What Happened To The Ad-hoc Council?

In what amounts to be a very considerate initiative, some zegas met up in Addis several months ago to discuss the health concerns of the gay community.

I was also invited to attend the meeting, but I regrettably declined.  Frankly speaking, it came long after I had put to rest my engagements in the local gay affairs.  It’s not that I’m not concerned at all, and I sincerely promised to help from outside – which I assume meant nothing to one of the coordinators who approached me, and I don’t blame him

Few days later, I was informed that a good number of people participated on the meeting – among which were medical doctors.  The meeting has drafted two actions to fight the latent HIV epidemic in the gay community; through HIV awareness campaign and supply of free protections at gay hanging-out spots.

 

I was in awe as this was the first time members of the local gay community got together to discuss on serious matters.  Perhaps, the thrust came – at least as I was informed at the time – from the loss of two or three guys to HIV/AIDS.  Yet I thought to myself, how sad that it had to take the lives of few guys for the community to realize what’s at stake.

Despite its overdue, the initiative is admirable as some members of the ad-hoc council shortly began distributing free protections and pamphlets.  I don’t know how far-reaching their effort was at the time, but it is clear that such kind of works mustn’t be a one-off attempt.  It is also very clear that if such initiative it is to be effective, it has to grow from an ad-hoc council to a permanent advisory council that has a well-organized executive body.  Yes it does sound complex, but there’s no way of doing it better.

It seems the Rainbow-Ethiopia MSM Initiative is founded to fill the gap of the much needed organized undertakings the community requires.  Surprisingly, nearly all members of the ad-hoc council, and some of my close acquaintances, barely know the activities of Rainbow-Ethiopia.  Those who had attempted to work with Rainbow-Ethiopia were not welcomed at all. Why?! How could Rainbow-Ethiopia achieve its stated mission, ‘to oversee and support member organizations to achieve their objectives aimed at LGBTI liberation’, if it’s not in the first place open to the community it claims to serve? I’d be very glad if the executive director of Rainbow-Ethiopia has a say on this.

While keenly awaiting Rainbow’s response, let’s also develop the ad-hoc council into a more organized body that works extensively on the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Let us not wait for the deaths of other guys to make us realize that more has to be done.

P.S. Many thanks to the coordinators & partakers of the ad-hoc council.

Tags: hiv aids, hiv awareness

Lessons From Federacy In Ethiopia

Logo of the 5th Int Conference On Federalism

 

 

 

The 5^th International Conference on Federalism has formally commenced in Addis Ababa yesterday afternoon at the Millennium Hall.  Ethiopia is the first country to stage the conference in Africa, as well the fifth host nation after Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, and India.

With this year’s conference theme, ‘Equality and Unity in Diversity For Development’, the government of Ethiopia is to exchange its experiment of decadal federal system with other federal governments.

Ethiopia adopted a federal democratic system in 1993, three years later after the overthrow of the Derg that had ruled the country until 1991.  The question of self-autonomy in the country, however, dates back to the Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime – especially, the Eritrea case.  It is interesting to briefly look back on to the different developments that later introduced federalism in Ethiopian politics.

According to history accounts, right after the decolonization of Eritrea from Italy in the early 1950s, there was much deliberation among the international community whether Eritrea reunite Ethiopia as a provincial state or a federal one through confederation. Although the Imperial regime of Ethiopia resisted the confederacy of Eritrea at the time, it nevertheless was forced to concede.  Even so, the imperial regime merely practiced a quasi-federal arrangement, which also ended it altogether only after a decade.  The repercussion was long-drawn-out guerrilla warfare by secessionists in Eritrea.

After the military junta overthrew the Emperor in 1974, there occurred a flagrant disregard of basic human rights and inequality among the different ethnic groups in the country.  With this, rebel groups from other parts of Ethiopia intensified the guerrilla war along the Eritrean rebel group until 1991.

Shortly afterwards, nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia became constitutionally sovereign, and in 1993 Eritrea gain its full independence through a referendum.  For what is left of Ethiopia, though, the federal system seems to be cementing regions from breaking apart.

According to Kassa Teklebrihan, Speaker of the House of Federation, the federal system has not only brought peace and stability to the country, but has also spurred a fast economic growth. “Ethiopia’s experiment has shown that practicing a federal system has strengthened both its democracy and economy,” Kassa said on his opening remark at the conference yesterday. Prof. Dr. Vijaye Kelkar, chairman of Forum of Federations, also emphasized the importance federalism has in a nation’s economy.  “Federalism is not only good politics, but good economics,” he said.

