I would explore. The programme concerned agreed. Then a few days later, I got the message that there weren't enough 'skeletons' to justify a programme for an ITV audience.
Anyway, that is a diversion. Back to the reality of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is a state with a per capita income of around a $100 a year – which is a third less than what is regarded as starvation levels of income by the UN; and it is getting poorer by the year. It is an unendurable prospect.
Today in Ethiopia, only 25% of the people have access to safe water and only 15% have access to adequate sanitation; 49% of the population – more than 30 million people – are undernourished.
47% of the children are so grievously underweight that their physical and intellectual growth is permanently stunted. Only 40% of them are enrolled at school. And getting to schools often means a barefoot walk of perhaps three hours or more – with the ever-present risk, if you are a girl, of abduction or rape along the way.
Invariably hungry and listless from lack of nutrition, these 7 year olds finally reach their destination to find themselves crowded into a classroom designed for thirty but filled with a hundred other children, often without books or pencil and paper.
Though the government of Ethiopia is doing its best, there is precious little chance at the present rate of progress that Ethiopia will meet the UN target of primary education for all by the year 2015.
Now, I know this is a contentious statement and I have had some robust conversations with Ethiopian friends as a consequence. Ethiopia is not yet a democracy. People are not yet free. Human rights are not yet honoured. But, I do not think it is useful to judge the performance of the Ethiopian government on the basis of a snapshot. The question is whether the process of change is also progress. I believe there is progress. In Ethiopia now, as a foreigner, I find that people talk to me far more openly than ever in the past. I believe that Ethiopia is moving in the right direction. The progress is slow and we have to be patient, but when the country is still fragile, threatened by ethnic and regional conflict and by internal terrorism, it is not easy to transform an autocracy into a democracy with the speed that Ethiopia's friends might wish.
And now – for lack of a better term – my broader thesis. For Ethiopia, you may, in these terms, substitute much of Africa and many other countries in the rest of the world where ideas of freedom, justice and fairness – wonderful concepts which trip lightly off the tongues of philosophers, preachers and politicians – are mocked by experience everywhere.
That for me is the great challenge facing humanity. It is the challenge of 'sustainable development'. It requires us to recognise that a world in which hundreds of millions of children die before they reach the age of five is not sustainable. A world in which hundreds of millions go to bed hungry, have no access to clean water, or a basic education or even rudimentary health care, is not sustainable.
A world in which the pandemic of AIDS in Africa threatens to cause more devastation than all the wars and famines of the last thirty years put together – destroying lives (8,000 lives a day) – breaking up families, decimating communities, and disrupting the social and economic life of the nation, is not sustainable.
It is not sustainable that in Ethiopia alone, there are almost a million children who have been orphaned by AIDS – whose parents might still be alive if they had had access to the drugs which in the West are now routinely available to all.
Not sustainable either is a world in which 10% of the world's six billion inhabitants receive 70% of its total income; and where the three richest men on earth have assets equal to the combined output of the world's 48 poorest nations.
Which takes me – for a moment – to September 11th and much which has flowed from that terrifying horror.
It is sheer folly, self-deluding, self-indulgent blind folly, to believe that by waging a so-called 'war against terrorism' in Afghanistan or in Iraq – that the world will somehow become a safer place. Others have made the point: Tony Blair himself, Clinton – and most thoughtfully Chris Patten, the External Affairs Commissioner for the European Union, and the best leader the Conservative Party never had. He has written: "The idea that a rich world and poor world can co-exist without dramatic implications collapsed along with the twin towers on that day…"
He went on to say that the root causes of terrorism "go far beyond the networks of transnational crime and money laundering, drug dealing and arms smuggling… They include the de-stabilising division between haves and have-nots, the persistence of abject poverty".
The point is this: it is not sustainable to presume both that you can exclude the poor from feasting at your table and that they will meekly submit. A sustainable future – any hope of lasting peace and security from fear – is inconceivable unless we are serious about waging war – on poverty.
So the point is: a war on terrorism will be for nothing in the absence of a war on poverty. I am not saying that you will win the war on terrorism if you wage war on poverty. But I am saying that you will most certainly lose the war against terrorism unless you wage war on poverty. Poverty is the swamp of alienation and misery in which the terrorist recruits converts to the cause.
That war – the war against poverty – has to fight at a number of levels and in many different ways. But it is even more complicated than you might think it to be.
Patten also wrote in the same context about "rising tensions over access to ever scarcer natural resources." The point here is: we live in a world which is not only blighted by human suffering, but in which we collectively lay waste to our very means of survival.
Forty years ago, a great American environmentalist, called Rachel Carson, wrote a famous book called Silent Spring in which she observed that life on earth is "a complex, precise, and highly integrated system of relationships between living things which cannot safely be ignored any more than the laws of gravity can be defied with impunity by a man perched on the edge of a cliff".
Now fast forward forty years to a United Nations document called the Living Planet Report – an update on the state of the world's natural eco-systems and the effect of human pressures upon them. They call this impact mankind's "ecological footprint."
The report concludes that "at some time in the 1970s, humanity as a whole passed the point at which it lived within the global regenerative capacity of the Earth" and that today "our ecological footprint is at least 30% larger than the earth's biological capacity".
In short we are stamping over the planet with hobnailed boots and gradually crushing the life out of it. We tear up forests, we allow soil to erode, we extract water from rivers and lakes at a rate which dangerously depletes the water table, we pollute the atmosphere with carbon and other gases. And we do this at an unsustainable rate. And by unsustainable – in this context – I mean in a way which will, if unchecked, threaten the very basis of our survival on this planet.
The responsibility for averting that threat rests heavily on the shoulders of that minority of our species, who like you and me, live in the rich world – and who are the principal plunderers of the resources of our planet. We consume those resources at four times the rate of that majority of our fellow citizens who live in the poor world.
So: to make the world safer – from terrorism and all that flows from it – we need to be far more serious about the urgent need to combat poverty. The injustice of poverty, the gross inequalities of relative poverty between the rich world and the poor world breed resentment and anger.
But we can only wage war on poverty within the environmental and ecological limits of the planet. And that means not only that the future distribution of the world's resources must be on a much fairer basis. It means that a growing share of the world's wealth must go to the poorer countries and a diminishing share to the richer countries.
This is a huge challenge: but as I said before, I think it is the most important challenge facing humanity. It is the challenge of 'sustainable development'. A challenge which embraces both the need to protect the global environment and to deliver economic development within a fair and just world order.
Fifty years ago, Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, seer, winner of the Nobel Prize wrote "mankind has lost the capacity to foresee and forestall. He will end up by destroying the world." I don't believe that. I am not a pessimist: I believe that just as we have the capacity to destroy our planet so, by the same token, we have the capacity to save it. And – it is an old cliché – I also believe that where there is a will there is a way.
Sustainable development is about securing a safe and sound future for life on earth, all life on earth. That means treating our planet with reverence, as if we were going to live for ever and hadn't just dropped in for a weekend break.
And it also means sharing the great blessings of our planet equitably, with justice and fairness for all people. Not just the haves but the have-nots as well.
When I was in Ethiopia I went to a festival of drama and poetry in a town which is probably the poorest in the world. In the community hall, a group of young amateur actors were competing to make the next round of a national drama contest. They were exploring a whole range of personal, social and political issues. There was a packed audience, totally rapt.
The director of the Festival said to me "We are transforming ourselves, provoking dialogue, entering a new era. Our young people are poor but not primitive. They are not victims. They know a lot. I am an optimist because we are creating awareness. And from awareness comes strength. These young people are the future."
They are – and we owe it to them that they should have a future. On our planet that means following through the diplomatic, economic, social and moral logic of what WH Auden wrote in that bleak autumn of 1939; "we must love one another – or die."
There is nowhere in the world of which this is more true than Ethiopia.
First published as an Occasional Paper in 2003
Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and not necessarily the views of the Society.
Information is offered in good faith but the Society does not warrant the status or reliability of the information contained.
http://www.anglo-ethiopian.org
© The Anglo-Ethiopian Society and Contributors 2003 – 2008
Richard Snailham (Chairman Anglo-Ethiopian Society, June 2003)
Posted in Ethiopia, Humanitarian, Social & Environmental Causes, World Peace/Truth
Tagged with Ethiopia, Ethiopian Famine, Poverty, Sustainable Development
A man-made famine
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/amanmadefamine
By Raj Patel, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday April 15 2008
There are many causes behind the world food crisis, but one chief villain: World Bank head, Robert Zoellick
For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging.
