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ከሃይል ንቀት ወደ ዕውቀትና ንቃት ለህዝባዊ ዕድገት

ዕው

ስማ ስሚ ስሙ በስመ አብ ቢስሚላሂ በሉ፤

በቅላጼ መልክት፤ ይታደስ-ይቀደስ ትውልደ-ብርሃኑ፤

በተቻለው መጠን፤ በተፈለገ ለት፤ ቀን ይወጣል አሉ።

እንደ መሃል ምሥራቅ፤ አፍሪቃ ሰሜኑ፤

ኢትዮጵያም ይደርሳል ፅዋው መኅበሩ፤

Beautiful Minds of Addis Tiwlid 2012 1*)

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Friday, April 20, 2012

‚ሌ ባ ሌ ባ‘ - April the Fool

ሌባ ሰርቆ እንዳይያዝ፣ ሌ ባ  ሌ ባ  እያለ አብሮ ያሳድዳል ይባላል

April 2012

On Corruption
Part I
To contain your boredom click in the middle of the clip  at  position 22 Minutes
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On Religious Conflict and more
Part II

*

Forget the “pea-nuts” and the ONE-Man Parlament
And see the big issue… FYI …from the BACKGROUND;

************The Story of the ONE-Man Dominated National Economy***********

*
How did Mohammed Al Amoudi come to be the
Richest black person in the world with in less than 10 years?
 
Extract from:
“According to Forbes, he Hit jackpot with gold mine in the Oromo region of Ethiopia; it now produces 6 tons of gold annually, set to double production by 2010. How much did he pay TPLF to own such treasure of Ethiopia? In 2005, his love for woyanne became official and his wealth tripled by year 2006. He exposes his true color by wearing the “bee” T-shirt during the 2005 election.
Al Amoudi’s wealth grows proportional to his love for TPLF.  Things to ponder:
1) How did Mohammed Al Amoudi come to be the richest black person in the world with in less than 10 years? In 2001 Calendar year, he was not worth even 1 Billion Dollars and was not in the Billionaire list at all. Is there anybody else behind his wealth accumulation?
2) Is TPLF using Al Amoudi to launder money looted from Ethiopia and the money borrowed in the name of Ethiopia from World Bank and IMF?
3) Does Al Amoudi benefit from Ethiopia, mutually benefit from each other or does he feed off of Ethiopia like a parasite?
1. List of his companies and source of wealth:

These questions seem to have clear answers if you look at the capital flight growth during the same period as the wealth of Ala Moudin made a tremendous change!
See: Africa: Real Illicit Financial Flows (CED+GER): 1970-2008 ($US millions 2004 deflated)

                   2000      2001        2002     2003           2004         2005               2006         2007            2008           total
Ethiopia   65.0     681.6     307.9     88.9        36.3      769.8               1,097.9    1,233.8    1,647.2     7,111.4

