The century old traditional house of Dejazmach Ayalew Emiru is to be handed over to Liya Kebede, a super model residing in New York. Feleke Yimer, deputy general manager of the city, has, on June 2, 2008, instructed the city Housing Development Project Office to furnish condominium housing to 24 head of households who are currently occupying the building.
The decision to grant the historical house to Liya was made by Berhane Deressa, former mayor of the city, during his last days in office. The house is located in Kirkos District, Kebele 02/03, behind the Cameroon Embassy off Africa Avenue (Bole Road).
“The one-storey building is not in a good form now,” says Worku Ambaye, who has been staying in the house since 1974. “Rain leaks into the house. It is because I have no better option that I am living here with four of my children.”
Every household has a single or two rooms. Although the house was initially put up with lumber, the residents have been overhauling it with corrugated iron sheets.
What are considered as historical relics in the city master plan are 33 churches, two mosques, 73 houses of former chiefs, 2 institutions, and 17 monuments, trenches and bridges.
The city has plans to outsource such houses to private investors that would like to use them as galleries, hotels or exhibition and bazaar spots. Thus, Dejazmach Ayalew’s was granted to the famous Ethiopian model. Dejazmach is a military title meaning commander of the central body of traditional Ethiopian armed forces. Dejazmach, who died forty years ago, was the leader in the fight against Italy.
Liya’s plan is to revamp the houses a bid to make it a hub for tourists, according to those who were exposed to her proposal.
Liya was born and raised in Addis Abeba. While she was attending Lycee Guebremariam, she was introduced to a French modeling agent. After completing her studies, she moved to France to pursue work through a Parisian agency. She later relocated to New York City. For her 2.5 million dollars earning in July 2007, Forbes named her the eleventh in the list of the world’s 15 top earning models.
http://www.addisfortune.com/New%20York%20Based%20Ethiopian%20Model%20to%20Revamp%20Historical%20Relic.htm
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Chris Tucker to make a movie in Ethiopia
ENA) — The famous American Actor, Chris Tucker is thinking to do a movie in Ethiopia, his favorite African country where he considers as “a second home”.
The actor who was among more than 200 delegates who paid a two-day visit to Ethiopia before heading to Arusha, Tanzania, for the 8th summit of Leon H. Sullivan Foundation transplanted tree in Ethiopia on Friday.
Chris Tucker told ENA on the spot that “Hopefully, I can come back and do a movie. I have to figure out.”
He said “I love Ethiopia. It is my favorite African country. Because of the history… it is just beautiful and the people are beautiful and nice.”
He said “I am happy to be here, this is like my second home.”
“Hopefully I can come back in a year or two …and just show that Ethiopia has so much beautiful greenery. This is a great, great flourishing land.”
“This is my second time (to be in Ethiopia). I am looking forward to coming back. On my first time, I didn’t go out the countryside. Today we went out a little further out. And see beautiful trees and hills. That was really nice,” he said.
Another member of the delegation, CB Hackworth, is also planning to come back to Ethiopia on a film documentary project on Ethiopia.
He said he wanted to stopover before heading to Arusha for a number of reasons, one of which is because he “…wanted to have some meeting here to discuss the possibility of doing a film here in Ethiopia.”
“What we do … is we tell positive stories about Africa,” he said.
According to him, what people outside of Africa know about the continent is what they are told by the media. Mostly, he said, the international media make Africa look a bad place, which he observed is not the true story of Africa.
“People in the US don’t realize they can visit a beautiful city like Addis that there are wonderful hotels and it is peaceful, that they are safe, if people come to know this then they will visit. And it will increase tourism and help the economy. So that is what we are trying to do with the film.”
“We are trying to find positive stories,” he said adding, the initiative of Ethiopia to replenish its lost forest resources in connection with its millennium celebration, which he considers as a wonderful way of marking the millennium, is a positive story.
He said “… News is something happening. For large news organizations, they don’t rush out and spend money and resources to report good things are happening. They rush out and spend money and resources to tell you about a war or a famine. If things are going good they generally don’t consider that news. We are trying to bring some balance to that and say there is more to the world. There is more to Africa.”
“Ethiopia is very civilized. Ethiopia also fought against colonialism. So unlike a lot of parts of Africa, Ethiopia really was able to put its own imprint on its own country. So a lot of your developments are from Ethiopians. So I think that is unique, I think that is something that people who visit will find very interesting,” he said
The actor who was among more than 200 delegates who paid a two-day visit to Ethiopia before heading to Arusha, Tanzania, for the 8th summit of Leon H. Sullivan Foundation transplanted tree in Ethiopia on Friday.
Chris Tucker told ENA on the spot that “Hopefully, I can come back and do a movie. I have to figure out.”
He said “I love Ethiopia. It is my favorite African country. Because of the history… it is just beautiful and the people are beautiful and nice.”
He said “I am happy to be here, this is like my second home.”
“Hopefully I can come back in a year or two …and just show that Ethiopia has so much beautiful greenery. This is a great, great flourishing land.”
“This is my second time (to be in Ethiopia). I am looking forward to coming back. On my first time, I didn’t go out the countryside. Today we went out a little further out. And see beautiful trees and hills. That was really nice,” he said.
Another member of the delegation, CB Hackworth, is also planning to come back to Ethiopia on a film documentary project on Ethiopia.
He said he wanted to stopover before heading to Arusha for a number of reasons, one of which is because he “…wanted to have some meeting here to discuss the possibility of doing a film here in Ethiopia.”
“What we do … is we tell positive stories about Africa,” he said.
According to him, what people outside of Africa know about the continent is what they are told by the media. Mostly, he said, the international media make Africa look a bad place, which he observed is not the true story of Africa.
“People in the US don’t realize they can visit a beautiful city like Addis that there are wonderful hotels and it is peaceful, that they are safe, if people come to know this then they will visit. And it will increase tourism and help the economy. So that is what we are trying to do with the film.”
“We are trying to find positive stories,” he said adding, the initiative of Ethiopia to replenish its lost forest resources in connection with its millennium celebration, which he considers as a wonderful way of marking the millennium, is a positive story.
He said “… News is something happening. For large news organizations, they don’t rush out and spend money and resources to report good things are happening. They rush out and spend money and resources to tell you about a war or a famine. If things are going good they generally don’t consider that news. We are trying to bring some balance to that and say there is more to the world. There is more to Africa.”
“Ethiopia is very civilized. Ethiopia also fought against colonialism. So unlike a lot of parts of Africa, Ethiopia really was able to put its own imprint on its own country. So a lot of your developments are from Ethiopians. So I think that is unique, I think that is something that people who visit will find very interesting,” he said
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