Earlier this week, Zoellick waxed apocalyptic about the consequences of the global surge in prices, arguing that free trade had become a humanitarian necessity, to ensure that poor people had enough to eat. The current wave of food riots has already claimed the prime minister of Haiti, and there have been protests around the world, from Mexico, to Egypt, to India.
The reason for the price rise is perfect storm of high oil prices, an increasing demand for meat in developing countries, poor harvests, population growth, financial speculation and biofuels. But prices have fluctuated before. The reason we're seeing such misery as a result of this particular spike has everything to do with Zoellick and his friends.
Before he replaced Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, Zoellick was the US trade representative, their man at the World Trade Organisation. While there, he won a reputation as a tough and guileful negotiator, savvy with details and pushy with the neoconservative economic agenda: a technocrat with a knuckleduster.
His mission was to accelerate two decades of trade liberalisation in key strategic commodities for the United States, among them agriculture. Practically, this meant the removal of developing countries' ability to stockpile grain (food mountains interfere with the market), to create tariff barriers (ditto), and to support farmers (they ought to be able to compete on their own). This Zoellick did often, and enthusiastically.
Without agricultural support policies, though, there's no buffer between the price shocks and the bellies of the poorest people on earth. No option to support sustainable smaller-scale farmers, because they've been driven off their land by cheap EU and US imports. No option to dip into grain reserves because they've been sold off to service debt. No way of increasing the income of the poorest, because social programmes have been cut to the bone.
The reason that today's price increases hurt the poor so much is that all protection from price shocks has been flayed away, by organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank.
Even the World Bank's own Independent Evaluation Group admits (pdf) that the bank has been doing a poor job in agriculture. Part of the bank's vision was to clear away the government agricultural clutter so that the private sector could come in to make agriculture efficient. But, as the Independent Evaluation Group delicately puts it, "in most reforming countries, the private sector did not step in to fill the vacuum when the public sector withdrew." After the liberalisation of agriculture, the invisible hand was nowhere to be seen.
But governments weren't allowed to return to the business of supporting agriculture. Trade liberalisation agreements and World Bank loan conditions, such as those promoted by Zoellick, have made food sovereignty impossible.
This is why, when we see Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the IMF wailing about food prices, or Zoellick using the crisis to argue with breathless urgency for more liberalisation, the only reasonable response is nausea.
Posted in Humanitarian, Social & Environmental Causes
Tagged with Ethiopian Famine, Famine, Food Crisis, sustainable food system
Posted in Ethiopia, Humanitarian, Social & Environmental Causes
Tagged with Capitalism, Ethiopian Famine, Famine
On the ground with an Ethiopian farmer
UN World Food Progamme – Ethiopia, August 2008
http://www.wfp.org/hornofafrica/ethiopia_story_08_2008.asp
Daniel Gedisha holds up a fistful of the dry, yellow leaves he has been laboriously pulling from the ground. "This is my maize," he says bleakly, then casts a glance around the field where he is standing. "Look at it."
The field is blanketed with knee-high plants of withered, yellowing maize, all as desiccated as those in the 52-year-old farmer's hand. "No crop this time," he mutters, "nothing…nothing at all."
Daniel is not alone. Virtually all of his neighbours who farm the hard, rocky slopes of Konso in the Great Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia face the same plight. Little rain has fallen in the district for a year, and that has spelled disaster for those whose crops depend entirely on the water that falls from the skies.
That includes just about everybody who dwells in the stone-walled villages that perch on Konso's many hilltops, 600 kilometers south of Addis Ababa. Close to 98 percent of the district's 250,000 people live off the land, tilling small, often tiny, plots of terraced land sculpted out of Konso's hillsides.
In good years, Konso's farmers produce two crops a season, one planted during the February-to-April "belg" rains, another during the August-to-November "meher" rains. The belg rains are the most important in Konso, a distinction from other parts of Ethiopia. Accounting for 80 percent of the district's annual agricultural production, the short, springtime belg rainfall supports mostly maize, sorghum, barley, wheat, green beans and teff, the grain used to manufacture the ubiquitous flat, spongy, Ethiopian bread known as injera..
But this past year has not been good for any of Konso's farmers, Daniel says. "The belg rains failed and it looks like the meher may fail too," he says. "I would normally get around 10 quintals (around 1000 kgs) of maize from my fields. Now I have nothing but fodder. Maybe it will keep the goats alive."
The goats, perhaps, but not Daniel's wife, nor any of his eight children. Their survival will depend on outside assistance, much of it supplied by WFP. The Konso farmer and his family are among the more than 7 million people in Ethiopia whom WFP is currently helping with emergency food rations.
All have fallen victim to twin threats – the prolonged drought that is ravaging large swathes of Ethiopia compounded by the global phenomenon of soaring food prices.
Successive failures of seasonal rains
Daniel's case is typical. Successive failures of seasonal rains have destroyed his crops, endangering his livelihood. At the same time, skyrocketing market prices for food have outstripped his ability to come up with the cash to buy alternative supplies.
Like 7.5 million other Ethiopians, Daniel is a participant in the Ethiopian government's innovative Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP), a scheme designed to lift poor families out of chronic food insecurity by creating community assets – roads, bridges, terraces, wells, watering ponds etc. – and minimizing the loss of household assets like farm tools, laying hens, milking cows, ploughing oxen and other livestock.
Recipients receive either a monthly cash grant of 30 Ethiopian birr (roughly US$3) or a monthly food grant, supplied by WFP, of 17 kg of cereals, usually maize or wheat, in return for participating in various public works.
Rising food prices
But Daniel's 30 birr is not going to buy much on the local markets in Konso: where a quintal of maize, which cost 150 birr a year ago, now costs 600; where a quintal of teff has doubled to 900 birr over the same period.
To come to the aid of Ethiopians trapped in plights similar to that facing Daniel, WFP is planning to deliver US$384 million worth of food relief assistance to more than 4 million people affected by the drought. WFP will also extend food assistance to another 3 million people enrolled in the PSNP in drought-stricken areas.
Food supplies to support this effort have proven difficult to obtain. The relief effort is currently short some 123,000 metric tons of mixed commodities, valued at more than US$99 million, while supplies for PSNP beneficiaries lag 38,000 metric tons, worth US$30 million.
The shortfalls have forced WFP, in consultation with the Ethiopian government, to cut the monthly rations for beneficiaries by one-third, reducing the cereal ration from 15 kgs to 10 and trimming the non-cereal ration to three kg of blended food, one kg of pulses and 0.3 kgs of vegetable oil.
In places like Konso, where more than one-third of the population is in need of food assistance, the ration cuts have had a severe impact. Among those most affected have been the children.
Malnutrition among children under 5 is on the rise in Konso, as in some other areas of Ethiopia hardest hit by the drought. Close to 700 children are currently being treated at Konso's stabilization centre, a health clinic set up to deal with the most severe cases, or in the district's nine therapeutic feeding centres.
Targeting pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children
To help deal with this problem, WFP is working with government health officials as well as UNICEF and NGOs to provide targeted supplementary feeding in drought areas across Ethiopia to 737,000 pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under five years of age who are suffering from moderate acute malnutrition.
One of those centres operates not far from Daniel's ravaged maize crop, in the village of Fasher. Several hundred women are gathered on the grounds of an elementary school, receiving lessons in basic nutrition while they await delivery of food rations designed specifically to combat malnutrition.
Every three months, the women receive 25 kg of blended food fortified with 23 vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients as well as three litres of vegetable oil fortified with vitamins A and D.
"Only the women receive the ration," explains Dawit Belete, an official with the Ethiopian government's Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Agency. "If we gave it to the men, they'd sell it right away."
In addition to the thrice-monthly ration, the women also receive nutrition lessons, learning about correct food proportions, proper breast feeding and the need to provide complementary foods to young children.
"We have two aims here," says Dawit. "We want to rehabilitate women and children suffering from malnutrition and we also want to provide the women with basic knowledge about nutrition that they will share with the rest of the community."
Tagged with Ethiopia, Ethiopian Famine, Ethiopian farmer, Food Crisis
Hunger levels soar in East Africa
THIS IS A MAN-MADE FOOD CRISIS!!! IF AFRICANS HAD ACCESS TO A FAIR TRADE, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED…AMERICA WANTS/NEEDS FAMINE BECAUSE THAT IS HOW THEY SUSTAIN THEIR OWN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR (USAID) …THAT DOES NOT HELP THE AFRICAN FARMER BECAUSE HE WILL BE UNABLE TO SELL HIS OWN HARVEST…USAID IS A FAKE FIX…UNFAIR TRADE IS THE PROBLEM…IMF/WORLD BANK IS THE PROBLEM…SELFISH WESTERN GOVERNMENTS ARE THE PROBLEM!!! IN THE MEAN TIME, INNOCENT POOR PEOPLE ARE DYING BECAUSE OF AN AID/TRADE SYSTEM THAT FAILED THEM! God will judge us for this…
"There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7626562.stm
Nearly 17 million people in the Horn of Africa are in urgent need of food and other aid – almost twice as many as earlier this year, the UN has said.
Some $700m (£382m) in emergency aid is needed to prevent the region descending into full-scale famine, it said.
Top UN humanitarian official John Holmes said food stocks were critically low in parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, northern Kenya and Uganda.
The area has suffered from drought, conflict and rocketing food prices.
The number of those at risk could rise still further "as the drought deepens and the hunger season continues", Mr Holmes said.
