The elder’s words came back to me like an omen when I read a story in the New York Times about how rich countries with limited land suitable for farming are now shopping abroad for places to plant so they can feed their people. And guess where they’re looking ? Ethiopia, where hunger regularly stalks almost eight million people. The story reported that the country’s ministry of agriculture has tagged more than seven million acres as virgin land and plans to lease half of it, very soon, to foreign investors for just 50 cents an acre per year. It’s part of a trend now sweeping the globe. In May 2009, the Economist reported that in the last three years foreigners had secured deals or engaged in talks on between 15 million and 20 million hectares of farm land in developing countries.

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By Nicholas Winer, the former director of Oxfam in Sudan and Ethiopia. He is also the author of “The Tethered Goat” a political thriller set in Mengistu’s Ethiopia.

Khartoum, before Sharia law and the “Courts of prompt and Instant Justice”, was a vibrant, dusty and chaotic city. TPLF soldiers swaggered around with gold cigarette lighters, and Johnnie Walker Black Label was their favourite tipple. REST had a large house in an expensive suburb, where rents were too high for us Oxfam types. It was a friendly house, with an endless flow of people coming and going. As foreigners, we never knew who was who, but no one was turned away, and the atmosphere was beguilingly appropriate for beginning a relationship of trust.

The recent angry response to the BBC by aging colleagues that every effort was made to build checks and balances into the purchase and distribution process speaks volumes about their real anxiety that many things could’ve gone wrong. They wanted to be sure that if food or money did go astray, it wouldn’t be because they’d been negligent. On that basis — and the detailed explanations of Paul Vallely — the more extreme claims made by the BBC must be discounted. But for the very same reason, so too must any outright denial that anything did go astray.

– Full Story (New Statesman)

This past week hasn’t been great for the reputation of the aid world. Media reports have alleged misuse of aid in Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and El Salvador on a fairly grand scale.

Charities must be fearful that governments and the public will increasingly question how much of their donations actually go to help those hit by conflicts, natural disasters and poverty in developing countries.

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(CBS) Citing “concerns about recent media reports,” the U.S. Department of State has made a key change to the process of adopting Ethiopian orphans to the U.S.

The Embassy in Addis Ababa now requires an I-604 or so-called “orphan investigation” into the background and status of every child in the process of getting a visa to come to the US with an adoptive family.

Until now that investigation was at the discretion of consular officers on the ground. The new rule change will likely add several weeks and in some cases months to the adoption process in Ethiopia which takes US families on average about nine months to complete.

– Full Story (CBS)

RELATED: Ethiopian Adoption Scam? | CBS

New York, March 10, 2010—The Ethiopian Supreme Court reinstated fines on Monday against four newspaper publishing companies over their coverage of the disputed 2005 national election. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ethiopian authorities to end their continuing pursuit of politically motivated charges related to the election.

Judge Dagne Melaku, presiding over a panel of three-judge panel, upheld fines initially imposed in July 2007 against the Fasil, Serkalem, Sisay, and Zekarias publishing houses for antistate crimes related to their newspapers’ reporting on Ethiopia’s 2005 elections, according to local journalists.

Monday’s ruling overturned a February 2009 High Court decision that had struck down the fines. The High Court said that a July 2007 presidential pardon, granted to numerous journalists and political dissidents who were facing antistate charges related to the election, also applied to the four publishing houses.

– Full Story (CPJ)