tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76075352024-02-06T19:07:25.480-08:00ethiopunditethiopundit ... Eclectic Ethiopian & Ethio-American Commentary @ Harvest 3,000 Years and CountingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger290125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-12188085308927750532011-03-05T11:23:00.000-08:002011-03-06T11:30:08.348-08:00What Really Matters<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcxoTny3xza4LikksqS6h57v2U4krLRrNJqE4o20Fx_qtVfT6JGOa3SYdd_HWFczS7gFsieadI2kryVi2bsx84_YWYV77Ah50W6bg3jfMexKc2t85XF3t8lp2OpkJWKbIZVPTBg/s1600/ethiopian+american+gothic+triptych.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDcxoTny3xza4LikksqS6h57v2U4krLRrNJqE4o20Fx_qtVfT6JGOa3SYdd_HWFczS7gFsieadI2kryVi2bsx84_YWYV77Ah50W6bg3jfMexKc2t85XF3t8lp2OpkJWKbIZVPTBg/s400/ethiopian+american+gothic+triptych.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581050224036572674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Ethiopian-American Gothic: Triptych</span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-83399897489616610252011-02-06T11:32:00.000-08:002011-03-06T17:01:36.539-08:00A New Love<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRs6DM5Wk4DxnRDVqHfgDGePh0AK2awllT6KHyizfVkED83lbv1hgwVE3eE9zVGH2pF_ikuSXI-cHnx6x02_D_tuBhcPydu2kJbGJiWZMMJiNNJg_cdOE9nPaxOzpqTndgH_OIrQ/s1600/her+milkshakes.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 276px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRs6DM5Wk4DxnRDVqHfgDGePh0AK2awllT6KHyizfVkED83lbv1hgwVE3eE9zVGH2pF_ikuSXI-cHnx6x02_D_tuBhcPydu2kJbGJiWZMMJiNNJg_cdOE9nPaxOzpqTndgH_OIrQ/s400/her+milkshakes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5581049581357128450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Luncheon Amid the Ruins</span><br /></div><br /><strong><br /></strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-76053884254882557622009-06-14T07:54:00.000-07:002009-06-14T09:31:32.518-07:00An awaj by any other name ....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifepDGy1yf-_JjSEgLhIAzG1ykEDmfkVNDaMOg_48wujpm6I7-1x3NL8ZFyiSipdmUiteU_YiVE-o8riJaUHgCctEAarXt9N1Ke6ZiV2kiB6msUDR4a6Gh4iXBn_a-dy95EQiRQ/s1600-h/the+rule+of+law+copy.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 155px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiifepDGy1yf-_JjSEgLhIAzG1ykEDmfkVNDaMOg_48wujpm6I7-1x3NL8ZFyiSipdmUiteU_YiVE-o8riJaUHgCctEAarXt9N1Ke6ZiV2kiB6msUDR4a6Gh4iXBn_a-dy95EQiRQ/s400/the+rule+of+law+copy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347220980940182994" /></a><br /><br /><strong>"What's in a name? <br />That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet <br />... <br />or as vile."<br /><br /><em>Quote adapted with apologies to Shakespeare</strong></em><br /><br />Awaj is an Amharic term for a proclamation of law made by government. When one is dealing with civilized government the concept of law carries with it not only the the weight of law but also of necessity, precedent, and hopefully some concern for the common good. <br /><br />Rather than being outlets that simply spew forth awaj after awaj, civilized governments also have institutions such as courts and parliaments that allow for accountability and the expression of the common will.<br /><br />The idea is that no one is above the law and that the full force of government is not only done in the name of its citizens but is bound to serve their interests. If not there will be a reckoning with other agents of the law and ultimately the citizens.<br /><br />But what do you do in a society where the law itself and all of its supporting structures are meaningless? <br /><br />Ethiopia today is such a place. Government, the economy, ownership, law, and even the most basic definitions of reality or even Ethiopia itself are simply expressions of the will of Ethiopia's dictator and owner - Meles (a.k.a. Legesse) Zenawi.<br /><br />We are continuously astounded when critics of the government refer to the institutions perverted or created by Meles in terms and language that should be reserved for civilized institutions. One would expect cadres to do so but why should anyone else?<br /><br />Ethiopia's courts decide as Meles wants them to and are appointed according to their degree of slavishness. Ethiopia's parliament was handpicked by Meles according to the degree of submission of its members. It debates and makes law exactly as Meles pleases.<br /><br />There are no independent institutions of any kind in Ethiopia. It is high time that discourse about Ethiopia and its dictatorship reflect this. How about the ultimate guarantor of freedom, the right to own land and the fruits of one's labor?<br /><br />There are no rights to private property so all of the millions in the countryside are his serfs who may lose their land at the whim of his cadres or have it given away to his businessman with power or foreigners with checkbooks.<br /><br />Trotsky, one of Meles's ideological and practical mentors said that "where the state is the sole landlord - opposition means death by slow starvation." Ethiopian suffering means power and money for Meles. Ferenjis see the starving and never wonder why it is happening they just funnel billions through Meles hoping some of it will help somehow.