"What we need essentially is more funds, and more funds now, otherwise the situation is going to become even more catastrophic than it is today."
The estimated total for the rest of this year for those in need is $1.4bn. Almost half of that has been raised, Mr Holmes said, but there remains a shortfall of $716m.
"We may need significant funds after that period – this is not the end of the story," he said.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation blames worldwide rises in food prices for helping to push 75 million more people into the ranks of the world's hungry last year – bringing the total to 925 million.
Posted in African History, Ethiopia, Humanitarian, Social & Environmental Causes
Tagged with Ethiopian Famine, Food Crisis, sustainable food system
'ODE TO THE HUNGRY STOMACH' By Ghelawdewos Araia
True words on the fate of Ethiopia…this poem is on point!
ODE TO THE HUNGRY STOMACH
Ghelawdewos Araia
http://www.africanidea.org/ode.html
That Ethiopian belly once again starving
My people once again dying
The Ethiopian nation altogether crying
That Ethiopian mother for her children mourning
Though she herself fails to appease the dust
Struggles in vain to survive that won't for sure last
She may even wish to make the transition fast
For she would become hopeless, helpless without trust
Oh! Mother Ethiopia who gave birth to the hero in agriculture
The repository of complex rich culture
The protagonist in early horticulture
What an irony to die of man-made drought and not of nature
The Ethiopian peasant, reservoir of human faculty
He who incorporated divine power of fecundity
Legend in handicraft, pottery-making infinity
Now, your soul is compromised by famine lack of alacrity
You master of granary, now starve and go hungry!
Witnessing the demise of your cattle, defying veterinary
What a cruel testimony and a bizarre twist of history
That enrages me, makes me mad and angry
You master of the soil, terrace, and landscape
You master of the cattle on all land and cape
Sadly, you are unable to skip death and escape
What an agonizing ordeal that I wish I could fake
You master of the honeybees that furnish bactericide
I can't believe you are let down to genocide
Those who brought you death don't contemplate suicide
They may want to superimpose on you the culture of homicide
But you are indefatigable master of self-sacrifice
You don't even bring your cattle for sacrifice
I bow in your honor once, twice, and thrice
You master of gallantry, Ethiopia's pride
You probably don't know the culprit that hide
All the food that you produce including skin and hide
You are then devastated by the famine tide
It is simply unfathomable, unconscionable
To see my Ethiopian hero seek any food edible
This to me is beyond comprehension, incredible
A shattering encounter, an ordeal so terrible
You master of the waters, architect of shallow well
Now with a hungry stomach you have faced a dreadful spell
The world is focused on you; people have a story to tell
While you countenance that earthly hell
An earthly hell in the Ethiopian pastureland
Now an arid zone degraded soil wasteland
Could there be some mystery too grand?
A chemical that undermines fertile arable land
Chemical fertilizer can cause soil acidity
As opposed to manure dung organic tranquility
And our hero knows it from his daily activity
Although cynics emphasized on his stupidity
Our hero knows why he is starving
Despite the disillusioned public but caring
They think that nature impeded him from grain buying
And they wrongly assume that he was destined to dying
Early on the Ethiopian land degraded by ecological disaster
Coupled by the introduction of chemical fertilizer
Globalization that makes the Hero a panhandler
Lack of comprehensive development it engender
Oh! My Ethiopian hero in agriculture, animal husbandry
I am sorry to see your pasture and farm dry
The whole of Ethiopia grief and cry
I will extend my hand; I won't let you fry
I will, we will come to your aid
Before the time elapses, the Sun fade
We will avenge you before other culprits invade
We will expedite famine relief and development upgrade
Hang on my peasant hero, stay alive
With your vision and our commitment, you will survive
With development and appropriate technology, you will revive
And you will harness nature, the time will arrive.
Posted in Ethiopia
Tagged with Ethiopia, Ethiopian Famine, Ethiopian History
2008 Article 'Ethiopia – another famine, another avoidable disaster'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rosemary_righter/article4568457.ece
The Times – August 20, 2008 – Rosemary Righter
It was at a railway crossing near Diri Dawa, the provincial capital in the Ethiopian Ogaden desert, that I saw them: small children's hands, blackened by sun, clutching at the slats of a cattle truck dumped on a siding. The year was 1984, the height of the Ethiopian famine that claimed about a million lives. These young things must have expired, hours later, of heat and thirst in temperatures peaking at about 48C, in the truck where they had deliberately been left to die.
I know it was deliberate because I took quick photographs, muttered a few words they couldn't understand, and headed in to Diri Dawa to get help. The famine relief office officials shrugged and directed me to the military police commander. He cut me short: yes, he knew where they were. They were ethnic Somali kids – Somalis, the majority population of the Ogaden, had been in rebellion against Ethiopian rule for years – and they had been caught throwing stones at a train.
But they would die, I persisted. He lit a cigarette. "So what: they knew the risks and they must pay the price."
You did not have to be caught throwing stones to "pay the price" in 1984. That famine in the Ogaden, the worst-affected region in Ethiopia, was far deadlier than it need have been because, until the international outcry forced it somewhat to relent, the Marxist Mengistu dictatorship blocked food aid to rebel areas, using it as a weapon of war.
What the world saw back then they are seeing again: heart-rending photographs of wide-eyed famished Ethiopian children. What the world did not hear much about then was the criminal exploitation of suffering. What the world will not see clearly, even now, is that disasters like drought can cause crops to fail, but should never, in a half-decently run country, lead to mass deaths from malnutrition. Famines in this day and age are man-made, if not by the sins of commission perpetrated by the thuggish Mengistu regime (and by North Korea's) then by culpable omission coupled with lousy policies.
Mengistu was overthrown in 1991, fleeing Addis Ababa to retire in the congenial climate of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Because Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan rebel leader who ousted him, shed some of his Albanian-model Stalinist baggage, he was fêted by Westerners as a moderniser and showered with development aid.
A spot of election-rigging in 2005, followed by the shooting of up to 200 pro-democracy demonstrators, caused some temporary tut-tutting, after which aid quietly resumed and, in Britain's case, doubled. Not so quietly, the Ethiopian Army is again cracking heads in the Ogaden, burning villages and, according to Human Rights Watch, torturing and publicly executing not only rebels of the resurgent Ogaden National Liberation Front but also civilians sympathising with them. In the Ogaden, famine looms. Plus ça change.
Still, Meles and Mengistu are not la même chose. Meles is a bit of a thug, but he has introduced some judicial and commercial reforms, devolved powers from Addis Ababa to the regions, improved education, curbed child mortality through anti-poverty programmes and, importantly, advocated greater equality for women. He has also ploughed 17 per cent of government spending into agriculture, three to four times as much as most other African governments. He claims that farm production is growing by 10 per cent a year, and boasts that, two years ago, the country actually exported maize (odd, that, when in a "good" year millions of Ethiopians rely on foreign food aid).
After the last big drought, in 2003, the Ethiopian Government worked with donors to create a system designed to make famine history. It includes a Productive Safety Net, a public works programme providing seven million poor Ethiopians – nearly a tenth of the population – with food or cash, and a Famine Early Warning System that measures rainfall, livestock prices, household spending and signs of malnutrition.
Textbook stuff, and in stark contrast with the junta's attempt to hide the 1984 famine from the world. And yet… how, then, has the failure of the "little rains" this spring, and the consequent loss of a single harvest, translated into a huge emergency affecting ten million people, by the aid industry's probably inflated account, and 4.6 million by the Government's defensively conservative assessment?
Why are its emergency grain reserves so depleted that food rations have been reduced by a third, at least 75,000 children are already severely malnourished and hunger affects two thirds of the country and has, this time, spread to the towns? Why is Ethiopia, a country with lush two-crop breadbaskets as well as deserts and eroded hill farms, still so vulnerable that, as Meles himself admits, "one unexpected weather event can push us over the precipice"?
There are two big causes, and drought is not one of them. They are within the power of politicians to tackle, and tackled they must finally be, with the requisite sense of urgency. The first is Ethiopia's population explosion; with families averaging 5.4 children, it has soared from 33.5 million in the 1984 famine to 77 million now. In a country where 85 per cent of the people rely on farming for a living, this means that, per head, food production has actually fallen since 1984 – by more than a third – and farm plots get smaller and smaller. A fifth of Ethiopian farmers try to survive on areas no more than 20 metres by 40 metres per person, yielding no more than half their cereal needs.
The second is Meles's purblind refusal to reverse the Marxist folly of his 1995 law that put all land under state ownership. "Land holding certificates" graciously permit farmers to till land that their forebears have farmed for generations; but surveys show that 46 per cent still expect to lose their farms.
The policy is a disaster. It discourages careful land management; it deprives farmers of collateral to raise bank loans to buy fertiliser and agricultural tools; and they cling to plots too small to feed their families because, with nothing to sell, they have no alternative. The coffee and infant rose-growing sectors apart, most Ethiopians farm as their ancestors did, with hoes, wooden ploughs, oxen and an anxious eye on the skies.
Enough food aid is once more pouring in to stave off serious famine; but it will not remedy Ethiopia's deepening aid dependency and rural despair. With a smaller – because more mobile – landowning rural population, able to access loans to invest in higher-yield seeds, tractors and drip irrigation, Ethiopia could feed itself. But will donor governments champion the farmers' right to get back their land? On past experience, pigs will fly. And the next famine will be a matter of time.
Tagged with Ethiopia, Ethiopian Famine


