Filmmaker Jessica Beshir’s bending, swaying nonfiction journey “Faya Dayi” explores rural Ethopia by way of the production and consumption of the chewable narcotic leaf called khat an approach not in the traditional manner of an issue documentary or informational travelogue, however, but as a state of mind to be received. That drug, in other words, called cinema. Yes, there are harvesters, packagers and users speaking to us, and a camera that captures a community dependent on and wary of its grip. Yet in eschewing directness of intent for the artful massaging of space, sound and rhythm, Beshir’s film a very personal project for the Mexican Ethiopian director, which she shot over 10 years stakes a richer claim to our sense of the place and the effect of its most lucrative crop.
The black-and-white photography is tenderly textured even in its starkness, as evocative with a diaphanous curtain in sunlight as with people working at night, and the nature all around them. It’s also a melancholic indicator, however, that while this is a beautiful culture, it’s in the grip of a monochrome economy that’s swallowing everyone. “Everyone chews to get away,” one boy’s voice-over tells us. “Their flesh is here but their soul is gone.” The bustle of khat’s reaping in the fields, bundling in packed warehouses and selling on the streets is not unlike the plant’s stimulating effects one source of energy in the film, while interiors with transfixed chewers and ritualized users (it’s been a Sufi pathway to transcendence for centuries) create another mood entirely.
The heartbeat of Beshir’s film, though, is with its wandering young narrators people looking for a way out of a homeland they love and worry for. Her threading of their collective searching presence, like lonely guides navigating an encompassing, self-medicated haze, is what gives “Faya Dayi” its dignifying, transfixing intimacy and what renders it unlike any other documentary you’re likely to see.
(LA Times)
Review: ‘Faya Dayi’ observes rural Ethiopia and the crop that transfixes its people
Sustainable resources
Bamboo and rattan are astounding resources with unique potential to combat poverty and natural resources challenges. They grow locally to some of the world’s poorest communities in the tropics and subtropics, and have many uses, providing a vast range of sustainable products, livelihood options and ecosystem services. If wisely harnessed the potential of bamboo and rattan will be instrumental to preserving the environment and climate as well as the goals set by the UN-Sustainable Development Goals.
One organization on the fore front of using the potential of bamboo and rattan is the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) which was founded in 1997. Over the years, INBAR has been making a real difference to the lives of millions of people and environments around the world, with achievements in areas such as: raising standards; promoting safe, resilient bamboo construction; restoring degraded land; capacity-building; and informing green policy and Sustainable Development Goal objectives. Capital sat down with Regional Program Manager, Selim Reza (PhD) for insights on the organisation’s work in Ethiopia. Excerpts;
Capital: Tell us about INBAR?
Selim Reza: International Bamboo and Rattan Organization /INBAR/ is an intergovernmental organization. Currently, there are 48 member countries and majority of the member countries are from the African countries. We have the head quarter in Beijing China and we have a few numbers of regional offices which are from the East Asian countries. We also have an office in Delhi India, and for Central African countries, we have an office in Cameroon. Furthermore, we have an office in Ecuador for Latin America while the East African office is here in Addis Ababa.
Basically we work with the government, private partners and entrepreneurs’, media people, (journalists), researchers, academicians and scientist. You can say that our work deals with scientific research for the future development. Moreover, we support technology transfer to the community so that they can uplift themselves in the bamboo sector.
Our main focus is in three major areas: The first is the Enterprise development or Enterprise and Industry support. Secondly, we also support land restoration and thirdly, climate change mitigation. So these are our three core areas as per the UN-SDG goals. Our support overall completes a few number of UN-SGD goals which are around 7 through bamboo activities.
With regards to the East African office in Addis Ababa, it was established in 2009 and we have a number of projects. We already are implementing projects which give us the encouragement and the confidence to work with the government. Initially, we have with the ministry of agriculture and the Ethiopian forest and climate change commission and we hope to work and collaborate with other government bodies in our projects.
For our facilitation and smooth operation of our activities we have one representative in the commission, who is a senior officer deployed and is working now. These are some of the examples of the dynamic group operations and also facilitation with the linkages within the INBAR as well as the commission.
