President Uhuru Kenyatta announced his death, saying the nation had lost a “great man”.
Moi was Kenya’s longest-serving president. He was in office for 24 years, until intense pressure forced him to step down in 2002.
His critics saw him as an authoritarian ruler who oversaw rampant corruption, but his allies credited him for maintaining stability in the country.
In 2004, Moi asked for forgiveness from “those he had wronged”.
President Kenyatta has declared a period of mourning, including the flying of flags at half-mast, until a state funeral is held for Moi. No date has been set for the funeral.
Kenyatta said the continent was “immensely blessed by the dedication” of the late president, who spent “almost his entire adult life serving Kenya and Africa”.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni said Moi was a “true pan-Africanist”, while Tanzania’s President John Magufuli said he would be remembered for promoting regional integration.
Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was detained by the Moi regime for campaigning for multi-party democracy, praised him for introducing “incremental” reforms said that in retirement the former president had “conducted himself with complete dignity befitting an elder statesman”.
Kenya’s former President Daniel arap Moi dies aged 95
Bilateral relations
Raphael Morav was born in France in 1958. After completing in 1981 his military service in the Israel Defense Force (IDF), he obtained his B.A. degree with honors in International Relations and Economics from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Raphael Morav said that Violence starts with words and then it becomes acts of violence that may end in genocides and other horrible acts, while talking about the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. He also talked to Capital about Israeli investments in Ethiopia, high quality varieties of avocado, and relations between Ethiopia and Israel. Excerpts;
Capital: The Embassy of Israel along with the German Embassy and the United Nations recently commemorated 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. Can you comment on the event and the importance it carried?
Raphael Morav: It was the International Day for the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust. Although it is 75 years since the Auschwitz extermination camp was liberated, the issue of Holocaust is still very relevant today. Because there are lessons that we can draw from this horrific event in order to prevent it repeating, we say “never again”. But it’s not enough to say it, we also have to act. The most important lesson of the holocaust is that violence starts with words; therefore, when we hear discourses of racist attitudes and heinous speeches of hatred and anti-Semitism, bigotry and such negative things, we have to be vigilant.
Violence starts with words and then it becomes acts of violence that may end in genocides and other horrible acts. That’s the important lesson of the Holocaust. The world stood still 75 years ago when the Holocaust took place, and we thought it would never happen again, yet we regretfully saw several genocides in the world in Cambodia in the 70s and in Rwanda 25 years ago, so it means that it can still happen. Therefore, we need to be vigilant and act beforehand.
Today, we still hear anti-Semitic speeches, we see in some eastern European countries glorification of anti-Semites and people who actually cooperated with Nazi Germany in the Holocaust, so all these are alarming signs that really call for all civilized people to act.
I am a strong believer in education, because we are talking about a generation that was born long after the war; at least my generation had parents and family relatives of survivors of the Holocaust. But for the new generation it’s different because it’s a much more distant event, maybe they still have grandparents who are survivors but this generation of survivors unfortunately is diminishing. So I think education is the key to prevent future acts of this kind. At the same time, politically speaking, when we hear discourse of hatred and anti-Semitism, bigotry we need to take action, to say this will not continue, we will not allow such expression to be tolerated. 
Capital: There has been word that trips to Ethiopia for students in Israel have been suspended due to security concerns. Can you clarify this issue?
Raphael Morav: It’s rather wrong information that I saw on the press. It was suggesting that the Ministry of Education of Israel is suspending trips of students from Israel to Ethiopia and this is incorrect. What is true is that there is a travel advisory to Ethiopia that calls for Israeli citizens to refrain from unnecessary trips to the Somali region and the Somali region only.
That is due to a potential threat of Al-Shabaab terrorist activities against Israeli nationals. It’s my government’s responsibility to its citizens to warn when there is a potential threat. It was maybe wrongly interpreted as a ban on trips to Ethiopia and this is definitely not the case. On the contrary, we encourage Israelis to visit Ethiopia, invest in the country and make business with Ethiopians partners. As I mentioned, even for the Somali region it is only an advisory to refrain from unnecessary travel, so it is not a ban. At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of each traveler to make its own decisions on a stay or travel in a country, we do not decide for the travelers.
Next Monday, I am receiving 35 youths who are coming to Ethiopia from Israel. We call it a ‘Roots Trip’ because they will be in the footsteps of the Beta Israel heritage. Of course, they are also coming of course to see the historical heritage of Ethiopia and its beautiful landscape. Normally they are at the end of high school; ages 16-17 but this particular group that is coming next week are Jewish university students from the diaspora.
Capital: What does Israeli investment in Ethiopia currently look like?
