ETHIOPIA
Ethiopia is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. Officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second-most populous nation in Africa with over 85.2 million people and the tenth-largest by area with its 1,100,000 km2. The capital is Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, and Kenya to the south.Before 1996, Ethiopia was divided into 13 provinces, many derived from historical regions. Ethiopia now has a tiered government system consisting of a federal government overseeing ethnically based regional countries, zones, districts , and neighborhoods .
Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnically based administrative countries and subdivided into sixty-eight zones and two chartered cities: Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa (subdivisions 1 and 5 in the map, respectively). It is further subdivided into 550 woredas and several special woredas.
Regions, zones, and districts :
The constitution assigns extensive power to regional states that can establish their own government and democracy according to the federal government's constitution. Each region has its apex regional council where members are directly elected to represent the districts and the council has legislative and executive power to direct internal affairs of the regions. Article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution further gives every regional state the right to secede from Ethiopia. There is debate, however, as to how much of the power guaranteed in the constitution is actually given to the states. The councils implement their mandate through an executive committee and regional sectoral bureaus. Such elaborate structure of council, executive, and sectoral public institutions is replicated to the next level (woreda).
The nine regions and two chartered cities are:
At 435,071 square miles (1,126,829 km2), Ethiopia is the world's 27th-largest country. It is comparable in size to Bolivia.
The major portion of Ethiopia lies on the Horn of Africa, which is the easternmost part of the African landmass. Bordering Ethiopia is Sudan to the west, Djibouti and Eritrea to the north, Somalia to the east, and Kenya to the south. Within Ethiopia is a vast highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands, steppes, or semi-desert. The great diversity of terrain determines wide variations in climate, soils, natural vegetation, and settlement patterns.Climate and landforms:
The predominant climate type is tropical monsoon, with wide topographic-induced variation. The Ethiopian Highlands which cover most of the country have a climate which is generally considerably cooler than other regions at similar proximity to the Equator. Most of the country's major cities are located at elevations of around 2,000–2,500 metres (6,562–8,202 ft) above sea level, including historic capitals such as Gondar and Axum.
Environment.Endangered species:
Historically, throughout the African continent, wildlife populations have been rapidly declining owing to logging, civil wars, hunting, pollution, poaching and other human interference. A 17-year-long civil war along with severe drought, negatively impacted Ethiopia's environmental conditions leading to even greater habitat degradation. Habitat destruction is a factor that leads to endangerment. When changes to a habitat occur rapidly, animals do not have time to adjust. Human impact threatens many species, with greater threats expected as a result of climate change induced by greenhouse gas emissions.
Deforestation
Deforestation is a major concern for Ethiopia as studies suggest loss of forest contributes to soil erosion, loss of nutrients in the soil, loss of animal habitats and reduction in biodiversity. At the beginning of the twentieth century around 420 000 km² or 35% of Ethiopia’s land was covered by trees but recent research indicates that forest cover is now approximately 11.9% of the area.Ethiopia is one of the seven fundamental and independent centers of origin of cultivated plants of the world.Languages:
Ethiopia has eighty-four indigenous languages. Some of these are:
Religion:
According to the 2007 National Census, Christians make up 62.8% of the country's population (43.5% Ethiopian Orthodox, 19.3% other denominations), Muslims 33.9%, practitioners of traditional faiths 2.6%, and other religions 0.6%. This is in agreement with the updated CIA World Factbook, which states that Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia. According to the latest CIA factbook figure Muslims constitute 32.8% of the population.
Health
According to the head of the World Bank's Global HIV/AIDS Program, Ethiopia has only 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people. However, the World Health Organization in its 2006 World Health Report gives a figure of 1936 physicians (for 2003),which comes to about 2.6 per 100,000. Globalization is said to affect the country, with many educated professionals leaving Ethiopia for a better economic opportunity in the West.
Ethiopia's main health problems are said to be communicable diseases caused by poor sanitation and malnutrition. These problems are exacerbated by the shortage of trained manpower and health facilities.There are 119 hospitals (12 in Addis Ababa alone) and 412 health centers in Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a relatively low average life expectancy of 45 years. Infant mortality rates are relatively very high, as over 8% of infants die during or shortly after childbirth, (although this is a dramatic decrease from 16% in 1965) while birth-related complications such as obstetric fistula affect many of the nation's women. HIV is also prevalent in the country.Traditional medicine:
The low availability of health care professionals with modern medical training, together with lack of funds for medical services, leads to the preponderancy of less reliable traditional healers that use home-based therapies to heal common ailments.
One medical practice that is commonly practiced irrespective of religion or economic status is female genital mutilation, a procedure by which some of the woman's genital areas are cut or burned away in order to preserve her chastity. Sometimes, most of the tissue covering the vagina may be removed. This procedure is often carried out without anesthesia and crude instruments such as broken glass, scissors or knives may be used on the woman. This procedure is carried out when the girl is usually a small child. As of 1965, close to four out of five Ethiopian women were circumcised.
Education
Education in Ethiopia had been dominated by the Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s.The current system follows very similar school expansion schemes to the rural areas as the previous 1980s system with an addition of deeper regionalisation giving rural education in their own languages starting at the elementary level and with more budget allocated to the education sector. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is six years of primary school, four years of lower secondary school and two years of higher secondary school. In 2004 school enrollment was below that of many other African countries. Half the population of Ethiopia are illiterate.Culture:
Cuisine
Tihlo prepared from roasted barley flour is very popular in Amhara, Agame, and Awlaelo (Tigrai). Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no pork or shellfish of any kind, as they are forbidden in the Islamic, Jewish, and Ethiopian Orthodox Christian faiths. It is also very common to eat from the same dish in the center of the table with a group of people.
Music
The music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the country's 80 ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds. Ethiopian music uses a unique modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. Influences include ancient Christian elements and Muslim and folk music from elsewhere in the Horn of Africa, especially Sudan and Somalia. Traditional singing in Ethiopia presents diverse styles of polyphony (heterophony, drone, imitation, counterpoint).Popular musicians include Teddy Afro, Tilahun Gessesse, Aster Aweke, Muluken Melesse, Bizunesh Bekele, Mahmoud Ahmed, Tadesse Alemu, Alemayehu Eshete, Asnaketch Worku, Ali Birra, Gigi, and Mulatu Astatke.
Sport
The main sports in Ethiopia are athletics and football. Ethiopian athletes have won many Olympic gold medals in track and field but the national football team was not successful. Some success came from a world record set by Haile Gebrselassie in the marathon in an incredible two hours, three minutes, and fifty-nine seconds. Another man, Kenenisa Bekele, is also a dominant runner, particularly in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters. Some notable Ethiopian athletes are Abebe Bikila, Mamo Wolde, Miruts Yifter, Haile Gebrselassie, Derartu Tulu, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, Meseret Defar and Gelete Burka