Currently, we have two projects which are being implemented here in Ethiopia. One is being implemented in Amhara region funded by the IFL whilst the other project is East Africa, bamboo development program which is a phase 2 project, a progress from the first phase which was started in 2016 and completed in 2019.
We strongly believe that developmental projects are in line with the good work in terms of the policies and local capacity buildings to the local government ministries and community. As a result the second phase of the project was extended until December 2023. The project is supported by the Dutch ministry as well the government of China and we have several partners in the program as well.
Capital: Who are your partners?
Selim Reza: Ethiopian Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission, Ethiopian Trade and Tourism Enterprise and several universities, are a great example of partners who we are doing some research with. Moreover, we collaborate with the Ethiopian Environments Policy Research Institution as well as private partners in the bamboo industry.
Within our working structure of activities, we have a few number of core activities as part of the project design. One is promoting the industrial bamboo value chain for the small enterprises as well as the industry. For the small enterprises we focus on capacity building, new design development, technology promotion and market promotions which we place emphasis on to strengthen the value chain.
Apart from capacity building and value chain development on the industry, we pay close attention to workers especially so that they can produce quality products and work in line with the company. We are also working with an outcome for the large scale land restoration and new area plantation for ‘Bamboo Plantation’ especially and nursery developments. To this end we are promoting large-scale, nurseries and also medium and small scale with different types. In addition to this, we are providing different kinds of training to the local community for the management and establishment of the nursery. We are also lining people in different departments, especially from the forest Department at EFCC in the agriculture Ministry, like development workers as well as the different experts.
We primarily provide the training so as to best train them as well as develop their capacity so that they can tackle their job head on. In conjunction to this, we also promote bamboo charcoal based activities for the clean energy program.
Capital: Kindly elaborate further about the bamboo charcoal.
Selim Reza: It is one of our new projects focusing on bamboo charcoal. Bamboo charcoal has no smoke and burns smoothly. The main benefit is that by using bamboo charcoal, we are not destroying the forest, since bamboo is a renewable resource. Bamboo charcoal is four times more porous than regular wood charcoal. That means – it is a lot more effective.
One of the best things about bamboo charcoal is that it produces significantly fewer pollutants compared to wood charcoals, making it an eco-friendly source of renewable energy.
The bamboo charcoal adsorbs odor and pollutant particles by trapping them while air or water flows through the pores, purifying the surrounding air or water in the process. Thus it can be used as a dehumidifier and deodorizer. This has made it popular with the women who are at the fore front of cooking in traditional kitchens.
With regards to this project, we are implementing it in Bahirdar with different model bamboo charcoal enterprises in collaboration with NGOs, community government and professional partners.
Capital: How are you planning to promote the bamboo sector for the future?
Selim Reza: We are working on activities to develop a bamboo curriculum to help industries get certified people and we are going to do it in stepwise levels like from level on to three using different courses. This will strengthen the future’s sector as well as its credibility and standard. In addition, we are also trialing and testing some of our product lines which are almost on shipment state for the high land and low land bamboo. Because Ethiopia has two bamboo kinds, the highland and the lowland, we can use both of the species to make different products as a result we are sending full containers of both bamboos to China. In turn the Chinese industries are working with the ICBR to desk nine products and will also give the report in the multi supply chain and multiple users of bamboo in the industry. We are further promoting the sector by doing research on the use of bamboo leaves in addition to working with entrepreneurs who are working on producing bamboo bio fertilizer.
Regarding the market promotion, we are having different industry visits and market promotions as well as investor meetings, but due to the pandemic we were not able to organize inter country meetings.
Similarly, we are working to develop a bamboo depot so as to simplify the supply chain with the farmers to industries.
We have done two researches of which one is the agro climatic journal regarding the bamboo sites while the other is on gender study document on how women can be empowered in the bamboo sector.
Capital: The government is planning to build a bamboo training center. What is INBAR’s participation on this?
