Ethiopia is on another arms buying spree as millions of Ethiopians starve due to the worst drought in 60 years. According to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi Ethiopia is purchasing 200 battle tanks from Ukraine for over $100 million. Was it a coincidence that the day before Meles’ announcement, the British foreign aid office announced a $60 million “emergency food aid donation” to Ethiopia?

Apart from a Michael Essien’s Africa 11 versus World 11 charity soccer game held in Accra, Ghana to promote peace in Africa, the official celebration at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and similar functions in a number of African states, the 48th Anniversary of Africa Day came and went without much interest and notice by many Africans in the African continent and diaspora.

For the past four years all aid agencies, including the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and UN relief agencies have been blocked by the Ethiopian military from feeding starving people in Ogadenia. Millions of starving people, maybe as many as 6 million, though no one can can say for sure because … no one is allowed into the region.

There is no democracy without proper representation. The main goal of any participatory democracy is not to enforce a rule of majority, nor allow for an excessive power of any minority but to establish and protect the rights of all citizens. That goal is also a key element in effective poverty fighting, achieving sustainable development and championing social justice. Proper channels for participating in governance must exist to reflect each public voice and allow for proper balancing of the democratic debate.

The extra ordinary summits of heads of African states and governments meeting for IGAD, (the Inter Governmental Authority on Development) have called for military intervention to restore peace in war torn Somalia. The Executive Director of IGAD Eng. Mahboub Maalim said regional countries and member states of the IGAD need to create a unified synergy towards dealing with the Somali crisis that now threatens peace and stability while compromising security and safety in the Horn of Africa countries.

Eritrea, the troubled Red Sea state, is playing a complex, dangerous and destructive game that involves shady international politics, greedy industrialists and gross human rights violations.

Seeing New York City in December must feel like being transported to another world for some Africa-born visitors when visiting it for the first time. And it is not about snow: Africans from parts of Morocco, Tunisia, Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Africa might be well familiar with it.