PRESS STATEMENT: / letter to the Editor

BELOW IS OUR RESPONSE TO THE FALSE MEDIA STORIES BEING TOLD IN ADDIS RECENTLY.

It has indeed been a very trying time for the Ethiopian Life Foundation recently to do what has never been done before in Ethiopia; however we certainly appreciate all the support from the positive minded individuals who have sent us positive messages of support and encouragement.

There seems to be so many individuals whose only mission in life is to be negative and criticise anything that is done, in the hope that they can some how obtain our licenses, and now become the ones to do what we do, we have spent four years painstakingly working hard to build the organisation to where we are now the largest Public relations and promotional agency for the external promotion of Ethiopia and Ethiopian Culture in this field, and we have had an open door policy for many years and invited the who’s who of fashion and entertainment in and out Ethiopia to join us, but they all sat on the fence and refused to join in, preferring instead to steal photos from our websites and publish them in their tacky magazines in Addis and America every just time to make a few Birr or dollars off our hard work, but now all of a sudden they have seen the light and everyone who is anybody now wants to try and take over the organisations activities in the beauty pageant field by any means necessary. And will say and do anything to anyone to help their evil plots to succeed, but guess what? it will not and cannot succeed.

At a time when many young girls in Ethiopia still have no direction and lack focus, we are unmatched and unrivalled in the International exposure and opportunities we have provided for so many young Ethiopian girls and the Ethiopian culture over the last 4 years, without any visible or meaningful support from anybody in Ethiopia, yet it is with very deep regrets that we find ourselves constantly attacked by mindless and unpatriotic individuals every year, and many of them are sad to say “Journalists” who have the uncanny act of displaying a total misunderstanding everything, and instead love concentrate on printing malicious gossip and downright lies, in the vain hope of furthering their lacklustre careers with their imaginary “scoops” and amusing their readers, instead of highlighting the positive achievements of our young Ambassadresses of Ethiopia at these international events.

Ferehiyewot Abebe: Miss Universe Ethiopia 2004, got to have dinner with the President of Ecuador.

Atetegeb Tesfaye: Miss Universe Ethiopia 2005, got to have dinner with the Thai Prime Minister. How many people in Ethiopia can say this?

We will never respond to blatant lies or acknowledge those individuals whose job description and sole ambition in life seems to be to constantly ignore the facts and the truth, and print fake and derogatory stories, nor will we descend to their levels, we are to busy looking forward to look over our shoulders.

“Rumours are started by your enemies and spread by fools” is all we have to say to them.

Eor those who do not know [ Or know the facts but blindly ignore them ] Our record of what the Ethiopian Life Foundation has done externally for Ethiopia and where we have sent girls to over the last 4 years is as follows:

YODIT GETAHUN
Miss Tourism of the Globe 2003
Miss International 2003
Miss Earth 2003

MUNA FIKREMARIAM
Miss Model of the World 2004
International Tourism Queen 2004

HANNAH TESFAYE
Best model of the World 2004
Miss Silverbird International 2004

FEREHIYEWOT ABEBE
Miss Universe 2004
Teen Model of the World 2004
Miss Earth 2004
Miss World University 2004

HELINA MEZEGBU Miss Tourism Planet 2004 Model of the World 2005

TIGIST International female Model 2004 Miss Tourism International 2004

KABENESH GIRMA Miss Tourism of the Globe 2004 Miss Tourism Planet 2005

ATETEGEB WORKU Miss Universe 2005

DINA FEKADU Miss Tourism International 2005 Miss International 2005

FETHIYA MOHAMMED
International Tourism Queen 2005

HELEN TEFERA
Miss Bikini Internationl 2005

TIZITA ABEBE
Miss Model of the World 2005
Top Model of the World 2005

We challenge any one or any organization anywhere to table a record of even 10% of what we have done, and yet certain people in the media will still come to our shows , complain mindlessly then willfully and maliciously report false stories without asking me one question, and then find ways of printing photos of Hyatt Mohammed who is a "has been" from Miss World Ethiopia 2003 every year when we do our show. [The Hereald & The Reporter please take note ] Hyatt incidentlay for the record has begged, lied or tried every year to try and go to Miss Univesre, then always has somthing negatve to say in the press when she does not follow protocl and is excluded from our contest,

Every year since 2003 we have gone from strength to strength culminating with the 2006 historic return to the Prestigious Ethiopian National Theatre for a major national beauty contest, for the first time in over 30 years. History was made on the 13th and 14th of April 2006 despite the evil mindsets of a few key people who chose the negative angle of reporting. nobody reports that I pay for everthing to do woth my shows my self, even down to all the Dreses, hair, meals, transpottation for each of the 24 girls every year, and then I proceed to buy the international Air Tickets every year for the winenrs since even Ethiopian Airlines will not give us any discount to helsp us promote Ethiopia.

At over 95 % of all major international contests, the delegate from Ethiopia will be from one organization “The Ethiopian life foundation” and it's Miss Universe Organisation, look up Miss Ethiopia on the Internet and see all the proud stories of our girls achievements, and we ask who else in or outside Ethiopia is doing this or providing such life changing experiences for so many young Ethiopian girls? And now our organisation is world renowned for the calibre and quality of our girls as evidenced by the number of International titles we have won over the years in the name of Ethiopia.

For as long as 50 years in some cases many of these International licences existed but nobody cared, knew how to, could afford to or was willng to pay, or bothered to make any use of them till now, until we started to make positive use of them, now people suddenly want to have a say in this matter and demand the Licences as if is their birth right, we will not be detracted.

We remain resolutely committed to our goals and aspirations, and 2006 will be another bumper year with over 14 international event planned already, including possibly hosting an international Beauty contest in Ethiopia but with this negative behavoir of the press, we will now seriously reconsidier this project, and we will not let a few unpatriotic individuals dictate to us how to run our Foundation, deliberately impede the International cultural exposure of Ethiopia or selfishly attempt to deny the Great Nation of Ethiopia and its proud culture its rightful place on the world stage at these events, out of nothing but pure selfish greed and envy. Fortunately for us there are still many journalist in the industry with a professional sense of fairness and balance.

I came to the great country of Ethiopia to try and make a positive diference in my own small way, out of my love for the Ethiopian people its Proud culture, but is very sad and regrettable that some of them show so much baseless hatred and vile hostility me and whatever I try to do.

To those who complain that the president of the organisation is not an Ethiopian : If Ethiopia is the birth place of mankind, then surely every man is an Ethiopian?

Thank you.

A Abulime