The legendary duo from Russia – Manifold – is back after 7 years of silence with an awesome album "Digital Sun". The project was founded in 2003 by Edward Cybered soundcloud.com/cybered and Alexander Sulima soundcloud.com/sulima-alex . Unmistakable psychedelic trance for the prime time of the main dancefloors is ready to make you dance.
The album consists of eight tracks – some of them you may heard on a different compilation but now all of them are totally reworked and remastered specially for this release. Powerful basslines, complex production and rich textures are filing every track in this album.


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HomeAccueil > News > WorkSafeNB tightens opioid prescribing guidelines
WorkSafeNB tightens opioid prescribing guidelines
by Shine
WorkSafeNB has changed the way it manages opioid prescriptions for clients recovering from workplace injuries.
Highlights from an updated policy that went into effect on September 29 include stricter monitoring, reducing the initial authorization period for opioid prescriptions from six weeks to two weeks, and limiting opioid dosages to 50 mg morphine equivalent per day.
Dr. Paul Atkinson, WorkSafeNB's chief medical officer, said the changes come after extensive consultation with New Brunswick's medical community and the general public.
"The new policy aligns with feedback received and with provincial and national guidelines. We'll be asking physicians to follow up with their patients after their two-week opioid prescription to authorize an extension when warranted."
Opioids are a class of synthetic narcotic medications usually prescribed on a short-term for treating pain associated with injury, disease or surgery. However, a rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in North America began in the late 1990s and persists to this day.
Atkinson said that while opioids have therapeutic purposes, there are serious risks associated with their use including addiction, overdose and death.
"The research is clear that opioids are ineffective for chronic aches and pains and as such should only be used when absolutely necessary."
WorkSafeNB continues to work with the New Brunswick Medical Society, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New Brunswick and other members of the Provincial Opioid Prescribing Task force to encourage safe prescribing and dispensing of opioids in line with national guidelines.
Manitoba's SAFE Driving at Work Plan addresses worker safety on the road
New WCB PEI chair announced
WorkSafe Saskatchewan introduces new strategy to reduce fatalities and serious injuries