Selim Reza: The project is part of the Chinese government’s contribution to which the Ethiopian government will provide land with construction set to commence very soon. INBAR will provide any type of support since we are in the line of partnership with the center since when it is fully complete we will move in the center.
Capital: What’s your thought on government’s support of the bamboo industries?
Selim Reza: I think the government has done positive steps necessary for the industry since it has already prepared its strategic action plan. The government designed the plan in such a way that it will enable the industry to get support by mobilizing resources from different funding agencies. Furthermore, with regards to bamboo transportation, government has also issued license and necessary permits. The Ethiopian Investment Commission /EIC/is also promoting bamboo activities which show the value of support for the industry. The government has also involvement in the clean leadership program and had targeted 10 percent in bamboo plantation and the government is currently achieving more than this, so it is safe to say that government has been part and parcel as a contributor to the sector.
Capital: What are the challenges that the bamboo industry in Ethiopia is facing?
Selim Reza: The major challenge for not only Ethiopia but the entire African countries is the lack of professionals and professionalism in the sector as well as the lack of institutes. Similarly in the market, people still have the notion and mindset that bamboo is the poor man’s invest. However there ought to be a shift in these challenges and we are working on giving out the right information so that society remains informed. We are also focusing and prioritizing professionalism and collaborative efforts of relevant institutions to curve out great products in the market.
Rethinking Established Narratives
The wholesome sustenance of the reigning global system was and still is predicated on the assumption; given time, all of us will be better off, economically, socially, culturally, etc. Nonetheless, this critically unexamined assumption of the world system, which has been facing turbulent headwinds for decades, if not centuries, is now thoroughly unhinged from anything that looks sane and rational. The global economic regime that anchors all the rest of the other societal superstructures has also been in a flux for quite a while now. But since the 2007 crisis, its underlying problems have become intractable and almost unmanageable!
For a start, global social existence has become more and more confrontational. And unlike the narrative of the status quo, the ascendance of repetitive violent episodes are not only due to emerging non-state actors, but are also results of the state actors themselves! The larger natural world, in which all lives thrive, is threatened with aggressive destruction, thanks to the system’s excessive greediness & shortsightedness! In other words, the established narratives of the world system, which have been the ideological pillars of the system, in one form or another, are clearly losing their credibility. Moreover, the suffocating shallowness of established discourses have rendered even mild reforms unacceptable. As a result the world now threads on the throes of violent revolutions of all kinds. At the same time, those who have been at the forefront of the whole debacle continue to hold sway over the lives of all humanity.
Naturally, such an arrangement cannot be expected to hold for long. But nothing doing! The filthy rich and supremely stupid are still at it trying to sustain the unsustainable. Even their hired goons/brains will not be able to come up with convincing gimmicks to continuously contain the anger that is on the verge of gushing out all over the world. Before long, we believe the sickening reality imposed on the sheeple by the parasitic clowns (.01% of the global population) of the system will face the music!
Hired brains (Ivy league clown types) in the service of entrenched interests, who knew all along the system’s obvious weaknesses, but were not bold/confident enough to allow logical/rational critics/reflections to emerge, are now so scared of the emerging concrete reality on the ground, they can hardly muster the intellectual strength to utter any sensible comment/remark in regards to the prevailing chaotic situation. Be that as it may, the collapse of the whole unsustainable edifice cannot be postponed any further! The various institutions (IMF, WB, WTO, NATO, UN, universities, etc. of the status quo) made sure that all critics are systemically muzzled and ridiculed so that the gullible & hardly thinking beast can still be moored to its traditional but unfulfilling grazing fields (entertainments, sports, etc.) Currently, the sheeple rightly resents its pauperization & complete marginalization, though it lacks the intellectual/mental wherewithal to deconstruct the reality, sanctioned by the prevailing global narratives! This is where the need for ‘organic and committed intellectuals’ comes in, alluding to Gramsci’s phrase!