It doesn’t need a big head to presume that Ala Moudin is also the source of  the illicit capital flight growth, which  came about in the same period as his wealth! - The transaction; i.e.  The payment made by Ala Moudin to TPLF for the Grants and Services to get  the free ride to invest in every sector of the Ethiopian economy – A “One-Man” dominated national economy!
***
REFERENCE
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Tazebe Techanie
By Admin On March 28, 2010 @
Ethiopian born Mohammed Al Amoudi is once again the richest black person in the world with an estimated net worth of a cool $10 billion in the latest Forbes’ World’s Billionaires List.
Al Amoudi is well known for showering Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) with US Dollars, throwing extravagant parties and weddings for his private dancers as well as comedians, and most of all for being an ardent supporter of TPLF. However, his source of wealth is still a mystery.
According to Forbes, he Hit jackpot with gold mine in the Oromo region of Ethiopia; it now produces 6 tons of gold annually, set to double production by 2010. How much did he pay TPLF to own such treasure of Ethiopia? In 2005, his love for woyanne became official and his wealth tripled by year 2006. He exposes his true color by wearing the “bee” T-shirt during the 2005 election.
Al Amoudi’s wealth grows proportional to his love for TPLF.  Things to ponder:
1) How did Mohammed Al Amoudi come to be the richest black person in the world with in less than 10 years? In 2001 Calendar year, he was not worth even 1 Billion Dollars and was not in the Billionaire list at all. Is there anybody else behind his wealth accumulation?
2) Is TPLF using Al Amoudi to launder money looted from Ethiopia and the money borrowed in the name of Ethiopia from World Bank and IMF?
3) Does Al Amoudi benefit from Ethiopia, mutually benefit from each other or does he feed off of Ethiopia like a parasite?
=================
The Unofficial Mohammed Al-Amoudi Homepage
Business
Al Amoudi owns a broad portfolio of businesses in oil and gas as well as in construction, real estate development, mining, agriculture, hotels, hospitals, finance, operations and maintenance. Although his investments are far flung and scattered across the globe, most of his business interests are organized under four conglomerate holding and operating companies: Corral Group, MIDROC Europe, MIDROC Ethiopia and ABV Rock Group. His business holdings are privately owned, either in whole or in part; most are not publicly traded. Businesses registered under his name employ over 40,000 people worldwide.
CORRAL Group - is a holding company for oil and gas related business interests based mostly in Sweden, Morroco and Lebanon:
  • Corral Petroleum Holdings AB (Sweden)
  • Preem Petroleum AB (Sweden)
  • Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB (Sweden)
  • Corral Finans AB (Sweden)
  • Corral Morocco Gas and Oil (Morocco)
  • Société Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie du Raffinage (Morocco)
  • Coral Oil Company (Lebanon)
  • Speed Oil Company (Lebanon)
ABV Rock Group - a holding company for construction related businesses (Saudi Arabia, Sweden). The sister companies of ABV Rock are:
  1. Saudi ABV General Contractors Company
  2. Innovators Consulting Engineers
  3. Yanbu Steel Company
  4. Trans Desert Transport Company
  5. Metal Service Company
MIDROC Europe - Formed in 1996 through the acquisition of a number of contractors, Midroc Europe operates in the Scandinavian and international contracting markets, focused on the civil construction, industrial and environmental contracting sectors. The Midroc group in Scandinavia is owned by Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi and the Wikström family (allegedly a front for Al Amoudi holdings). The Midroc group in Europe consists of the following companies:
  1. Midroc Construction
  2. Midroc Engineering
  3. Midroc Electro
  4. Midroc Environment
  5. Midroc Project Development (MPD)
  6. Midroc Real Estate
  7. BAC Corrosion Control
  8. Metalock
  9. Alucrom
  10. GP Ställningar
  11. Rodoverken
MIDROC Ethiopia Investment Group - is a holding company for over 30 enterprises and business interests in diversified sectors. Managed under parent MIDROC Group is MIDROC Ethiopia Technology Group which has 11 businesses under its management:
Other businesses under MIDROC Ethiopia include:
  • Sheraton Addis
  • Midroc Construction Ethiopia
  • Moha Soft Drinks S.C.
  • National Mining Corp. (Kenticha Tantalum Mine, Lega Dembi Gold Mine)
  • National Motor Companies
  • Ethio Leather Industries (ELICO) P.L.C.
  • Bauer-Midroc
  • Sara Lamps
  • Ethio Coffee & Tea Plantation & Marketing P.L.C.
*MIDROC = stands for Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies
- WorldSpace - hostile take over attempt of Naoh Samara's start-up satellite business
- Al-Tad (for Al-Amoudi and Tadelle Yidnekachew, son of renouned Yidnekachew Tessema) - the first business set up in Ethiopia: a construction company to build Sheraton Addis