Hi everyone, this is my first post here and I'm very new to family creation in Revit so I was hoping I could find some guidance here. My current task I'm working on is trying to create a family to identify door undercuts.
I essentially have a line of text displaying "UC", a label that will display the CFM value of the air transfer (this value I wan to make editable), and an arrow that show direction of flow (which I would like to be able to rotate or change direction of).
I attached a picture of the family as it is now to better illustrate what I am doing. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
I just use an Air Terminal that is 20mm high and 900mm wide.. It has an arrow annotation inside the family (So you only need one not 4, it rotates with the placement of the family) and can be tagged with airflow like any other Air Terminal. It does have a 3D space reservation block, so that it is visible in 3D views and shows up as a clash with doors to show architects that it is there, but is set to just show the arrow symbol in plan.
Also I use 'Exhaust Air' for air transfer between rooms and 'Return Air' for all kinds of return and extract. That way the 'net' fresh air supply and return in rooms shows up properly in the Actual Supply/Return parameters and airflows can be added as exhaust for transfer or recirculation. For example, you might have a room with a requirement for 100m3/h fresh air (From a Supply system checked against Actual Supply in schedules) but also a ducted fan coil that needs 1000m3/h flow (Modelled as exhaust) to dimension its ducts and grilles.
Last edited by josephpeel; June 24th, 2016 at 10:45 PM.
Thanks so much for the help, I "walked through" the family that you created and attached to make sure I was following you. The undercut annotation works like a charm now, I have a similar modification I am going to make to an existing diffuser next week and I think the info you shared with me will go a long way in helping with that too.
Door Family: Can I have nested door panels with different driving parameters?