Hired goons include those who are willing to eliminate any sensible soul from the face of the earth, not on basis of humane and higher principles, but for crumbs thrown at them by the parasitic butchers of the system. Without a doubt, these charlatans of the ‘deep states’ are the most dangerous unthinking lackeys of the global order. For us, the deadly operational and structural nexus of the Military-Intelligence-Industrial-Banking-Media complex characterizes the prevailing ‘deep state’ of the prevailing undemocratic world! Don’t forget; it is because of deepening structural crisis of the modern world system, humanity is witnessing the proliferation of deep states across the world. Prescribed by the super elites of the global population, which only number the miniscule 700,000 individuals (less than .01%) the core states of the system have now acquired a fully Frankenstein form! Thanks to their operators (goons/brains), ‘deep states’ have superciliously eschewed almost all democratic dispensations, rhetoric aside!
By relying on the old and proven tactics of manipulation, indoctrination, surveillance, fear and persecutions & prosecutions, the goons of the ‘deep states’ are fomenting chaos all over the world! The beast across the world is being mobilized to support the political demagogues in their beastly and monstrous adventures. Inculcating hatred of all kinds (racial, religious, etc.) to support aggression all over is being employed systemically and efficiently. False flags have become so common that even the uninitiated have started to become sharp observers of such malicious events! Remember the downed Malaysian plane over Ukraine, or the weapon of mass destruction (chemical) allegedly used in Syria by the Syrian government against its own people? Etc. etc!
From the sheeple’s point of view, what must be attempted is the wholesale rejection of establishment dogmas.
NBE’s intermediary directive thrives
The intermediary directive of National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) bears fruits for banks. Ethiopia announces that it expects further fund from the supranational financial institution, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), which this week disclosed the allocation of half a billion dollar for all commercial banks through Afreximbank Trade Facilitation (AfTRAF) Programme. In related with the roadshow event that was held for three days starting from Wednesday September 15, Afreximbank announced that it has allocated for all commercial banks including private banks to facilitate USD 500 million to boost their activity on the international trade with their customers.
It is the first time in the history of Afreximbank, which commenced operations in 1993 and based in Cairo, to make funds available for private banks in Ethiopia.
Rene Awambeng, Global Head, Client Relations, Afreximbank, commended the tremendous effort and transformative measures, which are impacting Ethiopia’s financial sector development the macroeconomic stability of the country, the growth and the foreign exchange management, “despite the external shocks and internal challenges, including the emergence of the pandemic catastrophe, the financial services sector in Ethiopia remains quite resilient and its position to grow in the right direction with the slowdown of the pandemic.”
In the past couple of years, NBE has introduced massive changes in the financial industry that would pave the way for the country on the process to join World Trade Organization (WTO) and support for doing business in the country beside direct support for commercial banks to engage on massive activities including to access finance from foreign sources as intermediary for their local customers.
Regarding the latest allocation of half a billion dollar, despite him not mentioning the name of the firm he stated that one bank has already enjoyed over 200 million dollars of this facility, “so this new facility comes to improve and increase amounts. The facility approval is expected to be complete by the end of September and in the last quarter, banks should begin enjoying the benefit of this facility that trade finance programs,” he explained.
Ethiopia is one of the founding members and the shareholder of the bank, through NBE, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) and Ethiopian Insurance Corporation.
“However, we have not seen a significant comparison in the size of the support of the Afreximbank, to the Ethiopian economy over these last years; and this is one of the reasons, why we want to address the situation by having this road show with the financial sector and looking at intermediation with the financial sector so that we can improve the support of the bank to you as intermediaries and consequently to the small and medium-sized companies to the large corporates, and to the public sector in the Ethiopian economy,” Awambeng says, adding, “We are not here to compete with financial institutions. We are here to complement financial institutions. Our work is not principally driven by profit. Our work is driven by development and impact. We need to show a difference. If a commercial banks in Ethiopia is capable of doing a transaction. There is no need to interfere, we’re not going to come and take customer or displace that client from the Afreximbank.” he added.
Yinager Dessie, Governor of National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) told Capital that his government is expecting more similar facilities from the continental trade bank to support Ethiopian business.
He said that the bank has provided some support for Ethiopia but it was not that much “I have told them (the continental trade financer) to improve their facility for Ethiopian financial sector.”