<br /><br />Meles is the head of a party apparatus that defines Ethiopian government, enriches him and gives him absolute power. Indeed it is a revolutionary feudal aristocracy more grasping and vile than any other Ethiopians have ever had to deal with. No affair in the public or private realm is beyond their reach.<br /><br />The entire economy from grain and coffee through fake dam projects and silly wind farms are beyond the profit and control of the Meles gang. Fake institutions like the Commodities Exchange and false tribal / regional economic activities cover the fact that Meles owns his party, government, massive government monopolies, and the economy at every level.<br /><br />This incestuous mess polices itself and has a vast army of tribal militias and secret police to enforce its rule. Actually, we are talking about a culture of lies and brutality at every level. Ethiopia's constitution, laws, and pronouncements are all meant to serve Meles Inc. and his eternal enrichment and power. That is all. <br /><br />Speaking of this law moving through parliament or that bail hearing before a court is nonsense. Meles knows it, his cadres know it but for some unfathomable reason the sincere critics of Meles take those fake institutions more to heart than anyone else.<br /><br />The law restricting NGOs went through because of the will of Meles. Everyone who is in jail is there because of the will of Meles. Every execution and disappearance happens because of the will of Meles. Tens of thousands of Ethiopians have been killed because of the will of Meles. Millions starve and suffer because of the will of Meles. <br /><br />A nation is being throttled to death because of the will of Meles.<br /><br />Germany's Holocaust was conducted because of the will of Hitler. The Soviet Union's Great Purge, the Ukranian Famine, the Gulag, tens of millions of lives lost, all of it happened because of the will of Stalin. China's even higher body count happened because of the will of Mao. <br /><br />Always in the name of the people or at least some people. Those dictators did all of their crimes perfectly legally. After all they controlled the courts and the assemblies. Does that make them any less criminal?<br /><br />But ... they personally decided what the law was so the law was meaningless. Just because Meles has named institutions to carry out his will does not mean that his institutions deserve to be taken seriously enough to name them and discuss their workings as though he was running a civilized government.<br /><br />The rule of law and its institutions don't have meanings because they exist or because of what they are called or because of what they pretend to be - they have meaning because of what they express about a country and its people.<br /><br />As we have said so many times before the civil contract of Ethiopian society that defines all relations between the governed and the rulers has nothing to do with Ethiopians. It is a matter of negotiation between Meles who has tens of millions of hostages and ferenjis who fund him in the name of the hostages. <br /><br />No one should pretend otherwise.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-43096499986940823062009-06-04T17:02:00.000-07:002009-06-04T17:52:55.128-07:00more of your friendly neighborhood ethiopundit ...This is probably the longest time we have gone without a post. Don't worry - the cadres haven't gotten to us but we have just been plain lazy. We will be back in the coming week with more of your friendly neighborhood ethiopundit.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5jORbGDDv6apkW7iYK95uWRsIGnSvtr8I-W1yyh338dwTF9Yk947Vucn95o918ooBZZhaQQFdQz3ytwX0hFuBKyLH2HEXHa5zH8x-SFlbk5yMYjRDF1kXttCnjxONWT5nf7jRbg/s1600-h/courage.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5jORbGDDv6apkW7iYK95uWRsIGnSvtr8I-W1yyh338dwTF9Yk947Vucn95o918ooBZZhaQQFdQz3ytwX0hFuBKyLH2HEXHa5zH8x-SFlbk5yMYjRDF1kXttCnjxONWT5nf7jRbg/s400/courage.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343632672945292098" /></a><br /><br />By the way, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_massacre">Tiananmen Square Massacre</a> was launched twenty years ago today after weeks of pro-democracy protests. In Meles Zenawi's Ethiopia the killing would have begun even more earnestly on the very first day. <br /><br />Ferenji sanctions against China's Communist Party were far more sincere than any notice that has been made of the dozens of such massacres Ethiopians have seen in that time and the thousands of courageous men and women of every ethnic group who have been slain. <br /><br />There is also the enduring matter of the daily horror of grinding poverty and oppression that has made suffering a tradition. This despite the utter dependence of Meles Inc. on ferenjis for its daily survival. <br /><br />Despite the sincere evil of their government, the Chinese were at least allowed to develop over that time because the bosses see the creation of wealth in China as being in their own personal or group interest.