text:
Q: File Uploading using Server.MapPath() and FileUpload.SaveAs() I have a website admin section which I'm busy working on, which has 4 FileUpload controls for specific purposes. I need to know that , when I use the Server.MapPath() Method Within the FileUpload control's SaveAs() methods, Will it still be usable on the web server after I have uploaded the website? As far as I know, SaveAs() requires an absolute path, that's why I map a path with Server.MapPath()
if (fuLogo.HasFile) //My FileUpload Control : Checking if a file has been allocated to the control
        {
            int counter = 0;  //This counter Is used to ensure that no files are overwritten.
            string[] fileBreak = fuLogo.FileName.Split(new char[] { '.' });
            logo = Server.MapPath("../Images/Logos/" + fileBreak[0] + counter.ToString()+ "." + fileBreak[1]);  // This is the part Im wondering about. Will this still function the way it should on the webserver after upload?
            if (fileBreak[1].ToUpper() == "GIF" || fileBreak[1].ToUpper() == "PNG")
            {
                while (System.IO.File.Exists(logo))
                {
                    counter++; //Here the counter is put into action
                    logo = Server.MapPath("../Images/Logos/" + fileBreak[0] + counter.ToString() + "." + fileBreak[1]);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                cvValidation.ErrorMessage = "This site does not support any other image format than .Png or .Gif . Please save your image in one of these file formats then try again.";
                cvValidation.IsValid = false;
            }
            if (fuLogo.PostedFile.ContentLength > 409600 )  //File must be 400kb or smaller
            {
                cvValidation.ErrorMessage = "Please use a picture with a size less than 400 kb";
                cvValidation.IsValid = false;

