By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA , Ethiopia, May 25, 2007 – Weighing 500 kilograms, and standing a meter tall, an Ethiopian book of signatures and vision statements is going to start enlisting signatories in 13 days time. The book, which aims to have 30 million vision statements for the millennium, is transported by a forklift and has three kilograms of silver binding on the side.

This book that is produced by Gana-Seb Trading is going to be registered in the Guinness Book of Records as the heaviest book in the world.

The document prepared for vision and signature statements of Ethiopian companies is to be officially launched with the honorary signature and vision statement of 10 star institutions that has been picked by the producers.

The signature document for Ethiopian individuals will be open for the public after the official signature and vision stating ceremony of 12 other handpicked honorary ambassadors. The signature document will also have foreigners and Ethiopians from the Diaspora. The program will also have a special vision stating ceremony of African heads of states and foreigners who contributed significantly for the development of the country.

Once the signing and vision statement writing starts, the book is going to be dismantled into five pieces and distributed to different parts of the country where it would have the signings of 30 million Ethiopians. Among the signatories street children will also included.

“Everyone is entitled to have a vision they could show to their children”, said Mesgana Gedle head of the organizing committee.

After the singing is through the pieces would be collected and fixed together to be a three pieces book each weighing 500 kgs.

Gana-Seb Trading has been established by the general manager of the organization Mr. Mesgana Gedle and his wife Mrs. Seble Melese who is currently in the US. The organization was named using the acronyms of the couple. The company is established four years ago to undertake the productions of tissue and hard paper products. Ever since its establishment, it has been working in house. “As we are going to take to have a plot of land where we would work on our manufacturing, the book is going to serve as in promoting the company as well.” Mesgana Gedle explained.

This company is one of the largest next to Midroc owned Mamco.

According to Amazon.com currently the world’s largest book in the market is Bhutan, which measures 5x7 feet, weighs nearly 150 pounds (~ 68kg), and presents an entire gallery exhibit of spectacular photographs in a single monumental volume.

A tome about the Asian country of Bhutan that uses enough paper to cover a football field and has consumed a gallon of ink.

Mean while archiology.org website insights that a German China specialist has brought to light the largest and heaviest book in the world, nearly 14,300 stone tablets inscribed with Buddhist scriptures found in caves near the Yunju monastery, 15 miles south of Zhoukoudian in Beijing Province in 1996. Though known to a small group of monks at the monastery, the tablets were unknown in the West because they had been hidden in the caves for centuries.

But as far as modern day publishing is concerned, the Ethiopian book of records is going to lead the world when the Guinness Book of Records registers it.

Source: The Sub-Saharan Informer