<br /><br />Meles & Co. have a common interest in eternal rule with the gang in the Forbidden City but have taken the begging / creative dishonesty 'development' approach to finance their rule at whatever cost to Ethiopians who are no more than hostages to ferenji good will. <br /><br />Meles and the gangsters of Arat Kilo see any potential for the creation of wealth or sign of vibrancy in Ethiopians outside of their control as a mortal threat. They are absolutely right. Such men and women are like vampires - they can't survive any light at all.<br /><br />Meles's revolutionary feudal aristocracy actually controls far more of Ethiopian life than China's has since the end of the Cultural Revolution while dominating and draining what little economic activity there is as they siphon aid. It is all sent abroad for safekeeping in ferenji banks and real estate. <br /><br />So remember the massacre in China everyone knows about and wonder about the continuing massacre in Ethiopia that is simply accepted.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-50950299789015713842009-04-26T17:58:00.000-07:002009-04-26T07:16:51.981-07:00What, Meles Worry?<em><a href="http://exhippie.com/files/Alfred-3.gif">Image</a> with apologies for comparing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_E._Neuman">Alfred E. Neuman</a> to such a <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/26/52673789_4aba486bca.jpg?v=0">ridiculous</a> character</em><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNsh2MR1PqjvHBsaVu2efxXqsxISo5WG0mcVmK77kSmwpru0061N2sWsYoHK_-bsYLx3i8HMxf1gF9Tz4nJyMPVJkC4LOEsWjhomWXP7c_MWqH9hbvmf26ydYRprJRvYRDeXm5A/s1600-h/whatmelesworry.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 331px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDNsh2MR1PqjvHBsaVu2efxXqsxISo5WG0mcVmK77kSmwpru0061N2sWsYoHK_-bsYLx3i8HMxf1gF9Tz4nJyMPVJkC4LOEsWjhomWXP7c_MWqH9hbvmf26ydYRprJRvYRDeXm5A/s400/whatmelesworry.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314697022699423762" /></a><br /><br />Witness the progression of Meles's wit and wisdom as he positions himself for a piece of the global economic crisis action (via <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/aurora/2017.html">Ethiomedia</a> and <a href="http://ethiopolitics.com/news_1/20090317840.html">Ethiopian Politics</a>)(translations in italics) <blockquote> "The International Monetary Fund should be allowed to sell some of its gold reserves to cushion Africa from the global economic crisis ... the sell-off could raise between $5bn and $15bn to be channeled through the IMF, World Bank and other multilateral institutions."<br /><br /><strong><em>Channeled to my private accounts that is</strong></em><br /><br />"The crisis will more or less have little effect on the economy since our financial sector is not attached to the global system. Had it been the case, we would have suffered much." <br /><br /><strong><em>The IMF and World Bank will report whatever growth figures I want them to based upon the numbers I order made up</strong></em><br /><br />"Some countries could go under and that would mean total chaos and violence. In the end the cost of violence is going to be much higher than the cost of supporting Africa."<br /><br /><strong><em>I had better get paid or I will make Ethiopians suffer even more. You know I will and won't miss a meal or for that matter my deposit schedule in Swiss Bands </strong></em><br /><br />“We are seeking a much smaller stimulus package than is being spent bailing out the small and medium-sized banks in the west.”<br /><br /><strong><em>If I don't get on this gravy train there will be hell to pay for Ethiopians. Just let a bit trickle down to me - look how I make Ethiopians suffer - do you really want them to suffer more?</strong></em><br /><br />"One of the problems at the moment is that the situation is so volatile,it keeps changing every week. It destabilizes everything, including one’s thinking. If we knew where the bottom was we could start thinking as to how to get out of it."</blockquote> For once though Meles is perfectly right. His thinking is clearly destabilized. But ... it is also perfectly rational because the West has trained him to behave this way since 1991.<br /><br />You see dear reader in Meles World the absolute absence of property rights & a free market, the corrupt, murderous and incestuous beast represented by his personal business empire, party conglomerates, government monopolies, his oppressive police state, tribal militias, ethnic / religious / regional divide & rule, siphoning of billions in aid, and even his own numbered Swiss accounts don't matter a bit.<br /><br />What matters is getting ferenjis to pay up even more so he doesn't have to hurt the natives any more than he is already doing or to steal even more from them. Of course none of it is his fault. Know what? The ferenjis will pay up. Not the amounts he is talking about of course. That is just a negotiating position in the market of Ethiopian blood, sweat, and tears freely traded for dollars, euros, and yen. <br /><br />He will get enough to keep him happy - which means enough to pay for his rule without the consent of Ethiopians and enough to put in foreign accounts against a rainy day. The fact that he is the main author of Ethiopian suffering doesn't matter. Meles flew to the G-20 summit alternately shaking his head and giggling in amazement at the nonsense his penchant for violence and ferenji willing blindness let him get away with.The way to get out of the state of permanent crisis is for ferenjis to worry about Ethiopians more than their very own destabilizing Man in Africa.