            }
            else
            {

                if (fuLogo.HasFile && cvValidation.IsValid)
                {
                    fuLogo.SaveAs(logo); //Save the logo if file exists and Validation didn't fail. The path for the logo was created by the Server.MapPath() method.
                }

            }
        }
        else
        {
            logo = "N/A";
        }

A: *

*If you intend to save the files in
a directory on your web server , then
the Server.MapPath() will be the suitable
solution.
string dirPath = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~") + "/Images/Logos/"+ fileBreak[0] + counter.ToString() + "." + fileBreak[1];
Look Here

*if you intend to save your files out
the web server then
Use a full path, like "c:\uploads"
and be sure that the web process has
permission to write to that folder,I suggest you store the path itself in the web.config file in this case.

A: yes, that can be used after saving file and when you try retrieve that file...
Server.MapPath("~/Images/Logos/" + uploadedFileName);

A: Yes it should still work as Server.MapPath uses the relative values and returns the complete physical path.

A: It's one line of code:
 FileUpload1.PostedFile.SaveAs(Server.MapPath(" ")+"\\YourImageDirectoryOnServer\\"+FileUpload1.FileName);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Park City shines in the Spring.
Spring Grüv
Celebrate the season by heading to Park City Mountain's month-long celebration! We've got the live music, entertainment, pond skim, and more.
WELCOME BACK WINTER EVENTS
Winter Events
We look forward to bringing back winter events including Snowfest and Spring Gruv. Health and safety remains our top priority, and we are operating according to local public health orders and following their guidance for events and gatherings. Please continue to check back here for the most up to date event information.
Canceled: Friday, March 6 - Sunday, April 5
Park City shines in spring and it's all yours to soak in during Spring Grüv. Under bluebird skies, you're invited to feel the beat of concerts on the village stage, test your creativity at the annual Pond Skimming Competition and so much more. Redefine your spring break at this springtime celebration.
Fri, 3/6 - Sun, 3/8 Fri, 3/13 - Sun, 3/15 Fri, 3/20 - Sun, 3/22 Fri, 3/27 - Sun, 3/29 Fri, 4/3 - Sun, 4/5
Previous tab
Fri, 3/6 - Sun, 3/8
Fri, 3/13 - Sun, 3/15
Friday, March 6 - Sunday, March 8
3:30 - 5:30 pm: Silver Sky Nights: Fire Show, Live Music, Hot Cocoa and Donuts, Canyons Village
3:30-5:30 pm: Après Live Music: Davey & The Midnights, Canyons Village Stage
4:45 pm: Meet the Avalanche Dogs, Canyons Village Ski Beach
12:00 - 4:00 pm: Ice Sculpting, Canyons Village Forum
1:00 pm:	Meet the Avalanche Dogs, Park City Summit, Top of Bonanza Chairlift
3:00 - 7:30 pm:	Family Après: Outdoor Movie Night: Abominable (start time: 6:15- 6:30 pm), Hot Cocoa and Donuts, Cookie Decorating, Canyons Village
2:30 pm: Build your own Bouquet, Park City Mountain Village
3:00 pm: Sunday Donuts, Park City Mountain Village
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Après Live Music: Will Sangster Duo, Umbrella Bar, Canyons Village
Friday, March 13 - Sunday, March 15
CANCELED: FRIDAY, MARCH 13
2:30 pm: Build you own Bouquet, Park City Mountain Village
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Après Live Music: Dueling Pianos, Canyons Village
CANCELED: SATURDAY, MARCH 14
1:00 pm: Meet the Avalanche Dogs, Park City Summit, Top of Bonanza Chairlift
3:00 - 5:30 pm:	Après Live Music, Hot Cocoa and Donuts, Family Crafts, Canyons Village
3:30-5:30 pm: Après Live Music: Fuse N' Rock, Canyons Village Stage
CANCELED: SUNDAY, MARCH 15
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Après Live Music: Wyatt Pike, Umbrella Bar, Canyons Village
3:30 - 7:30 pm:	Family Après: Outdoor Movie Night: Smallfoot (start time: 6:15- 6:30 pm), Hot Cocoa, Cookie Decorating, Canyons Village
3:30- 5:30 pm: Après Live Music: Dr. Bob Duo, Canyons Village Stage
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Family Après: Make Your Own Music, Hot Cocoa, Cookie Decorating, Canyons Village
Friday, March 27 - Monday, March 30
3:30 - 5:30 pm: Après Live Music, Hot Cocoa and Donuts, Family Crafts, Canyons Village
3:30-5:30 pm: Après Live Music: Michelle Moonshine Trio, Canyons Village Stage
9:00 - 4:00 pm: Pink Park City, Park City Mountain - Canceled
3:00 pm: Saturday Donuts, Canyons Village
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Après Live Music: Changing Lanes, Canyons Village Stage
3:00 - 5:00 pm: Family Après: Make Your Music, Hot Cocoa, Cookie Decorating, Canyons Village
Friday, April 3 - Sunday, April 5
CANCELED: FRIDAY, APRIL 3
CANCELED: SATURDAY, APRIL 4
9:00 am - 4:00 pm: Annual Pond Skimming Competition, Canyons Village
2:00 - 6:00 pm: Après Live Music, Canyons Village
CANCELED: SUNDAY, APRIL 5
Thank You to Our Spring Grüv Partners


