Where is ethiopia and what about it?

Courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org

The Ge'ez name ʾĪtyōṗṗyā, and its English cognate Ethiopia, is thought by some to be derived from the Greek word Αἰθιοπία Aithiopia, from Αἰθίοψ Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived from Greek terms meaning "of burnt (αιθ-) visage (ὄψ)".^[3] However, this etymology is disputed, since the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle first composed in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from "'Ityopp'is", a son (unmentioned in the Bible) of Cush, son of Ham who according to legend founded the city of Axum. It is not certain how old the name Ethiopia is, but its earliest attested use in the region was as a Christianized name for the Kingdom of Aksum in the 4th century, in stone inscriptions of King Ezana.^[4]

Another method of examining the name "Ethiopia" is to look into the tradition of the Ethiopan peasants, who call their country "Tobia." Since they were considered "uneducated" and pushed aside in terms of educational contributions of value first by the priestly establishment and later by modern scholars, the name they give their country has been labeled as a mark of peasantry and hence not given much consideration. But it is worth considering, as the word may have ties to the Hebrew "towb", their word for "good" as well as to the Amharic "Etub" the word that means "amazingly wonderful". When this is added to the fact that names of places and people were meaningful in the Semitic languages, the name Ethiopia may have derived from the word "Towb" or Etub" itself to mean the land is amazingly beautiful and good.^{[citation needed]}

In English, Ethiopia was also historically known as Abyssinia, derived from the Arabic form of the Ethiosemitic name "ḤBŚT," modern Habesha. In some countries, Ethiopia is still called by names cognate with "Abyssinia," e.g. Turkish Habesistan and Arabic Al Habesh, meaning land of the Habesha people. The term Habesha strictly refers to only the Semitic-speaking peoples of Ethiopia (predominantly the Amhara and Tigray-Tigrinya people who have historically dominated the country politically and which combined comprise about 36% of Ethiopia's population). However, in contemporary Ethiopian politics the word Habesha is often used to describe all Ethiopans. Abyssinia can strictly refer to just the North-Western Ethiopian provinces of Amhara and Tigray as well as central and Eritrea, while it was historically used as another name for Ethiopia.^[5]

The Hebrew word for Ethiopia as mentioned in the Bible is Cush, the father of Ityopp'is, making reference to the indigenous Cushitic-speaking peoples of the region.

Regions, zones, and districts

Main articles: federal states of Ethiopia and Zones of Ethiopia

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 states, zones, districts (woredas), and neighborhoods (kebele).

Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnically-based administrative states (kililoch, sing. kilil) and subdivided into sixty-eight zones and two chartered cities (astedader akababiwoch, sing. astedader akababi): Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa (subdivisions 1 and 5 in the map, respectively). It is further subdivided into 550 woredas and six special woredas.

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 appex regional council where members are directly elected to represent the districts and the council has legislative and excutive 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 regions and chartered cities of Ethiopia, numbered alphabetically

The nine regions and two chartered cities are:

Economy

Main article: Economy of Ethiopia

In 1972 and 1973, more than 200,000 people died in the Wallo famine. The Emperor Haile Selassie tried to hide the famine but university students revealed the drought to the world.^[41] After the 1974 revolution, the economy of Ethiopia was run as Command economy. Stronger state controls were implemented, and a large part of the economy was transferred to the public sector, including all agricultural land and urban rental property, and all financial institutions. The bad weather also continued to harm the agriculture sector. However since Mengistu Haile Mariam's relationship with the west was poor, the government hid the famine in the Tigray and Wallo regions causing the death of more than 250,000 Ethiopians. When the government finally allowed UN workers to witness the condition, one of the worst humanitarian crises of the decade was revealed. Together with a flawed relocation project and the Red Terror around 1,500,000 Ethiopians were killed under Mengistu Haile Mariam.^[42] Also six million people were affected by further famine before the EPRDF-led government overthrew the Derg regime.^[43] Since then, many economic reforms were carried out. From mid-1991 onwards, the economy has evolved toward a decentralized, market-oriented economy, emphasizing individual initiative, which was intended to reverse a decade of economic decline. In 1993 , gradual privatization of business, industry, banking, agriculture, trade, and commerce was underway.

Nevertheless, Ethiopia is still privatized. Many government owned properties during the previous regime have now been transferred to these EPRDF owned enterprises in the name of privatization. Furthermore, the Ethiopian constitution defines the right to own land as belonging only to "the state and the people," but citizens may only lease land (up to 99 years), and are unable to mortgage, sell, or own it.[8]

Agriculture accounts for almost 41 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of exports, and 80 percent of the labour force. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products. Production is overwhelmingly of a subsistence nature, and a large part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural cash-crop sector. Principal crops include coffee, pulses (e.g., beans), oilseeds, cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, and vegetables. Exports are almost entirely agricultural commodities, and coffee is the largest foreign exchange earner. Ethiopia's livestock population is believed to be the largest in Africa, and as of 1987 accounted for about 15 percent of the GDP.