Raphael Morav: Israeli investments in Ethiopia are mainly in the agricultural sector; normally many of them are private farms that have developed new varieties in Ethiopia. For example, one farm has introduced strawberries in Ethiopia, something that did not exist before. Twelve years ago an Israeli entrepreneur arrived in Ethiopia and to his surprise he discovered that this fruit is unknown. He saw a business opportunity, acquired land and set up strawberry as well as raspberry culture. Today it’s a huge exporter of strawberries from Ethiopia to all over the world.
We have another Israeli farm, which is growing chives, it is one of the biggest producer of chives in the world and again 98% of the production is for worldwide export.
This is the type of investment we are encouraging because they contribute not only to the economy of Ethiopia in terms of employment and transformation of agriculture but as well as they are all important exporters who are also bringing hard currency to Ethiopia which is very important for the economy. Other farms are producing fruit tree seedlings, mainly avocado. We also have an Israeli in the mine sector, extraction and elaboration of white marble for export.
Beyond investment, it’s worth mentioning that the biggest drip irrigation project in the world is in Ethiopia conducted by an Israeli company Netafim, which is actually the one that invented the drip irrigation technology. The project is about irrigation of 7000 hectares in the Wolkaite area for sugar cane. The project started about three years ago, it’s not only to install the infrastructure for the drip irrigation system but also the infrastructure to bring the water from a dam 60km from there by canal and then to pump it to the pipes of the drip irrigation. It’s a big operation worth over $200 million. 
Capital: Could you provide details on the hybrid seeds being brought into Ethiopia?
Raphael Morav: We have a very important project of cooperation in development with the Ministry of Agriculture and USAID that has been running for 13 years, for the introduction of high quality varieties of avocado. Today, thanks to this project, Ethiopia is an exporter of avocado fruits to Europe and there is now a pretty good know how of how to grow avocado of these varieties from the nursery to the whole value chain of production up to export.
We have set up six nurseries for avocado seedlings in Ethiopia that are producing over half a million seedlings per year and in addition to that, thanks to our encouragement, the private sector is now entering this activity and already produces about half a million more seedlings. This is very important because in the future it is the private sector, which should lead this activity. It means that every year you have about one million avocado trees being planted and it is mainly by smallholder farmers so we accompany them with training and transfer of know how. It is really making a transformation in the agricultural sector of Ethiopia because it became the most profitable crop in Ethiopia, more than coffee or sesame or any other traditional crop. Avocado is definitely, by far the most profitable crop and therefore more and more farmers are adopting this crop. Fortunately, Ethiopia has excellent conditions for growing this crop in terms of climate conditions, soil and water accessibility.
Capital: Could you speak on the details of the restoration of a Jewish cemetery in the north of Ethiopia as a tourist attraction?
Raphael Morav: There has been a Jewish presence in Ethiopia for about 2000 years and the Jews lived very closely with their Christian and Muslim neighbors, mostly in good relations, but they always kept the promise of God to one day bring them back to the promised land, Jerusalem. They left Ethiopia 30-40 years ago, however Ethiopia has not left them and remains in their heart. They are coming back to Ethiopia to visit the places and the people that they left.
An Israeli organization “Matasabia” (remembrance) decided to restore all the places of the Beta Israel heritage in Ethiopia. Since there is already tourism of youth and other Israelis on the footsteps of the Beta Israel villages and sites in Ethiopia, their initiative is to create a “Beta Israel trail” that will present and preserve the heritage sites of Beta Israel. These can be old synagogues, cemeteries, places of sacrifice and rituals and so on.
The first thing that they decided to do is to restore an old and important Jewish cemetery in Dabat area in the Amhara region. This cemetery, that I have visited, was serving 24 Beta Israel villages in the area and I found that it in a rather good condition. In order to preserve it you have to maintain the wall around and make sure that it is cleaned from time to time. The good surprise was that the authorities that were there, the governor of the region, the mayor and other authorities all say that this is also part of Ethiopia’s heritage; it’s not just Beta Israel. Therefore, they will make sure it is well preserved and of course there is a common interest to develop tourism. It’s a very beautiful activity because it is using the past but looking forward to the future building community development through this heritage.
Capital: How would you sum up the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Israel?
Raphael Morav: As a conclusion of what we have said, I would say the relations are very good, maybe even excellent. We are aiming higher and there is space to deepen and reinforce the relations. Politically speaking we had the exchange of visits at the highest level. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Israel in September, the President of the State of Israel visited in May 2018, the Prime Minister of Israel visited in 2016 and of course we have ministers and state ministers visiting Israel and vice versa, so politically speaking we have very open and close relations.
These political relations are translated into good economic relations; we are encouraging and working to bring more investment from Israel to Ethiopia. We believe that there is big potential and we are not very distant from each other, it’s easy for business people to come and go. We have two daily flights between the two countries. In terms of the corporation development, we are very much engaged, mainly in the agricultural sector which is what 80% of the population is living off, and where Israel has a rich proven experience, so this is where we cooperate in order to strengthen the capabilities in Ethiopia. Consequently, we have many training programmes in this sector. Last but not least, we are excited that Ethiopia will have, for the first time, free and fair democratic elections. We are supportive of this process of political reforms as well as the economic and social ones. I am convinced the future is even more promising.