The data comes from a combination of personal weather stations that are run from homes and schools as well as national weather services. Weather Underground, Weather Bug, Citizen Weather Observer Program, and National Weather Service are four of the major sites that compile this data.
You search on cities, place names to set the location with your typical GoogleMap tools for Zoom, Pan, and toggle between Map, Satellite, and Hybrid views.
There's a lot more under the hood… local web cams, exports to GoogleEarth to overlay weather data on other scenes.
Mashups, more yummy than cake.
I really wish you would have posted this yesterday… haha. I am driving from Phoenix to western Montana this weekend and would have liked to have looked at it during the day instead of this evening.
Thanks for the informative post. This is a great tool that will be really useful. The route weather option is great. It'd be great if something like this could be opened in Google Earth.


text:
Australia Is Most Vulnerable To Slowdown From Household Debt Reduction
Australia faces the biggest risk of a downturn due to household debt reduction among major economies, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.
"The weak housing market and potential for a further tightening of lending policies have left the country exposed to a possible wipe-out of $700 billion in household wealth", the bank says.
According to Morgan Stanley's latest analysis of household debt in the Group of Ten (G10) economies, Australia looks "most exposed" to a slowdown. This is due to a combination of high household and external debt, weak domestic housing conditions, and likely prudential and tax policy adjustments.
Figure 1: G10 Household Deleveraging Risk Indicator
Source: Morgan Stanley, Household Deleveraging Risk Indicator
Driven By Property Debt
Many economists believe debt deleveraging is overdue in Australia. While households in Japan, the European Union, the UK and the US reduced their debt after the global financial crisis, those in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland ramped up their borrowing, says Morgan Stanley.
By 2015–16, around three in 10 Australian households were 'over-indebted' based on their ratio of debt to income or assets, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The average household debt also nearly doubled, from $94,100 in 2003–04 to $168,600 in 2015–16, driven by property debt.
Over-indebted households were more than twice as likely as other indebted households to have a home loan, according to the ABS. And they were about four times more likely to hold other property loans.
Figure 2: Major economies with high and rising household debt-to-GDP ratios, 2009–2017
Source: Bank for International Settlements, Household debt: Recent developments and challenges
By debt-to-GDP ratio, Australia's household debt has reached a record high of more than 120% and is surpassed only by Switzerland, data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) shows. The BIS has warned that high household debt can make the economy more at risk of disruptions and potentially harm growth.
Imminent Deleveraging
Australia's falling house prices and slowing credit growth suggest that this risk of disruption through deleveraging is "imminent", says Morgan Stanley.
The country's national dwelling values fell 0.5% in October 2018, bringing the annual home price decline to 3.5%, according to CoreLogic. Annual falls in Sydney and Melbourne have reached 7.4% and 4.7% respectively.
Tighter credit availability has put a drag on housing demand and driven home values down. It has made it particularly difficult for home investors to access financing. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has introduced strict lending policies in recent years, which have hit the home investment segment the hardest. These policies include stringent mortgage serviceability requirements and limits on interest-only lending.
While Morgan Stanley acknowledges that the Australian economy is resilient, with its GDP growing more than 3% annually, the bank does not believe this level of growth will continue. It says that a housing oversupply is driving weakness in the economic outlook.
"Risks are building, given the consumer has supported consumption by tapping into their savings rate, which has fallen to 1%, while the residential construction cycle is peaking now, and will exert a drag on currently record-high construction employment," says Morgan Stanley.
"Strength in the global economy and support from public infrastructure spend are mitigating these headwinds, but the risk of a longer/deeper-than-usual balance sheet recession remains elevated, if these conditions change," it adds.
A $700 billion wipe-out
Morgan Stanley predicts real house price will fall by 10–15%, up from its previous projection of a 5–10% decline.
"From the perspective of wealth effects, our forecast 10–15% real house price decline would combine with 20% debt/asset gearing levels to inflict a serious dent in net worth," it says.
This combination would equate to $700 billion of wealth write-off if mapped across the value of all property owned by Australian households, according to the bank.
Warning of risks
Morgan Stanley is just one of the growing number of organisations to have sounded the alarm about Australia's high household debt.
In an economic forecast released in May 2018, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identified the slowing housing market and high household indebtedness as the biggest risks to the Australian economy.
"Unexpectedly large corrections in house prices would reduce household wealth, and could cut consumption and damage the construction sector," says the OECD.