Business Network as sketched by a former employee of Al Amoudi who at one time ran a website at:
www.workinsaudi.com
According to this source, Al Amoudi started out as a cement dealer. He later became the construction material supplier for the Swedish managed huge Saudi government project - the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme (SSSP-Project). The project was run under the aegis of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation. Al Amoudi is believed to be the front man for Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz who is the minister
======================
EU urges responsible foreign farmland investments
Wed Mar 31, 2010
By Charlie Dunmore
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Foreign investors in agricultural land in developing regions such as Africa must respect local human rights, livelihoods and resources, the European Union said in a policy paper released on Wednesday.
Sharp rises in global food prices in 2008 prompted major food importers such as Saudi Arabia, China and South Korea to lease farmland abroad -- often in Africa -- to secure food for their populations.
But critics including the EU have warned that such deals, described by some as land-grabbing, are often not transparent and can compromise the livelihoods of local farmers in developing countries.
"The EU and its member states should support the development of internationally agreed principles for responsible investments in agricultural land," said the policy document on food security drawn up by the EU's executive European Commission.
The paper proposes a new EU policy framework for combating food security problems in developing countries.
Support should focus on increasing food production by small-scale farmers in countries at risk, particularly in Africa and South Asia, it said.
It called for an "ecologically efficient intensification" of food production by smallholder producers, especially women farmers, by providing better access to resources including land, water, credit and other agricultural inputs.
But it said such intensification should not promote technologies that are not sustainable or are incompatible with national capacity to regulated and manage risks.
Other EU priorities should include a 50 percent increase in support to "demand-led" agricultural research, and a focus on improving the nutritional quality of food.
The new policy framework "does not directly imply an increase in EU aid funding," the Commission said.
Last year the bloc pledged aid worth 3 billion euros from 2010 to 2012 under a 20-billion-dollar food security initiative by the Group of Eight developed nations.
AID GROUPS PRAISE FOCUS, ALSO HAVE CONCERNS
Aid groups praised the policy's focus on combating land-grabbing and promoting small-scale farming, but warned that other EU policies could work against its aims.
"Land essential for local food production in poor nations that suffer high levels of hunger is increasingly being seized from farming communities and turned over to biofuel production to meet EU targets," anti-poverty group ActionAid said.
As a signatory to the United Nations' decade-old Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the EU -- the world's largest development aid donor -- has pledged to try to halve the number of people suffering from hunger globally.
But the Commission said the number of people suffering from hunger had risen to more than 1 billion and this was "affecting human development, social and political stability, as well as causing widespread suffering and loss of life."
The new paper is part of a package of policy proposals on health, education and gender development expected in the next few weeks.
The proposals will form the basis of discussions by member states and the European Parliament on a common EU position on progress towards meeting the MDGs, which will be the subject of a UN summit in New York in September.
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African farmland deals need rules, grass-roots warn
Tue Mar 30, 2010
* Secret land deals seen as fodder for corruption, conflicts
* Rules needed to benefit both foreign investors, Africans
* Keeping farmers on their land seen key in land deals
By Laurie Goering
MONTPELLIER, France, March 30 (Reuters) - Large-scale foreign leases of African farmland risk driving conflict and fuelling corruption in the region without regulation, regional experts told a conference on agricultural development.
If rules for responsible foreign land investment can be drafted and followed, leases could provide a much-needed cash infusion for African agriculture, which has struggled to find investment elsewhere.
"What's missing is that it has not been done responsibly enough," said Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). "Food security is a global issue and global partnership can contribute."
Rattled by the 2008 food crisis, when falling supplies and surging prices sparked unrest in several poor countries, and by the prospect of climate change denting farm output at home, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have paid millions of dollars for long-term farmland leases across Africa.
Investors looking for higher returns have also jumped into the market, and countries like China have locked up African land not just for food but for biofuel production.
Altogether close to 20 countries have leased tens of millions of acres of land in Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo, Nigeria and other African countries, agricultural experts say. The deals have provoked international criticism, not least because opponents fear the proceeds may end up in the hands of politicians rather than small farmers who could be pushed off their land.
FOOD SECURITY AT HOME
"The real issue in Africa is that a lot of these deals are done in secret," said Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, a project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"The small-holder farmers who stand to lose their land are not consulted. No one is sure the amount of money declared is the real amount," he added.
"Increased foreign investment is what everyone has been crying for for years," he said, adding though that on a continent already struggling with widespread hunger, investment that did not build food security at home did not make sense.
Regulating new investments, however, could help ensure Africans, notably farmers, get some benefit, IFAD's Nwanze said.
The IFAD and others are trying to create a new international framework on responsible land investment, which would set out guidelines on how local people must benefit from such deals.
That could require investors to hire local farmers already on the land rather than bringing in their own workers.
Land investors cannot be forced to sign on to such rules, Nwanze said. But faced with international criticism, many might sign up as a way to defuse tensions and improve their image, particularly in the countries where they are leasing land. The reality, Nwanze said, is that the investment is going to happen, and "I'm looking for a win-win situation."
(Laurie Goering is an editor at AlertNet, a service of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which aims at alerting humanitarians to emergencies. Check AlertNet news on www.alertnet.org) (Editing by xxx)