Bob Marley’s 75th birth day
Celebration of the 75th birthday of Bob Marley took place in different places around Addis Ababa on February 6 by remembering his vision to love and unity.
“Africa Unite for peace” is one of the speeches of Bob which Goma Kuteba uses to celebrate the 75the birthday and the opening ceremony of the newest art venue in the city “ Medemer: Africa Art and Sculpture”. The event was held on Tuesday February 4.
The new art venue, Medemer Africa Art and Sculpture space is a platform to artists to continue adding their voice to the African unity and develop through the art.
“The quest for Africa unity and development is a process in which the artists have always been presented,” said Gossa G Oda who is deputy General Manager of Goma Kuteba.
Alliance Ethio-francaise celebrates Bob Marley’s birth day by remembering his vision of love, music and unity together Africa Unite. The event features exhibition, live Music and film screening of Africa Unite by documenting the energetic Meskel square concert, rare interviews of bob and images.
The Marley family announces yearlong 75th birthday commemorative plans
The Marley family, UMe and Island Records have begun to roll out their yearlong MARLEY75 commemorative plans in celebration of the legendary cultural icon, Bob Marley’s 75th birthday and 40th anniversary of the timeless classic “Redemption Song.”
In honor of Black History Month, now underway, and to mark the beginning of all MARLEY75 celebrations in 2020, the official music video for “Redemption Song” premieres on Bob Marley’s YouTube channel. Created by French artists Octave Marsal & Theo De Gueltzl, the breathtaking animation, featuring 2,747 original drawings, uses powerful symbols to amplify the magnitude of the song’s timeless lyrics and importance in today’s world. The video highlights Bob’s contribution to the empowerment of black civilization, as well as his manifestation of hope and recovery for all mankind.
Inspired by Bob’s homeland of Jamaica, as well as insights received from his family, the artistic approach was to illustrate the imaginary world of Bob Marley in a way that highly stimulates self-reflection. “From the history of Slavery and Jamaica, Rastafarian culture, legacy of prophets (Haile Selassie the 1st, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X), as well as Bob’s personal life, we take the audience on a journey through allegories and representations.” Marsal and De Gueltzl reveal. The opening sequence invites the viewer into Bob’s guitar, a visual metaphor to Bob’s mind, and our own, in a quest for Redemption. Also, drawing from Rastafarian philosophy, another vital element of the video’s narrative is about valuing nature, our Earth and the Mother Land.
The MARLEY75 celebrations will encompass all things music, fashion, art, photography, technology, sport and film, providing fans unprecedented access to archives from the legendary artist’s estate in new, thoughtful and innovative ways. Together with YouTube, new and exciting content is set to be released over the course of the year.
The inaugural MARLEY75 music festivities kick off this Spring, the first of many celebrations to come. Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley’s Bob Marley Celebration will headline
The BeachLife Festival. This special, collaborative appearance will feature Ziggy Marley and Stephen Marley performing an extensive catalog of Bob Marley tunes in celebration of their father’s 75th birthday at the three-day immersive music, art, and culinary oceanside event.
In this digital era, Bob Marley remains one of the most followed posthumous artists on social media, and MARLEY75 will serve to bring his music and message to the digital foreground, reaching new audiences and perspectives with innovative content and groundbreaking technology. Special live events, exclusive digital content, recordings, exhibitions, plus rare and unearthed treasures will also be revealed throughout the year.
Bob Marley’s music continues to inspire generation upon generation, as his legacy lives on through his message of love, justice and unity, a sentiment needed more than ever in 2020. In conjunction with Tuff Gong and UMe, a division of the Universal Music Group, the Marley family will continue to ensure the highest quality, integrity and care is taken to honor Bob’s legacy and to celebrate one of the 20th century’s most important and influential figures.
One-quarter of all the Reggae listened to in the United States, is Bob Marley. Bob Marley’s Legend is the nineteenth-biggest selling album of all time and the fifth-biggest selling Greatest Hits package in United States history.
Preventing the death of the world’s rivers
The world’s rivers are under unprecedented pressure from contamination, damming, and diversion, which are straining water resources, destroying ecosystems, jeopardizing livelihoods, and damaging human health. International cooperation can save riparian systems, but first we must recognize the consequences of doing nothing.
By Brahma Chellaney
From the Tigris to the Indus and the Yangtze to the Nile, rivers were essential to the emergence of human civilization. Millennia later, hundreds of millions of people still depend on rivers to quench their thirst, grow food, and make a living. And yet we are rapidly destroying the planet’s river systems, with serious implications for our economies, societies, and even our survival.