<br /><br />There was a <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2164.html">political</a> rally in Ethiopia this month. "These people are very brave" said one onlooker who declined to be named as Ethiopians demonstrated in Addis Ababa this month. He also said "the government have killed people who protest so I would not shout like this." That says it all. In Addis where ferenjis look on this was a show that allows Meles to pretend to have some tolerance for dissent. <br /><br />Despite the bravery of those who took part nothing has changed and the demonstration should be viewed as a scripted moment in an ongoing public relations campaign. After all ferenjis like demonstrations don't they? So let them see one carefully controlled and coordinated one while the gears of Meles's infernal machine grind tens of millions into the dust just down the road.<br /><br />Take the story of another <a href="http://ethiopianreview.homestead.com/001NewsJuly26_2005_ShiBire_Desalegn.html">peaceful demonstrator</a> several years ago. Her name was ShiBire Desalegn. <blockquote>She is the first person to be killed when Meles Zenawi unleashed his forces following a peaceful protest by Addis Ababa University (AAU) students on June 6. She was shot and killed by EPRDF troops as she and her friends tried to block the road in Kotebe that leads to the Sendafa torture camp. <br /><br />She helped escape several AAU students from torture by helping them jump from the trucks that were taking them to Sendafa. She didn't have any weapon. But that didn't stop the EPRDF troops from shooting her to death.<br /><br />A high caliber bullet pierced through her neck.<br /><br />Because of ShiBire's actions, some AAU students escaped torture. But because of the action and inaction of others, thousands went through unspeakable brutality in the hands of the EPRDF security forces under the direct orders of Meles Zenawi. Thirty days later, Meles Zenawi was standing next to President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair at the G8 meeting in Scotland, looking proud of his barbaric actions. </blockquote> Headlines talk of demonstrations and minds are always found to find comfort in them as though they mean something. After all they are in print or bytes so they must mean something. There is a report of some decision made by Ethiopia's faux parliament and pet judiciary and there are more headlines as though they mean anything.<br /><br />All, like the business empire Meles runs in Ethiopia and abroad are just different heads of the snakes growing Medusa like out of Mele's own head. They are indeed all his very personal spokesman. His rule and monopoly are enforced by brute force. All thugs worry to some degree about public relations, Ethiopia's fake institutions exist just for that purpose - so that the lazy of mind and the willing to be gullible can pretend there is some, however minute, form of human civilization to be found shining through from Meles's earnest grin.<br /><br />The day that onlooker above is not afraid is the day a demonstration will mean something. When demonstrations have occurred in the past hundreds have been shot on the streets that we know about. Like a tree falling in the forest only Ethiopian deaths that happen near ferenjis matter. We have no idea how many thousands were killed either in Addis or beyond where the foreign donors may not drive by bodies. How about the prison camps where tens of thousands were jailed and tortured?<br /><br />Ethiopia is widely recognized as not only being ruled by a dictatorship but as having one of the most corrupt and brutal governments on earth. Genocide Watch has called on the United Nations to initiate prosecution of Meles on war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. But Meles left the recent G-20 summit with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2100.html">to spend as he likes</a>. <blockquote> Mr Meles said Africa’s voice had been heard partly thanks to the willingness of Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, to allow him and other African representatives to participate in preparations for the summit.<br /><br />Bob Geldof, the aid campaigner, also welcomed the outcome. “The key point for the 50 per cent of the planet who live on less than two dollars a day must be that they have finally been brought in from the margins to the centre of the decision-making process,” he said. </blockquote> So there you have it - ferenjis say Meles is alright and a representative of the people so he must be right? The answer for all practical purposes is YES. He might as well be as far as ferenjis as concerned because Ethiopians don't matter.