=====The Reference ======================= ==================================
*MIDROC stands for Mohammed International Development Research and Organization Companies

- WorldSpace - hostile take over attempt of Naoh Samara's start-up satellite business
- Al-Tad (for Al-Amoudi and Tadelle Yidnekachew, son of renouned Yidnekachew Tessema) - the first business set up in Ethiopia: a construction company to build Sheraton Addis
Business Network as sketched by a former employee of Al Amoudi who at one time ran a website at: www.workinsaudi.com
According to this source, Al Amoudi started out as a cement dealer. He later became the construction material supplier for the Swedish managed huge Saudi government project - the Saudi Strategic Storage Programme (SSSP-Project). The project was run under the aegis of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation. Al Amoudi is believed to be the front man for Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz who is the minister.
*
Al Amoudi's Oil and Gas Holdings (extracted from the article: SAUDI ARABIA - The Private Placements, published on 20 October 2003 by APS Review Gas Market Trends):
Corral Petroleum Holdings (CPH) is a Swedish-registered firm owned by Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi, of a Jeddah-based merchant clan. CPH in the first quarter of 1999 assumed control over the refining and retail businesses in Morocco. This was done through a merger of the country's two refining firms in which CPH had held the majority since May 1997: Socit Anonyme Marocaine de l'Industrie de Raffinage (Samir) and Socit Chrifinne de Petroles (SCP). The smaller refinery, at Sidi Kacem, has a nameplate capacity of 1.5m t/y. Samir's refinery has a capacity of 6.25m t/y.
CPH's local unit, Corral Holdings Morocco (CHM) merged Samir and SCP so that their resources were pooled together to gain economies of scale and help CHM prepare a $700m programme for expansion. This was to include an upgrade of the two refineries, as gasoline and gasoil specifications in Morocco were to be changed by 2003. CHM was to increase their retail networks in a single system. The project was to upgrade and raise Samir's capacity from 6.25m to 8.25m t/y by 2005, with high quality gasoil/diesel to exceed 55% and that of fuel oil to fall below 15% (down from 33%) of production. Foster Wheeler made the FEED and was the PMC.
However, Samir's refinery was badly damaged by floods and fire in late November 2002. MCE Voest of Austria was contracted subsequently to assess the damage in 2003. As a result, the $700m has since been delayed and the suspension of refinery operations has caused Morocco to import products to meet its requirements. CHM holds a 67.33% equity in Samir.
CHM's 1,500 service stations throughout Morocco were also to be improved under a separate project. Having a monopoly on the local refining industry in Morocco, CHM was aiming to meet all the country's mogas and distillate requirements by 2010. CHM has been getting is crude oil needs from Saudi Aramco, Iraq, Iran and the spot market.
CHM's LPG retail network in Morocco has been expanded through a merger agreed in October 1998 with Tayssir Primagaz, Azizgaz, and Elf Intergaz (Elf now is part of Total). The merged entity has 85% of the LPG market and has invested in new plant and equipment for gas bottling centres to meet the growth in local demand. Previously CHM had 10 LPG filling units accounting for 40% of the filling sector but only 5% of the LPG market.
Corral's first move was on March 16, 1994, when it acquired Stockholm-based OK Petroleum AB (OKP) for $738m. In July 1994 OKP bought Sweden's 400 Texaco petrol stations, representing a 7% share of the market. The total deal was worth around $1.2 bn. Since mid-1996, OKP has been renamed Preem Petroleum. (Nimir had initially wanted to buy OKP but decided against it. Then Al Amoudi hired Nimir as a PMC prior to buying OKP. Nimir undertook the negotiation and acquisition of OKP, on behalf of Corral. Later Nimir got a PMC contract from Preem). Preem is the biggest refiner in Scandinavia with a capacity of 300,000 b/d, in two refineries: the 200,000 b/d Scanraff plant, jointly owned with Norsk Hydro, and the 100,000 b/d Preem refinery. A $200m upgrade at the latter refinery was completed in 2002. Preem Petroleum has extensive storage facilities. Preem has E&P concessions in three North Sea fields, in the Baltic and in Angola. In January 1995 it bought Polish oil company Va-Po, which has a storage farm in Poznan and 20 retail outlets. Now Corral owns some 500 retail outlets under the Preem brand name. Corral also owns Svenska Petroleum and Exploration, which produces 15,000-18,000 b/d of crude oil and has annual sales of around $160m.
