Internet connenction

Leider betrifft das nicht nur genannte Staaten und Gebiete sondern auch Ostafrika!
Internetverbindung ist sehr langsam! Ich habe mir vor kurzem noch Gedanken darüber gemacht, wie die Verwendung des Internetz die Arbeitsweise der Menschen und auch deren Kommunikation beeinflußt. Durchforstet man etwas das Angebot im Netz wird man schnell erkennen dass sich viele Anwendungen sozusagen ins Netz verlegt haben. Ob das jetzt Office Anwendungen, Soziale Netze, oder purer Informationsaustausch ist. Die Abhängigkeit der Arbeitswelt aber auch der Gesellschaft im privaten Bereich ist sehr groß geworden.
Wie ich die Vielfalt der Anwendungsmöglichkeiten des sogenannten web2.0 erkundet habe, ist mir vorallem ein Gedanke gekommen, neben der Privatssphären Diskussion rund um den transparenten Menschen im Internet, was ist, wenn das Internet ausfällt? Keine oder beschränkte Kommunikation, massive Impacts auf die Arbeitswelt und Ökonomie von betroffenen Regionen. Wie ich weiter überlegt habe ist mir Strom in den Sinn gekommen. Wie selbstverständlich eigentlich eine ununterbrochene Stromversorgung für uns heutzutage geworden ist. Niemand würde auch nur einen Gedanken daran verschwenden, eine Gerät (Spitäler, jede Art von Arbeitsgerät) nicht zu verwenden weil evt. der Strom ausfallen könnte und wir abhängig davon sind. Mit dem Internet wird es ähnlich sein. Viele Anwendungen des täglichen Lebens werden sich ins Netz verlagern und zwangsläufig davon abhängig werden. Möglicherweise werden wir in einigen Jahre oder die nächste Generation auch keinen Gedanken mehr darüber verschwenden ob die Internetversorgungssicherheit gewährleistet ist. Abgesehen von alle Diskussion rund um die Privatsspäre der Menschen, wird die Abhängigkeit von Technologien größer. Auch die Verwundbarkeit?

Oder wird in einigen Jahren niemand mehr über diese Dinge nachdenken weil sie so selbstverständlich geworden sind und Teil unserer Geselleschaft und Kultur?

Artikel:

Kabelriss
Ägypten und Indien offline

Weite Teile Indiens, Ägyptens und einige arabische Staaten waren am Mittwoch vom Internet abgeschnitten. Zwei gerissene Unterseekabel vor der ägyptischen Nordküste soll das Blackout im Netz verursacht haben.

Laut ägyptischen Behörden sind rund 70 Prozent des Internet-Netzwerks im Land ausgefallen. In Indien war die Bandbreite um rund die Hälfte reduziert. Der Offline-Status führte auch zu Chaosszenen auf der Kairoer Börse. Die Aktienhändler beklagten, dass sie gar nicht oder nur "blind" handeln konnten. Auch zahlreiche riesige Call-Center mussten wegen des Internet-Ausfalls ihre Arbeit einstellen.

Techniker der betroffenen Länder haben mittlerweile eine Mindestversorgung der Kabelnetze sichergestellt, es kann aber bis zu zwei Wochen dauern, bis das Internet wieder in vollem Umfang nutzbar ist.

Quelle

lg
Dom!n!K

UN Ethiopia/Eritrea force may have to pull back

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers monitoring the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea may have to halt operations within weeks because Eritrea has cut diesel fuel supplies, said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In letters dated Monday to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and to the U.N. Security Council, Ban said that as a result of the December 1 stoppage, the mission had only enough fuel to last until early March.

Ban called on Afwerki to address the issue "on an urgent basis", otherwise a U.N. decision would have to be taken in early February to begin withdrawing the 1,700-strong United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, or UNMEE.

"Given the gravity of the situation, I have to ... alert the (Security) Council of the imminent need for a decision on the fate of UNMEE, if the crisis is not resolved by the end of this month," said the letter, seen by Reuters.

The fuel stoppage is linked to the border dispute that brought the two impoverished Horn of Africa countries to war in 1998.

A 2000 agreement ended the conflict after 70,000 people had been killed but a decision two years later by an independent boundary commission to award the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea led to continued tension.

Ban noted that the fuel cut-off came the day after the Netherlands-based commission finally announced the demarcation of the 1,000-km (620-mile) border by map coordinates, but without physically delineating it on the ground.

