Remarks by H. E. Mr. Seyoum MESFIN, Ambassador of Ethiopia to China on behalf of the Chairperson of INBAR Council at the Launching Ceremony of The Charm of Bamboo 2012, 22 December Beijing, China
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning! I wish all of you a New Year of joy, good health and success. On behalf of the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Chair of INBAR Council, I am honored to be amidst you all, distinguished personalities and to make some remarks at the Launching Ceremony of The Charm of Bamboo. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the organizers of this event. This year, 2012 witnesses INBAR s 15 th anniversary. Today s grand event concludes series of activities throughout this year celebrating INBAR s big day. For 15 years, INBAR has been headquartered in Beijing, China, the kingdom of bamboo that befits the Organization. Bamboo has long been an indispensable part of people s daily life in China. A literary giant of the Song Dynasty, Su-Dongpo said that people could not live without bamboo. One can find thousands of powerful saying and lyric poems marked with exaltation of feelings such as that of Bai Juyi, and Su- Dongpo and many others about the Chinese people and the symbol of their traditional values and of virtue, the bamboo tree. However, I have selected to quote the observations about the use of bamboo in the life of the Chinese people not made by one of the Chinese giant poets but by a foreigner who travelled around China. An American missionary and explorer in China, William Edgar Geil in his book A Yankee on the Yangtze made the following observations more than a century ago about the use of bamboo. A man can sit in a bamboo house under a bamboo roof, on a bamboo chair at a bamboo table, with a bamboo hat on his head and a bamboo sandals on his feet. He can at 2
the same time hold in one hand a bamboo bowl, in the other hand bamboo chopsticks and eat bamboo sprouts. When through with his meal, which has been cooked over a bamboo fire, the table may be washed with a bamboo cloth, and he can fan himself with a bamboo fan, take a siesta on a bamboo bed, lying on a bamboo mat with his head resting on a bamboo pillow, his child may be lying in a bamboo cradle, playing with a bamboo toy. On rising, he would smoke a bamboo pipe and taking a bamboo pen, write on bamboo paper, or carry his articles in bamboo baskets suspended from a bamboo pole, with a bamboo umbrella over his head. He might then take a walk over a bamboo suspension bridge, drink water from a bamboo ladle, and scrape himself with a bamboo scraper. Complete or not, the observations about the indispensable role of bamboo in the daily life the Chinese people made by Mr. Geil were quite revealing in a simple and graphic manner. Apart from bamboo s important role in people s material life in China, over the long course of Chinese history, the bamboo has been incorporated as an essential part of Chinese cultures, and poetry singing the praises of bamboo is an enchanting flowers in the country s blooming cultural garden, as former Chinese President Jiang Zemin points out in the Preface of The Charm of Bamboo. The compilation and publication of this book in both Chinese and English will help people around the world to better understand Chinese bamboo culture, literature and Chinese culture as a whole. Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, 3
Same as China, Ethiopia is a country with a long history of thousands of years. Although we do not have such a well-developed bamboo culture as China s, throughout our three thousand years of history, Ethiopians daily life is also tied with bamboo. We use bamboo for houses, fences, furniture, water pipes, handicrafts, baskets and other woven goods. Since the Middle Ages, Ethiopians have been making cotton yarn and fabrics using bamboo articles. Ethiopia is a shelter to the largest bamboo resource in Africa amounting over 67% of the area covered by bamboo in the continent. The highland and lowland bamboos are the two native species found in Ethiopia, which are also endemic species to Africa. Roughly estimated, about one million hectares of bamboo forest exists in the country. One of the two bamboo species that are found in Ethiopia is commonly referred to as African Alpine Bamboo and it occurs naturally in fragile mountain areas in East African countries. The resource has long been the major income generating commodities in areas where it grows. Since 2003, the Governments of Ethiopia and China have exerted great efforts through their bilateral and multilateral Cooperation and have advanced the development of this important natural resource in collaboration with INBAR. A lot of bamboo processing trainings and technology transfer efforts have been started. Several bamboo related projects have been implemented and still being undertaken in Ethiopia to support and strengthen the promotion of knowledge-based modern bamboo management. Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of my country and myself, I would like to express my appreciation to INBAR and the Chinese Government for their unreserved 4
support and for being involved in development interventions to materialize bamboo sustainable development and industrial utilization in the region of East Africa, particularly in Ethiopia. Finally, I would also like to congratulate Prof. Peng Zhenhua and Prof. Jiang Zehui for their great job in compiling The Charm of Bamboo. Thanks to this great works, the world will have the chance to marvel at the unique bamboo culture of China by means of ancient Chinese literature. I thank you all! 5