There have been reports that the Great Ethiopian Run was used as a platform for protesting the governments policy on the threatened war with Somalia. 
I can say that I saw groups of runners showing the V sign and chanting. The V sign is typically used by the opposition. To my ears the chant sounded like "thief, thief" but my lack of Amharic means that I can not say what other slogans were chanted if any.
What I do know is that all there is a blocking action against a large number of Ethiopian blog sites [both on and from]. I can not access any of the internationally hosted blogs from here in Addis. This is a strangulation of the freedom of speech and an obvious attempt to stop the flow of information on and about Ethiopia to its citizens.
It is not the first time this tactic has been used.
This is not surprising perhaps in a country where sending SMS/text messages has been stopped since the protests after the 2005 elections.
As the Ethiopian government and its economy rely to such a large extent on international donors, there needs to be pressure brought from them to see that a democratic right to information is both required and enforced. The International Federation of Journalists might also let their voice be heard.
This might also be a good time to remind ourselves about the Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents published by Reporters Without Borders.
Included in the book are chapters on circumvention of the sorts of blocking systems in place in Ethiopia.
That is why I am not able to access nazret.com for a long. My bad... I should have known/expected this before. What a non confident government is it? Shame, shame..... Thanks buddy for revealing this to others and being a voice for the voiceless.
Anyways, this year\'s great run was what most people called kind of \'the Addis Ababans bought thier right to protest against the killer meles with their 35 birr\'
Freedom to the Opressed!
God bless Abissinians!
Posted by: Abissinia | November 28, 2006 at 15:25
What a brilliant news to hear, it truly make my day. This sort of news needs encouragement. It is time for us to wake up in unity and inform the devil so called Meles Zenawi to stop sipping innocent Ethiopian blood. All Ethiopians who live abroad must support the voice that sparked in our nation today. Yes, it’s time to destroy the devil off the face of earth.
Love, Peace, unity and long life to all Ethiopians!!!!
Death to Meles Zenawi and his regime!!!!
Power to My people!!!!
Posted by: Zion | November 27, 2006 at 04:57
Dear Mark,
I have noticed that your identity is unhidden on your site. Please be careful as any blogger in Ethiopia, whether foreigner or not, is under threat of retaliation by the government if they contribute blogs critical of the government. Since you are apparently new to the country, you may not be aware of that.
Please stay safe in your short visit of the country.
Posted by: Inde Hewan | November 27, 2006 at 00:31