Ukraine will open a visa center in Ethiopia on July 16, the Foreign Ministry’s press service reports.
“On July 16, the visa center of Ukraine in Ethiopia will start operating in Addis Ababa, at Morning Star Mall, 3rd Floor, Bole area. The visa center will be operated by VF Worldwide Holding Ltd,” reads the report.
Nationals of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan, Comoros, Seychelles, Tanzania, stateless persons and others nationals, who has permanent residence permit in Ethiopia will be able to apply for their Ukrainian visas through the Ukrainian visa center in Addis Ababa.
“The center receive visa applications, render assistance in filling in and registering visa application forms, as well as offer additional services upon request, including taking applicants’ photos, translation and making copies of supporting documents, providing medical/travel insurance options, courier services, text messaging, premium lounge services,” reads the report.
The Foreign Ministry stressed that the visa center will only be providing applicants with pre-decision making services on filing visa applications to Ukraine’s Embassy in Ethiopia Visa decisions upon every application will be made by Ukraine’s consular officers only.
Ukraine to open visa center in Ethiopia
Ethiopian Premier invites Kiir, Machar for face-to-face talks in Addis Ababa
The Ethiopian Prime Minister and current Chair of IGAD, PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) has invited President Salva Kiir and the leader of main armed opposition group Riek Machar to meet in Addis Ababa within a week.
A statement released said the SPLM-IO acknowledged receipt of the invitation letter to its leader for “IGAD-led face-to-face talks with President Salva Kiir on the 20th of June, 2018 in Addis Ababa”.
“The Movement welcomes this invitation and salutes the courage of IGAD for reaching this prudent and timely decision, it will go a long way in building confidence in the peace process,” said Mabior Garang de Mabior, head of SPLM-IO National Committee for Information and Public Relations.
For his part, President Kiir didn’t issue a statement but sources at the presidency confirmed the receipt of the invitation.
The invitation of the Ethiopian Premier for a face-to-face meeting comes after a similar one by the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir to President Kiir and his main rival Machar.
The two rivals will meet the IGAD leaders on the sidelines of the upcoming African Union summit in Mauritania next month.
Resilience that matters
Known around the world as ‘Lord of the Ring’, for inventing laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding to treat morbid obesity seventy four-year-old professor and surgeon Mitiku Belachew has lived a life that inspires to rise above their circumstances. Born into a family of 9 in a rural area where there were no schools, he tended to cows and goats from the time he was a small child. Then, when he turned 12 he heard about a school far away. He went there and made the most of the opportunity, graduating just 7 years later. This initiative and drive became a trademark of his life as he learned French to study at a Belgium university when there was not a medical school here and invented a way to save the lives of those who were grossly overweight. Whenever there was an obstacle he overcame it. Now he has brought tools and experience with him to Ethiopia where he is working to train the next generation and inspire others to say no to limitations and use their talents to enrich the lives of others. He spoke to Capital to share his inspiring story. Excerpts;
Capital: What was it like for you growing up? Tell us about your childhood in general and what influenced you.
Professor Mitiku: I was born in Wenchi western Shewa. There were not any schools where I
grew up so I became a herder and worked on my family farm till I was 12 years old. At that time I heard there was a school far from my home so I decided to move away from Wenchi and go to school in Addis Ababa. I was motivated to study hard because I really understood the value of education. During these years I was double and triple promoted through the class levels, until just seven years later at the age of 19 I was able to start college. I wanted to go to medical school but there wasn’t one here at the time so I joined the Addis Ababa Institute of Science and Technology. I went there for a year but then I had the opportunity to study abroad after passing an exam through the Ministry of Education. I planned on attending the UK or US but at the same time the Belgium government gave me the opportunity to go to school there. People said the language barrier would make it difficult but I decided to go there and learn French. Finally I became a surgeon and professor specializing in laparoscopic surgery.
Capital: Since then you have come back home and I believe done some works with the hospitals here? What are you doing these days?
Professor Mitiku: I have now retired from doing surgical operations. Up to last year, I worked at different hospitals here: Tikur Anebesa, Betel, and St. Yared. Now, however, I am sharing my knowledge and experience with the next generation.
Capital: Did you teach after you retired?
Professor Mitiku: I have taught in many places including surgical workshops in Tikur Anbesa on laparoscopic surgery for local and international students. Since I travel a lot my colleagues and I organized many surgical campaigns and missions with 10 to 15 people regularly to conduct surgery and give trainings all over Ethiopia. At Dire Dawa University and Mekele University for 3 years, we gave trainings and encouraged students to work hard.
Capital: You are involved in many benevolent works. Tell us about the school you built in Wenchi.
Professor Mitiku: That’s right; I have contributed many things there because it was my childhood home. When I was a child I dreamed of building a school there so everyone could get the opportunity I had. I got together with like-minded people and established a charitable organization to build a school around the Crater Lake, in Wenchi. Today, over 700 students are studying there. Many have successfully completed their studies and are excelling in fields ranging from medicine to engineering and law. We also helped train youth that did not excel academically in other businesses, like weaving. It makes me feel proud and happy to see youth succeeding. In the same area we developed a small clinic with medical equipment and ambulances.
Capital: You have led an unusual life, turning from a shepherd to a world renowned Laparoscopic surgeon. Tell us about your book: “Le Berger Devenu Chirurgien” which means ‘The shepherd turned surgeon’.