Eritrea accepted the so-called "virtual demarcation", but it was rejected by Ethiopia.

Ban quoted a January 15 letter from Afwerki to the Security Council as saying that since the boundary "is now demarcated", the continued presence of UNMEE in Eritrea would be tantamount to occupation.

The current Security Council mandate for the peacekeeping force runs out at the end of January.

Analysts and diplomats have warned that fighting could resume, and last November Ban expressed concern about a military build-up by both countries along the border.

In his letters, Ban recalled that Eritrea had been limiting fuel supplies to UNMEE since September 2006, forcing the mission into austerity measures and reducing its operations.

The total shut-off had meant a drastic reduction in patrols and demining, a halt to the building of protection bunkers and the need to limit use of generators at UNMEE camps and some check-points to two hours a day, he said.

© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.

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Ethiopia’s Dirty War

Somalis living in Ethiopia are caught in the crossfire between the government and rebels.

By Jason McLure | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jan 22, 2008 | Updated: 7:06  p.m. ET Jan 22, 2008

It was early one morning in July when 400 Ethiopian soldiers came to Ridwan Hassan Zahid's village of Qorile, 120 miles southeast of this dusty market town. The small settlement of ethnic Somalis in eastern Ethiopia was suspected of supporting separatist rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), and the government troops were out to exact revenge. They took Zahid, another woman, and eight men to the nearby village of Babase, where, she says, the soldiers chased away residents and burned the village to the ground. "I became like plastic," she says. "I couldn't feel a thing."

On the third day after her capture, the soldiers divided the prisoners into groups. As the other captives looked on, soldiers hung one man from one of the parched region's few trees; another was taken out of sight. Soon it was Zahid's turn. A small group of soldiers dug a hole in the sandy ground. They forced her into it and pinned her down by pressing the barrel of an AK-47 to her throat. As she tried to choke out the words to a final Muslim prayer, she heard two other captives screaming for mercy nearby as a noose was slipped over her head. Two soldiers jerked up on the rope, lifting her out of the hole by her neck, and she lost consciousness.

In Ethiopia's Somali region, a long-simmering rebellion by the ONLF, a separatist group seeking an independent state for Ethiopia's Somalis, is boiling over. Rebels, taking advantage of chaos in neighboring Somalia, attacked a Chinese-run oil exploration site in April, killing 74 people and triggering a massive crackdown by Ethiopia's ethnic-Tigray-dominated government. Government forces have since burned villages, blocked trade routes and carried out summary executions in an effort to quell the rebellion. Nine months later Ethiopia's government appears to have gained the upper hand, but only by essentially declaring war on virtually the entire Ogadeni clan of Somalis—a group that makes up the about half of the region's 4.5 million people.

Hundreds of civilians have died in the fighting (the ONLF estimates 2,000 killed by the government in the past year, though one independent estimate suggests the figure is less than half that), and 1.8 million more may be at risk, as an Ethiopian blockade has cut off commercial food shipments from neighboring Somalia and prevented the region's nomadic people from selling their livestock. Ogadeni clan elders who have tracked the fighting say people from more than 250 villages have been forced to flee the violence.

Amid a sea of crises in neighboring Sudan, Somalia, and Kenya, the plight of Ethiopia's vast Somali region—an area twice the size of England with just 30 miles of paved highway—has been largely ignored in the West. After barring the foreign press from the region for months, the Ethiopian government recently took NEWSWEEK and a group of other foreign reporters on a tightly controlled tour of parts of the region. Amid scenes of malnourished children and whispered stories of government atrocities, the defining impression was of a population gripped by fear.

One 30-year-old man selling clothes in the marketplace in Degehebur says he came to the dusty town five months ago after Ethiopian troops burned his village of Leby, 18 miles southwest of the town. Fifty civilians were killed, he says. "At the time I had a shop, a good house," he says, refusing to give his name out of fear of government reprisal. "We are in trouble. We are caught between the Ethiopian government and the ONLF … between two guns."

con`t

Ethiopia: Making the Mini-Boom Last

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Addisu Tadesse
Addis Ababa

Addisu Tadesse, an Ethiopian residing in the United Kingdom (UK) and working as a research and development engineer for a multinational company, has a very positive impression of Ethiopia's economic development after his recent visit in November 2007. Although reluctant to make the current regime brag about his positive observations, concerned that it may lead to complacency, he argues that his is an effort to emphasise the importance of hard work to win the hearts and minds of the people. He would also like to remind the opposition to recognise the changes on the ground and prepare themselves accordingly by formulating a better strategy based on what has already been achieved.

