The winner of the 2010 Miss Ethiopia competition was supposed to get a brand-new automobile, the Chinese-made Lifan 320, but Yangfan Motors in Addis Abeba, the event’s purported supporter, claims it never had an agreement in writing to provide the prize. According to Addis Fortune, “To find out if Yangfan will give a Lifan 320 to the most recent Miss Ethiopia, Ethiopian Village Adventure Playground (EVAP) will wait until Thursday, August 12, 2010. Yangfan took action to sue EVAP for defamation after realizing that failing to provide the award could result in an indictment.” At a ceremony held at the Hilton Addis last month, Melkam Michael, a sophomore at Addis Abeba University Law School, was announced the winner in front of a distinguished panel of judges that included Mulatu Astatke and Meseret Mebrate. The organizers of the exhibition, who had proposed the honor in advance, accused Yangfan Motors of abandoning its duty in a hurry and stealing their own copy of the planned arrangement. Yangfan Motors allegedly removed Murad Mohammed’s copy of the prepared report without his knowledge, and he has been unable to reclaim custody of it. He told Fortune, “People don’t just verbally agree to something like they did in the eighteenth or nineteenth century.