Professor Mitiku: It is an autobiography. I wrote it two and a half years ago. It mainly focuses on how I went from being a herder in very small rural city to a surgical doctor travelling all over the world. It’s written in French. It’s a popular book with French speaking people. It is now being translated into English and Amharic. Hopefully, it will be done within the next six months. I hope it will reach more people and inspire and motivate them.
Capital: They call you the ‘Lord of The Ring’, tell us about that.
Professor Mitiku: I developed the Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) technique for the treatment of morbid obesity, 25 years ago. As a result I travelled around the world including Australia, Europe, Morocco, Benin, Senegal, Togo, and Congo for medical conferences and to teach and perform surgery.
While I was working over two decades ago, at the Civil Hospital of Bavaria, in Liege Belgium, there was a nurse suffering from morbid obesity that I helped lose weight. At the time surgical solution for the treatment of morbid obesity was not tried on human beings yet. There could be complications, but she desperately wanted the surgery, which I did after studying day and night and covering all aspect I could to prepare for the surgery. Since then, word of mouth racing I guess, I became a specialist in obesity surgery.
Capital: What are your plans for the future?
Professor Mitiku: I’ve had some age related health issues so I’m focusing on developing the skills of youth. I follow up on projects and educate people. I conduct medical conferences, write, train others and publish medical articles. I was there in Wenchi three days before; there was a big ceremony to celebrate the success of these projects and the start of new projects. We are currently building a big bookstore near the school. We are holding fund raising events for that. So yes basically I’m continuously following up these projects and encouraging others to start new ones.
The 7 lessons Anthony Bourdain taught us about travel
In a culture that places tremendous value on celebrity, personality and anything culinary, it’s not surprising that Anthony Bourdain’s greatest talent was one that many people tended to overlook. He was a storyteller.
During his time as the host of Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” and “The Layover,” as well as CNN’s “Parts Unknown,” Bourdain used each episode to weave a story that, above all else, had a point, a message, a lesson. Often it was something that he learned from the experience that he could pass on to viewers – something deeper than “Isn’t this place neat?” which was (and still is) the deepest lesson of most Travel Channel programs.
Some lessons were stated plainly, others were in subtext or they revealed themselves over the course of a TV season. Below are some of what we learned about travel from Bourdain’s shows. (Disclaimer: I didn’t know Bourdain. I met him twice, briefly, and we grew up in the same town in New Jersey. What follows is based entirely on the content of his travel shows.)
A place is more about its people than its monuments or museums: As a chef, Bourdain spent a predictable amount of time in restaurants and kitchens, but the most important element of any episode was, for lack of a better description, the cultural Sherpa. There was always a local chef, celebrity, blogger or longtime compatriot who could explain what Bourdain – and the world – needed to know to appreciate the place. And, of course, how and where to eat the most relevant dishes. Monuments and museums that are the staple of most travel coverage were rare here, less relevant.
Context is crucial: You can’t understand what’s great about an extraordinary place unless you also understand the not-so-terrific side. Whether it was the Dracula tourism in Romania or an excruciating eternity in a tourist cave in Jamaica, Bourdain rarely shied away from the “negatives” of a place. They are part of the whole story. Any travel writer, blogger, influencer or TV host who offers only the positive side is giving you a brochure or a greeting card – and he or she should be working for Hallmark instead.
You’ll learn more by slowing down than by speeding up: In the first “No Reservations” episode, Bourdain spends the entire last 3 minutes of the show sitting in a bistro in Paris, slowly noshing on a ham sandwich and sipping coffee. In so many words, the message is that he’s learning more about Parisian culture in the simple no-impact ritual of relaxing and savoring than if he tried to visit more landmarks and attractions. It would become a theme in many episodes thereafter.
There’s more to Africa than safari animals: Western media has a shallow tendency to cover Africa solely through its wild animals. Everyone wants to write about seeing a cheetah in the wild or feeling the thundering migration of wildebeest. But there are far fewer travel stories-posts-shows that cover a major city in Africa the same way the media would approach a European city. During his tenures on Travel Channel and CNN, Bourdain produced episodes in nearly a dozen African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo, Namibia and Senegal. Most focused on the music, food, art and history of the local culture – through conversations with people – instead of just on elephants, lions, giraffes or rhinos.
Great experiences require being open to them: In travel, it’s too easy to get wrapped up in snobbery, whether about food or anything else. In an essay he wrote for Bon Appetit (republished last week at MSN.com), Bourdain said his father believed that the setting and the companionship during a meal was just as important as the food itself. “Perhaps the most important life lesson he passed on was: Don’t be a snob. It’s something I will always at least aspire to – something that has allowed me to travel this world and eat all it has to offer without fear or prejudice,” Bourdain wrote. “To experience joy, my father taught me, one has to leave oneself open to it.”
The big picture: At the end of most of Bourdain’s TV episodes, he tended to impart what he learned from the experience and the place. Often the lesson was about more than the destination covered in the episode. Bourdain’s style dared viewers to ask themselves not “What did I see?” but “What did I learn?” Not just about the place but about travel, about the world, about yourself. It’s the difference between experiencing and sightseeing. Every place teaches us something, we just don’t always know what it is. If you ask the question after one trip, every trip thereafter you may start to see the patterns, the lessons.
That travel isn’t about living in a postcard: At the end of a particularly emotion-filled “No Reservations” episode in Malaysia, Bourdain is conflicted about where to go from there, physically and philosophically. “The journey changes you. It should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, your consciousness, your heart and on your body. You take something with you and, hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
Spud Hilton is a San Francisco Chronicle travel editor.