Very interesting article about the economic boom in Ethiopia. Critical review and background information.

Link

In Ethiopia's Ogaden region, civilians suffer in silence

by Aaron Maasho

DEGAHABUR, Ethiopia, Jan 23, 2008 (AFP) - The scars on Mohammed Dhaqane's tanned face offer a glimpse of the kind of ordeal he and many others have been subjected to over the past year in Ethiopia's Ogaden region.

"I was just a businessman, I had no involvement in any matter," he says, his hearing and delivery impaired by his wounds. "Now I can't work or feed my family."

Mohammed was among 50 people who were on board a bus that was caught in the middle of a firefight four months ago between government troops and rebel fighters in Danan, a sparsely-settled town in the region.

A bullet sliced his right cheekbone and cut the lower portion of his right ear. He has suffered nerve problems ever since and his health has steadily declined.

Dozens of locals have similar stories of death, mutilation and hardship.

Ethiopia's little-known Ogaden region is a vast expanse of often hostile land baked most of the year by a scorching sun and inhabited by ethnic Somalis.

Ethiopia launched a massive clampdown in the oil-rich Muslim region against the Ogaden National Liberation Front, a secessionist rebel group formed in 1984 in response to what it claims is systematic marginalisation by Addis Ababa.

The counter-insurgency started in April last year, after the ONLF attacked a Chinese-run oil venture about 145 kilometers (90 miles) east of the regional capital Jijiga, killing 77 people.

Since then, both the ONLF and aid groups have claimed widespread reprisals and punishments on civilians to undermine support for the rebels in the region.

Thousands of refugees have flocked to neighbouring countries blaming rape and other abuses, including the burning of villages.

"Don't you see? People have scattered, everyone has run away," says an elderly street vendor in Degahabur, a zone designated by the UN as one of the most affected areas by the conflict.

"We don't talk about that around here, you never know what would happen," she adds, referring to reprisals.

"Everything has happened here, people have been killed and raped," a frightened woman nearby says before quickly fleeing.

She also claims that government troops had even arrested elderly people, some as old as 80, for refusing to join in the crackdown. Regional authorities categorically deny abuse claims.

"If there ever were human rights violations, they were done by the terrorists (ONLF). They (locals) are our own people, why should we commit such actions upon them?" regional president Abdullahi Hassan asks.

"Those who burn villages are the ONLF and the Islamic Courts."

Ogadenis express their dismay over the consequences brought about by the conflict in their region, long a bone of contention with neighbouring Somalia.

"Occasionally, they (soldiers) come around and detain people suspected of links with the ONLF," a khat dealer says while angrily stuffing khat leaves in his mouth.

"I don't know anyone who supports the ONLF here but they (ONLF) are based around the outskirts of the city," he adds.

The rebels also get their share of the blame, as some locals accuse them of forceful recruitment, livestock theft and killings.

"We have problems with both of them, they both harm us. People have been running away because of the battles between the two," adds the elderly vendor.

Addis Ababa, a key US ally in the region, accuses the ONLF of receiving backing from its archfoe Eritrea and of supporting the Islamist insurgents Ethiopian troops are battling in Somalia.

Last September, a UN mission recommended an independent probe into allegations that the government had committed rights abuses in its clampdown on ONLF rebels. The government has fiercely denied those claims.

str/eg/jmm/bm AFP 230250 GMT 01 08

Copyright (c) 2008 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 01/22/2008 21:50:41

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Das neue Haus und Wasser?