The federal system that Ethiopia has started to practice only 16 years ago, nearly took a lifetime struggle of one generation.  It will still take a long time before the motto ‘Equality and Unity in Diversity for Development’ gets into the mainstream philosophy of Ethiopians – but it’s a good beginning.

A beginning that offers hope for other minorities in the country, too.  Because, the same basic democratic principles behind federalism are what minorities, like the gay community, wants to see respected.

Indeed, the over 40 years of sacrifice in the progression of federalism in Ethiopia is a lesson the gay community has to reckon with.  The community must not expect gay rights will start to be valued without fighting for it.

For now though, let us hope for our culture of federacy to eventually hasten the issues of gay rights.  Just as no other ideals can equally resonate with the gay community than the ones put as set of guidelines for the 5^th International Conference on Federalism: Practicing Equality; Strengthening Unity; Celebrating Diversity; and Working for Development.

Time For Gatherings Covet A Bigger Cause

During the times this blog remained inactive, a silent revolution had been taking place in the embryonic gay community of Addis Ababa.  What began as a cyber cluster seven years ago has evolved into a solid community with a number of social gatherings on its calendar.

In this year alone, more than five gatherings took place.  Behind this new party drift are few members of the community who organized themselves to establish – perhaps – the first event-organizing venture back in 2009.  This newfangled venture, known as Laba Africa Social Gatherings, already held its fourth series.  Count also a new event-organizing group, Black Diamonds Party, which just held its first event in past weeks; not to mention the several lavish parties that group of friends have in-between.

Many were startled to witness a huge crowd of gays on these events.  Participants came from all walks of life, and it was interesting to see the events attracting local tourists who came to Addis just to be part of the parties.

For the newbies who joined up the community a few years ago, this development may not be as impressive as it is for the rest of us who have been around for more than four years.

The progress is simply inspirational.  It seems the community now stands a better chance of uniting its segregated members than before.

Obviously, the progression had not been bed of roses for those who were involved throughout the years.  It would be wrong if we do not pay homage to the founding fathers of the GayEthiopians Online Forum and to its regular contributors, who have determinedly kept the forum as the formidable rendezvous from which great ideas and set of contacts originate.  Happy 9^th Anniversary to GayEthiopians.

A great admiration to the heroic deeds of The Laba Crew and their friends, who made the impossible possible in organizing successful events in the heart of Addis.  The crew dedicated their time, energy, and money to mobilize the largest crowd ever on a single event.  It is also worthy to recall the remarkable performance of DJ Hef-T, who discharged his duty despite the car accident he sustained in the morning at the second series of the Laba event.

A credit should also go to the House of Plentilicous, who are known of hosting lavish parties in town, and who always give a hand for the execution of other events.  We also welcome the promising new event, Black Diamonds Party, and let us hope this, too, would make it to the list of our annual events.

Although, the past two years have seen great stride in creating a platform that boost up the self-confidence and the building of trust among community members, there is still a lot to be done. These events are still limited to revelries and it is time to transcend that.

Especially, at a time we lost three community members to AIDS within the past six months, the community is bound to step up its programme to include health projects.  This could be the first news of the HIV epidemic entering the community, but unless we start to work on it right away, a catastrophic episode is likely to unfold.

The social gatherings are a great tool to raise the conscious of the community on sexually transmitted diseases and other related concerns.  In fact, one of the missions of the Laba Africa Social Gatherings is to create a better understanding on health safety among the community.  May be, the time has come to meet this commitment.

These recent developments, both the promising and threatening, are also indicative that a well-recognized steering body is required to accomplish different programme the community cares to address.  Once again, the social gatherings have the leverage to advance this within the community.

Addis Gays Cafe: The Rebirth

Welcome to the original  addis gays cafe, the popular gay blog in Addis Ababa that used to be published on blogspot.com, under the URL ad: www.ethioglbt.blogspot.com

Since 2007,  the blog was out of service for it was blocked in Addis Ababa together with a couple of other political-oriented blogs.    The blog’s readership had been anticipating the relaunch of the blog ever since – and here it is once again on WordPress.

Visit soon