<br /><br />Note that this is the same Geldof (by the way has any body actually ever heard a song by the Boomtown Rats not to mention paid money for their albums - either in the 80s or in the past quarter century?) who said in a more lucid moment when he said this about the <a href="http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=243">street massacres</a> in Ethiopia <blockquote>"No doubt, I'll get a briefing from the Ethiopian embassy: 'it wasn't like this, it was like that'. Grow up, they make me puke“.</blockquote> Well uber rock star and humanitarian they are grown up and they kill people and you too have apparently grown up and accepted them again.<br /><br />Let us take a look at another fake institution. The fabled <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">Commodities Exchange</a> ECX. Every commodity in Ethiopia from each coffee bean and handful of grain will have been in government / party hands from the moment the farmer labored over it in fields owned by the government / party through the local collection centers controlled by the government / party all the way to roads to foreign ports or domestic markets controlled by the government / party.<br /><br />The whole economy and every commodity are subject to Meles Inc. control at every level and that control is based on lethal force. There is no way to access capital from anywhere without the government / party taking the choicest cuts along the way.<br /><br />Building an Commodities Exchange in the Ethiopia of Meles Zenawi is like holding elections there - errant nonsense. Countries don’t develop because ferenjis pay for the computers and staff that go into pretty buildings that they call Commodities Exchanges.<br /><br />Commodities Exchanges develop because the native people are allowed to develop and they eventually need a Commodities Exchange. There can be no confidence in any sort of economic truth or information about the current or future price of a commodity in Ethiopia that is sufficient to make the existence of a Commodity Exchange justified beyond propaganda value.<br /><br />So what happened in that shiny new edifice with its bright new computers (all paid for by hopeful against hope ferenjis who knew better every step of the way) when Meles was looking for someone to blame and just plain wanted to squeeze more money out of <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2101.html">coffee exports</a>? <blockquote>Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee producer, will start exporting beans itself after closing the warehouses of six of the country’s largest exporters, which it claims are stockpiling coffee and contributing to a shortage of foreign currency.<br /><br />...<br /><br />The country has earned $221.7 million from coffee exports over the period, short of a government target of $446.7 million. Last year, the government also blamed rising food prices on hoarding by traders. </blockquote> Eleni Gabre-Madhin, chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange agreed absolutely with the stockpiling theory. You see the absence of private property and other economic rights has nothing to do with rising prices or availability - it is all the fault of whatever tiny private businesses are allowed to exist. Why are Ethiopia's coffee farmers and traders responsible for maintaining foreign exchange reserves anyway? Isn't the whole point to let businessman do <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2137.html">their thing</a>? <blockquote>This happened after Prime Minister Meles Zenawi accused some coffee exporters in January of having been reluctant to sell stocks through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). He warned them of conspiring and disturbing the integrity of the ECX system by supplying and then buying back their own coffees to sell coffee meant for export on the domestic market, threatening to "cut off one of their hands" if they did not behave.<br /><br />...<br /><br />Coffee holds a strong political significance in Ethiopia because of its tremendous importance in the economy and its political purposes for the regime. The ruling party ensures the centralized collection and controlling of foreign currency in order to stay in power. </blockquote> What kind of commodities exchange takes on as its own responsibility and public service the takeover of a whole sector of the economy? The integrity of the exchange never existed. What kind of exchange is mandatory and relevant to threats from a dictator / entrepreneur who controls his own party / personal / government monopoly and has an army to enforce his vision?<br /><br />The hands whose behavior needs correcting are those of Meles's gang including Azeb Mesfin his wife, parliamentarian, and business mogul as Dagmawi points out in <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">A Call for the Imprisonment of Azeb Mesfin.</a> Aside from ferenji aid and foreign remittances coffee is the only way money flows into Ethiopia. The only way. The figure for coffee adjusted for inflation was about $2 billion in the 1970s every year and has shrunk every year until now it is about a quarter of that.<br /><br />Meles already gets the lions share of that but wanted more and the 'independent' official responsible for the development of a market system is his cheerleader. <blockquote>The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX), a government owned central trading system, meant primarily for grains, began trading coffee in December 2008. Launched in May 2008, the trading platform was set up to replace the murky auction system often abused by market participants.