Hier ein Bild unseres neuen Hauses. Wir sind vor mittlerweile 3 Wochen umgezogen. Eigentlich in einer Nacht und Nebel Aktion. Nachdem sich Nina, bei der wir gewohnt haben und noch immer wohnen, entschlossen hat nicht mehr für die horrende Miete von 2700 US $ aufkommen zu wollen und der Vermieter gar noch 500 mehr wollte :-S, haben wir innerhalb eines Tages zusammengepackt und sind innerhalb 3 weiter Stunden umgezogen. Nina hat es sich da fast eher gemütlich gemacht, einen Packdienst engagiert, und, nachdem innerhalb 2 Tagen ihre Sachen gepackt waren und innerhalb einen 1/2 Tag ins neue Haus gebracht waren, sich in den Urlaub begeben. Schön für sie ;-) weil wir haben dann am nächsten Tag entdeckt das die Wasserversorgung des Hauses nicht die Beste war, also eigentlich nicht funktioniert hat!! Fast 3 Wochen später, etlichen Installateursbesuchen und abenteuerlichen neu Einbauten, Heureka, fließt das Wasser, ..., dort wos auch fließen soll ;-) Is ja nicht selbstverständlich. Könnt ja auch unterm Küchenkastl hervorkommen um die Küche zu überschwemmen oder aus einer lecken vergrabenen Leitung, dessen Leck erst mit Lauschmethoden entdeckt wurde. Nur um festzustellen, dass, nachdem dann der halbe Garten umgegraben war (vielleicht bissl übertrieben ich gebs zu) diese Leitung keine Funktion hat und nur zum etwaigen Anschluss einer Waschmaschine dort verlegt wurd, die ja durchaus einen guten Zweck erfüllen könnt. Nachdem der Zukunft in Äthiopien prinzipiell nicht so viel Wert beigemessen wird, wurde die Leiteung kurzerhand ausgegraben und, richtig geraten, ohne eine Neue zu verlegen, der Graben wieder zu geschüttet. Aber es is ja nicht so. Die Arbeiter haben ja sogar eine Ersatzleitung voher besorgt, nur wie gesagt die Zukunft eben...
Jetzt haben wir eine Waschmaschien ohne Anschluss, aber man soll ja nicht Kleinlich sein. Nicht hier bitte ;-) Immerhin gibts jetzt Wasser, ich sehe jetzt einmal großzügigerweise von den seltsamen Geräuschen der neu installierten Pumpe ab, die ich dann gestern mitten in der Nacht abgeschalten hab, also die Pumpe und auch die Geräusche. Wär ja doch noch schöner, wenn alles gleich klappen würd, sind ja nur 3 Woche, also bitte! Nur positiv denken, das kann in Äthiopien nicht schaden.

Immerhin das Haus ist wirklich nett, schöner Rosengarten, den zeig ich dann ein ander Mal.
Übrigens den Balkon den man evt. erkennen kann, gehört zu unserem Zimmer, Keilförmig, erinnert mich bissl an die Titanic ;-) Also ohne Hintergedanken jetzt wegen dem Wasser und so.

Und übrigens Nina kommt morgen aus dem Urlaub zurück, die weiß natürlich noch von nix!!

lg
Dom!n!K

Eritrea accepts "virtual" border with Ethiopia

Wed 16 Jan 2008, 10:07 GMT

 
ASMARA, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Eritrea has accepted a "virtual demarcation" of its border with Ethiopia and wants Addis Ababa to remove its troops from Eritrean soil, a statement published on Wednesday said.

The two nations have been deadlocked over a 1,000 km (620 mile) border since a 2002 decision by an independent boundary commission gave the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.

The Hague-based commission -- set up by a peace deal ending the 1998-2000 war -- "virtually" demarcated the border late last year based on the 2002 decision after the two sides failed to come to an agreement on their shared frontier.

"Now after five years of revolving around the basic problem, the matter has finally been resolved through a virtual demarcation of the border," said a statement in the English-language Eritrea Profile newspaper.

Ethiopian officials declined to comment.

No territory has changed hands since the demarcation and thousands of troops still face each other along the common border.

In the statement, Eritrea said it would pursue legal measures to evict Ethiopian soldiers from territory awarded to Asmara by the 2002 ruling.

"However, if legal proceedings do not result in the appropriate outcome, then the Eritrean people have other internationally approved choices," the bi-weekly, government-owned paper said, without describing what those options were.

Analysts and diplomats fear an incident along the frontier could spiral out of control and provoke a full-scale war.

Ethiopia had initially rejected the 2002 ruling. It now says it unconditionally accepts the decision, but wants more talks, which Eritrea dismisses.

Ethiopia has dismissed the "virtual" demarcation as "invalid" under international law.

Asmara has repeatedly said Addis Ababa was planning to invade -- a charge Ethiopia ridicules. (Reporting by Jack Kimball, additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa; editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Mary Gabriel)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.