Monday, May 23
just like Rasputin
Welcome Instapundit Readers!
Occasionally updated progress reports on the current revolutionary democratic election season can be found in Politburo Knows Best VII - Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom' (click or just scroll down). They consist largely of our links and quotes and many that readers sent us strung together with commentary. Looking over them can provide an episodic but accurate account of events.
We don't try all that hard to be timely - it is not like there was much suspense about who would win anyway. After all, we are talking about a mass propaganda effort by an effectively single party state that that owns every square foot of land in the country that also owns businesses and state monopolies at every level of the economy. It exerts tight party discipline over a slavish Judiciary, a rubber stamp Parliament, and the army / police / security services.
The whole society is at the service of the same entrenched tribal system of brutality and patronage minimally accountable only to the aid donors who pay for it all. It is unaccountable to Ethiopians who would have absolutely no human, political or even occasional press rights at all without Western aid donors looking around at times.
Politburo Knows Best, a series about 'democracy' in Ethiopia has been in the works for a while and illustrates the above points clearly. This summary, Politburo Knows Best IX - Dictatorship can serve as a thorough introduction to all of the relevant issues.
Below are links to the series entries. One basic point we have tried to show has been the absurdity and inhumanity of throwing words like 'democracy' and 'election' around as though the words themselves have meaning independent of institutions and the rule of law.
Observers, both Ethiopian and international, should always consider how they would feel about actually living with the Politburo's Revolutionary Democracy every day instead of viewing it from afar as 'the best those folks can do for themselves'.
Politburo Knows Best I -Liberal Democracy The pretense of democracy is based on interest and pressure from the West, particularly the US. The opposition sat out the previous 'elections' because they were faked. This time they are on notice from the community of aid donors to go along with the show or be left to their own devices.
Politburo Knows Best II - Human Rights There are no meaningful human rights recognizable to any democratic society that are experienced beyond the immediate eyesight of Western aid donors.
Politburo Knows Best III - Revolutionary Democracy The national guiding ideology is still Marxist-Leninist-Maoism - so you can assume there aren't great prospects for freedom and prosperity.
Politburo Knows Best IV - Revolutionary Feudalism There are no rights to own private property whose protection is essential to all personal and political rights worldwide throughout history.
Politburo Knows Best V - The Wretched of the Earth Ethiopia's system of tribal divide and rule 'bantustans' has more in common with medieval feudalism than anything modern or decent for humans to live under.
Politburo Knows Best VI - Defending the Revolution An intense system of of control inherited from the Communist Dergue of Mengistu (known in Cuba as 'Committees to Defend the Revolution') exert absolute government control and fear at the lowest (neighborhood or block) level in unseen rural areas (85% of the people) and urban lives as well.
Politburo Knows Best VII - Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom The last few episodes of the tragi-comic "Revolutionary Democratic Election Show' (the ugliest reality show ever staged) are examined in ... episodic depth. The number of viewers, blameless or aware, who seem to accept it all at face value makes for an amazing lesson in living Orwellian production values. Sadly, 70 million Ethiopians can't just change the channel.
Politburo Knows Best VIII - Occam and Damocles This one is about the politburo's doomsday option should it be threatened with ever actually losing power. The system is structured so that the in the short term the threat of apocalyptic tribal warfare is always on the horizon without the manipulations of the ruling party. In the long term it will eventually collapse anyway taking millions along with it. [this one is still under construction]
Politburo Knows Best IX - Dictatorship A summary of the series and the prospects for actual democracy.
The very last entry, 'Politburo Knows Best X - Theater of the Absurd' will be about 'election' fallout including reactions, cynicism and honeyed praise masking contempt (i.e. Carter & the E.U.).
This series just keeps going - like Rasputin. Or is it Marx who keeps coming back to haunt Ethiopians like the living dead? Alas, there is always more tragic nonsense to account for.
Political freedom is inseperable from economic freedom. Current Ethiopian economics which is based solely on pretending to have internalized the lessons of successful societies are in the Cargo Cult Economics series.
Cargo Cult Economics Pretense of freedom and a free market is alive and well.
Cargo Cult Economics 2 - All About the Benjamins? Development is about more than cash - it is about institutions.
Cargo Cult Economics 3 - Structural Corruption Corrupt party and government owned businesses and monopoly service providers do not provide a setting where you can expect freedom and prosperity.
Please visit and look around. Ethiopians are a great people who are missing out on the rewards of their own and modern history's struggles because their government wants to remain in power at all costs.
Occasionally updated progress reports on the current revolutionary democratic election season can be found in Politburo Knows Best VII - Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom' (click or just scroll down). They consist largely of our links and quotes and many that readers sent us strung together with commentary. Looking over them can provide an episodic but accurate account of events.
We don't try all that hard to be timely - it is not like there was much suspense about who would win anyway. After all, we are talking about a mass propaganda effort by an effectively single party state that that owns every square foot of land in the country that also owns businesses and state monopolies at every level of the economy. It exerts tight party discipline over a slavish Judiciary, a rubber stamp Parliament, and the army / police / security services.
The whole society is at the service of the same entrenched tribal system of brutality and patronage minimally accountable only to the aid donors who pay for it all. It is unaccountable to Ethiopians who would have absolutely no human, political or even occasional press rights at all without Western aid donors looking around at times.
Politburo Knows Best, a series about 'democracy' in Ethiopia has been in the works for a while and illustrates the above points clearly. This summary, Politburo Knows Best IX - Dictatorship can serve as a thorough introduction to all of the relevant issues.
Below are links to the series entries. One basic point we have tried to show has been the absurdity and inhumanity of throwing words like 'democracy' and 'election' around as though the words themselves have meaning independent of institutions and the rule of law.
Observers, both Ethiopian and international, should always consider how they would feel about actually living with the Politburo's Revolutionary Democracy every day instead of viewing it from afar as 'the best those folks can do for themselves'.
The very last entry, 'Politburo Knows Best X - Theater of the Absurd' will be about 'election' fallout including reactions, cynicism and honeyed praise masking contempt (i.e. Carter & the E.U.).
This series just keeps going - like Rasputin. Or is it Marx who keeps coming back to haunt Ethiopians like the living dead? Alas, there is always more tragic nonsense to account for.
Political freedom is inseperable from economic freedom. Current Ethiopian economics which is based solely on pretending to have internalized the lessons of successful societies are in the Cargo Cult Economics series.
Please visit and look around. Ethiopians are a great people who are missing out on the rewards of their own and modern history's struggles because their government wants to remain in power at all costs.
# posted by ethiopundit : 5/23/2005