<br /><br />During the ECX rollout, which happened to coincide with the global economic turmoil where domestic and global prices were sharply rising, there was severe shortage of grains flowing through the exchange.<br /><br />Although it is authorized to trade in both spot and futures contracts, ECX announced in April 2008 that it intends to start off with only spot contracts for immediate delivery (as a strategic driver of the ultimate futures trading) and impose compulsory delivery of grains.<br /><br />In August 2008, the government swiftly enacted a new coffee law in order to provide ECX with the necessary legal framework that would enable it, among others, to impose compulsory delivery of coffees. This law requires all coffees to be traded through the ECX – the only outlet to international markets. </blockquote> Things still seem rather murky and the terms abused and imposing are just the right words here. Foreign investors are expected to participate in this mess? Sure but of course they don't. That is why Ethiopia's per capita foreign direct investment is not only among the lowest in the world but lower than Somalia's.<br /><br />The lack of participation in the commodities exchange has nothing to do with global turmoil it has to do with common sense. What rational person would participate in it if they weren't forced to? The whole thing set up in Ethiopia's corrupt system is obviously as crooked as the smiles Meles gave and got at the G-20. Legal framework? Yeah right.<br /><br />Billions all over the world have seen their lives improve because of rational non-larcenous government policies, economic freedom, and the investment that attracts. Don't hold your breath expecting the same for Ethiopia. Begging for aid works far better for Meles's purposes of staying in power and <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2137.html">getting even richer</a>. <blockquote>With the introduction of the new exchange system the auction centers are replaced by the ECX, while all other participants continue to function as is, but with one fundamental change: transparency. The previous auction system was marred with loopholes that seem to have allowed some exporters holding dual licenses to purchase back their own coffee in the auctions, thereby enjoying too much control over coffee prices. <br /><br />Supposedly, ECX’ introduction of rules of trading, warehousing, payments and delivery, and business conduct principles will seal off those loopholes. This seems to have upset a few exporters and fired back at by the government accusing them of engaging in conflict of interest. But the government’s reactions were even more troubling. It not only confiscated coffee beans from the exporters but also tasked the state owned Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) with exporting of coffee.<br /><br />This measure throws privatization and domestic market liberalization out the window.<br /><br />Ethiopia’s coffee market has always been a relatively private business, with the exception of limited government interventions to enforce quality standards, etc. This was true even during the days of the communist regime that “nationalized” almost every sector in the nation.<br /><br />EGTE’s slated assignment marks a detrimental precedence in the nation’s history. The government’s engagement in exporting beans produced by smallholder families while it controls almost all means of production in the country, including the distribution of farm inputs, capital, and the land, is inconsistent with principles of a free market system. </blockquote> Transparency and Meles mentioned in the same passage! Should we laugh or cry or both?<br /><br />What Meles worry? Nah. His 'happiness index' is just rocking along just fine right now and it doesn't matter how ridiculous he is because he is always willing to lie and kill. He doesn't have to run a successful economy just to do whatever he wants and ferenjis will send him billions of dollars for his smile and the director of the ECX will "let" him do what ever he wants to. <br /><br />The whole thing was a setup from the beginning just like Ethiopian democracy, justice, etc.The alleged coup attempt by Berhanu Nega should also be seen in the same light. This also goes for growth figures for the economy. Ultimately all the international authorities get their numbers from Meles to make their reports and predictions. Hearing the economy is down from more than 12% growth to more than 6% growth is only a way to make you believe the 6% figure to begin with or for that matter any growth.<br /><br />Lies and more lies define Melesian government. <br /><br />...........................................