China is a case in point. Its dam-building frenzy and over-exploitation of rivers is wreaking environmental havoc on Asia, destroying forests, depleting biodiversity, and straining water resources. China’s first water census, released in 2013, showed that the number of rivers – not including small streams – had plummeted by more than half over the previous six decades, with over 27,000 rivers lost.
The situation has only deteriorated since then. The Mekong River is running at a historically low level, owing largely to a series of Chinese-built mega-dams near the border of the Tibetan Plateau, just before the river crosses into Southeast Asia. In fact, the Tibetan Plateau is the starting point of most of Asia’s major rivers, and China has taken advantage of that, not least to gain leverage over downstream countries.
China may be the world’s largest dam builder, but it is not alone; other countries, from Asia to Latin America, have also been tapping long rivers for electricity generation. The diversion of water for irrigation is also a major source of strain on rivers. In fact, crop and livestock production absorbs almost three-quarters of the world’s freshwater resources, while creating runoff that, together with industrial waste and sewage discharge, pollutes those very resources.
In total, almost two-thirds of the world’s long rivers have been modified, and some of the world’s longest – including the Nile and the Rio Grande – now qualify as endangered. Of the 21 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) that still flow freely from their mountain sources to the sea, most are in remote regions of the Arctic and in the Amazon and Congo basins, where hydropower development is not yet economically viable.
These trends strain water resources, destroy ecosystems, and threaten human health. For example, heavy upstream diversions have turned the deltas of the Colorado River and the Indus River into saline marshes. Moreover, lower river-water levels impede the annual flooding cycle, which in tropical regions helps to re-fertilize farmland naturally with nutrient-rich sediment. In periods of below-average rainfall, a number of rivers increasingly run dry before reaching the ocean, and even when they do make it, they are depositing less of the nutrients and minerals that are vital to marine life.
Globally, aquatic ecosystems have lost half of their biodiversity since the mid-1970s, and about half of all wetlands have been destroyed over the last century. A recent United Nations study warned that up to a million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, many within decades.
Humans are hardly exempt from the health consequences of river destruction. In Central Asia, the Aral Sea has all but dried up in less than 40 years, owing to the Soviet Union’s introduction of cotton cultivation, for which water was siphoned from the sea’s principal sources, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Today, particles blown from its exposed seabed – thick with salts and agricultural chemical residue – not only kill crops; they are sickening local people with everything from kidney disease to cancer.
Free-flowing rivers play a critical role in moderating the effects of climate change, by transporting decaying organic material and eroded rock to the ocean. This process draws about 200 million tons of carbon out of the air each year.
In short, the case for protecting our rivers could not be stronger. Yet, while world leaders are often willing to pay lip service to the imperative of strengthening river protections, their rhetoric is rarely translated into action. On the contrary, in some countries, regulations are being rolled back.
In the United States, almost half of rivers and streams are considered to be in poor biological condition. Yet last October, President Donald Trump’s administration repealed “Waters of the US,” which had been introduced by his predecessor, Barack Obama, in order to limit pollution of streams, wetlands, and other bodies of water. Last month, the Trump administration replaced the rule with a far weaker version, called the “Navigable Waters Protection Rule.”
Likewise, in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has relaxed environmental rules in the name of economic growth. Among the casualties is the Amazon River, the world’s largest river in terms of discharge, which carries more water than the next ten largest rivers combined. Already, the Amazon basin in Brazil has lost forest cover over an area larger than the entire Democratic Republic of Congo – the world’s 11th-largest country.
The absence of water-sharing or cooperative-management arrangements in the vast majority of transnational river basins facilitates such destruction. Many countries pursue projects without regard for their cross-border or environmental effects.
One way to protect relatively undamaged river systems – such as the Amur, the Congo, and the Salween – would be to broaden implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, and add these rivers to the World Heritage List, alongside UNESCO World Heritage Sites. This would be in line with recent efforts in some countries – Australia, Bangladesh, Colombia, India, and New Zealand – to grant legal rights to rivers and watersheds. For such initiatives to work, however, effective enforcement is essential.
As for the rivers that are already damaged, action must be taken to restore them. This includes artificially recharging rivers and aquifers with reclaimed wastewater; cleaning up pollution; reconnecting rivers with their floodplains; removing excessive or unproductive dams; and implementing protections for freshwater-ecosystem species.
The world’s rivers are under unprecedented pressure from contamination, damming, and diversion. International cooperation can save them, but first we must recognize the consequences of doing nothing.
Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the New Delhi-based Center for Policy Research and Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin, is the author of nine books, including Asian Juggernaut, Water: Asia’s New Battleground, and Water, Peace, and War: Confronting the Global Water Crisis.