In mid-1995 Corral teamed up with Dubai-based Gulf Interstate to take a 15% share in oil retailer Fortuna of Lebanon, at a cost of $50m. Corral's share has since been raised to 70% and Gulf Interstate is out. Fortuna has two units: Coral Oil and Speed Oil operating 150 retail outlets in Lebanon. Amoudi has bought from the Saudi firm Al Mawarid Naft Services Co. which has the largest chain of petrol stations in the kingdom. Its stations are concentrated around Jeddah, Riyadh and Al Khobar.
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Private Saudi oil refining and distribution businesses are linked to the Saudi royal family in one way or another. Their acquisitions abroad are seen as a backdoor way for Saudi oil and refined products to penetrate overseas markets where Saudi Aramco has no presence. Al Amoudi’s oil and gas business holdings in the Sweden, Morroco and Lebanon could not be seen disconnected from this reality. It is not clear what portion of his holdings represent his actual private ownership and what portion belongs to others in the tangled webs of complex front and shell holding companies. Other than Al Amoudi’s Corral Petroleum Holdings (CPH), the other main Saudi private operators involved overseas include: i) Nimir Petroleum Co. Ltd (NPC), owned by the Bin Mahfouz family of Jeddah; ii) the Delta Oil Co., based in Jeddah, part of Delta Investment Co. which groups about 50 prominent Saudi businessmen; iii) the Dallah Al Barakah Group, a Jeddah-based Saudi corporate giant controlled by Shaikh Saleh Al Kamel; and iv) the little known Ningharco linked to the Arab Group International (AGI) based in Riyadh and headed by Prince Sultan Ibn Saud Ibn Abdullah Al Saud.
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Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB is a private Swedish oil and gas company engaged in offshore exploration and production of oil and gas in fields worldwide. Currently, it has production activities in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire, Norway and the United Kingdom. Svenska’s workforce has a large percentage of geoscience professionals. The organisation is divided functionally into Exploration, Development & Production and Business Support. Management is divided between the operating offices. The company is a subsidiary of Petroswede, a holding company established in 1996. Petroswede is wholly owned by Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi, one of the largest private investors in Sweden.
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"When the idea formed of Divinity is the fruit of true spiritual culture, its intimate re-action on the inner perfection is at once beneficial and beautiful. All things assume a new form and meaning in our eyes when regarded as the creatures of forecasting design, and not the capricious handiwork of unreasoning chance. The ideas of wisdom order, and adaptative forethought,—ideas so necessary to the conduct of our own actions, and even to the culture of the intellect,—strike deeper root into our susceptible nature, when we discover them everywhere around us. The finite becomes, as it were, infinite; the perishable, enduring; the fleeting, stable; the complex, simple,—when we contemplate one great regulating Cause on the summit of things, and regard what is spiritual as endlessly enduring. Our search after truth, our striving after perfection, gain greater certainty and consistency when we can believe in the existence of a Being who is at once the source of all truth, and the sum of all perfection. The soul becomes less painfully sensible of the chances and changes of fortune, when it learns how to connect hope and confidence with such calamities. The feeling of receiving everything we possess from the hand of love, tends no less to exalt our moral excellence and enhance our happiness. Through a constant sense of gratitude for enjoyment—through clinging with fond trustfulness to the object towards which it yearns, the soul is drawn out of itself, nor always broods in jealous isolation over its own sensations, its own plans, hopes, and fears. Should it lose the exalting feeling of owing everything to itself, it still enjoys the rapture of living in the love of another,—a feeling in which its own perfection is united with the perfection of that other being. It becomes disposed to be to others what others are to it; it would not that they too should receive nothing but from themselves, in the same way that it receives nothing from others."

Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Limits of State action; 1792(CHAPTER VII.
Religion)

The Synthesis