Awambeng recalled that Ethiopia benefited about USD one billion from the bank mainly through the state owned bank.
It was recalled that about a year ago NBE approved a directive ‘Foreign Currency Intermediation by Banks Directives No. SBB/77/2020’ that allow local private banks to play intermediary role to access loan from foreign sources to granting credit to local borrowers in foreign currency. The current instrument facilitated by Afreximbank is part of the latest move NBE, which allows banks to improve LC settlement and payment of banks.
Yinager said that the NBE directive help banks to access such kind of funds from foreign sources that was not impossible before.
The Governor furthermore emphasized that the bank ought to open its office in Ethiopia as other international financial organizations on the aim to accelerate the benefit of the country.
Afreximbank stated that though the Bank’s Ethiopian interventions have traditionally been executed through its relationship with the country’s largest financial institution, CBE with whom it has existing facilities as well as an operating AfTRAF programme Afreximbank aims to develop strong partnerships with all commercial banks in Ethiopia, and is actively pursuing its target of signing up, and providing the AfTRAF Programme to 10 other commercial banks in Ethiopia by the end of 2021.
The Global Head has also introduced different financing instruments that Ethiopian banks shall utilize on their operation with customers.
“We also have project and asset based financing to support your growing industry. Such as the tourism sector, the medical sector the airline sector, the beverage sector, which are booming sectors in the economy,” he explained.
Awambeng said “commercial banks play an important role in facilitating and promoting trade a core ingredient of economic growth. Today’s forum serves to demonstrate the Bank’s commitment to support Ethiopia’s efforts to expand its trade capacity and establish the knowledge, infrastructure and resources by which this will be achieved.”
Under the roadshow representatives from the commercial banks received in-depth training in trade finance from Afreximbank, as part of its ambitious capacity-building exercise in the country.
According to the statement of Afreximbank the forum took place in the context of far-reaching reforms undertaken by the government of Ethiopia to open up its economy for the participation of the private sector.
It added that central to this economic liberalization, it is the work of the National Bank of Ethiopia to reform the country’s banking sector. These changes are expected to strengthen the capacity of Ethiopian institutions, including commercial banks, to accelerate the development of the Ethiopian economy through trade and investments. The reforms are also expected to increase Ethiopian trade with Africa and the rest of the world.
The continents commercial banks actually account for about 60 percent of Afreximbank financing as they are intermediaries to be able to extend support to public, private sector and local financial institutions.
There are currently 51 participating member countries in the African export-import bank group and family, and only Libya, Algeria and Somalia have not ratified the establishment agreement of the bank.
At the end of 2020, the Bank’s total assets and guarantees stood at USD 21.5 billion, and its shareholder funds amounted to USD 3.4 billion. Afreximbank disbursed more than USD 42 billion between 2016 and 2020.
Besides it’s headquarter in Cairo it has offices in Abidjan-Côte D’Ivoire, Abuja- Nigeria, Harare-Zimbabwe, Kampala-Uganda and next week it will open in Yaoundé-Cameroon for central Africa regional office.
He assured that Addis will host a representative office of Afreximbank in the next five years time.
AfTRAF Programme incorporates various products devised to increase intra-extra African trade volumes, diversify the character of this trade, and assure the confidence of trade partners in the settlement of international trade transactions for critical imports into Africa. Specifically, the programme is designed to enable and escalate trade activities and investments through, among other measures: the provision of bank-to-bank Reimbursement Undertaking facilities; issuances of promissory notes and bills of exchange aval facilities; issuances of bonds, guarantees and indemnities (BGI) facilities; and issuances of trade confirmation guarantee facilities.
The bank leaders have also introduced the MANSA, a pan-African customer due diligence repository for financial institutions, corporate entities and SMEs, developed to address the perceived risk of doing business in Africa and with Africans, for bankers to use it, which was launched by the continental bank about ten months ago. It was launched to ease banks’ engagement with global partners.
MANSA is a single source of the primary data required for Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on African entities, including financial institutions, corporates and SMEs, in accordance with best practices.