<br /><br />We wrote about the Commodities Exchange previously in <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">Field of Screams</a>. <br /><br />Much of the above quotes are from an excellent and unusually insightful <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2154.html">Bloomberg article via Ethiomedia: Ethiopia may prosecute coffee exporters</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi </a>'s <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/09/Coffee_exports_derg_meles.html">Short Comment on Coffee Exports from Mengistu to Meles</a> is a customary master work from that blogger. We recommend not only that article but everything he writes for a clear understanding of Ethiopian affairs.<br /><br />One of the only real events at the G-20 summit: <a href="http://abbaymedia.com/News/?p=2268">Abbay Media News visited a TPLF Embassy</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-70906331195391677832009-04-08T17:26:00.000-07:002009-03-29T06:33:20.003-07:00Cadre Cola<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkgLBJlo2tVkNMJEMSc6eCuP0S58SV_9XoG-PsG4RUVMam7D9rrINHivY7aFuw3zapBgOttxoiTscPcBUhr33SrLk-MAOFJmqayFSBxXVEBvTZ3AGMXzS4Soa6motL6iVT3NT4w/s1600-h/cadrecola.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkgLBJlo2tVkNMJEMSc6eCuP0S58SV_9XoG-PsG4RUVMam7D9rrINHivY7aFuw3zapBgOttxoiTscPcBUhr33SrLk-MAOFJmqayFSBxXVEBvTZ3AGMXzS4Soa6motL6iVT3NT4w/s400/cadrecola.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318602276805451842" /></a><br /><br />Given the recent drama about Coca-Cola <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/aurora/2026.html">stopping</a> and <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/adroit/2065.html">re-starting</a> operations in Ethiopia you may be tempted, dear reader, into thinking this post is about just that. No, this one is about another, not so famous, brand that has far greater global reach and larger profits with a miniscule consumer base and very little brand recognition. <br /><br />In countries like Ethiopia it has absolute market share among those that matter. Folks are literally dying for it. Cadre Cola is the carefully distilled essence of Ethiopian blood, sweat, and tears. Like mushroom cultivation the manufacture of Cadre Cola can't abide light and thrives in ... well, you know exactly what.<br /><br />Cadre Cola is what cadres consume. It is bottled by and for an exclusive clientele of government and quasi-government aid bureaucrats as well as third world dictators and their cronies. The taxpayers who finance it and the oppressed in whose name it is bottled either assume the Cadre Cola business is an obligation or something they can't live without.<br /><br />Let us start with a definition. What does cadre mean? As usual (where none of many hundreds of millions of editors has an ax to grind anyway) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadre">Wikipedia</a> is a good place to start: <blockquote>Cadre (pronounced /ˈkɑːdreɪ/, from the French) is the backbone of an organization, usually a political or military organization. Because cadre are well developed in terms of knowledge, experience, and agreement with the organization's goals, they should be able to adapt and rebuild the organization's structure and ideological direction even if the organization has been weakened, through, for example, other members being killed or imprisoned. For professional revolutionaries the cadre consider themselves subject to the discipline and self-discipline of a political vanguard party model.<br /><br />Radical Left movements in particular have maintained their minimum program of survival and growth very effectively through the strength of a cadre system. Basic success within a movement in which cadre are the vanguard comes when one core of cadre has gradually recruited and trained another group of cadre to ensure the perpetuation of the movement. This, in theory, both strengthens the movement politically and promotes a culture of emulation over that of competition. The drawback of the cadre system is the inevitable ossification of the ideology as competition is eliminated, and the cadre becoming a separate caste, "a state within a state".</blockquote> We take issue with the 'Radical Left movement' bit though. In as much as left - right distinctions matter the Radical Right owes just as much to the cadre system as do groups as seemingly diverse as organized crime and terrorist movements. The part about being well developed is wrong too unless we are talking about man's more canine characteristics. <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cadres">Merriam Websters</a> has a shorter definition that is just as descriptive <blockquote> a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party</blockquote>Exactly. Don't get us wrong here. We aren't talking about loyalty here or dedication which can be admirable qualities. Rather we are talking about people who are frankly for sale or with so little sense of self or shared humanity that they are giving themselves away. Just aching and willing to exact pain on others for the slightest gain. Imagine a village dog who bolts when someone makes a movement remotely like they might be reaching for a rock - the dog then tucks its tail in to come ask for anything at all besides a kick - another dog to bite even - anything at all to make any of a thousand masters happy. <br /><br />You get the idea. <br /><br />Ethiopians are familiar with the type who passionately served, lied, and spied for the Dergue when the time was right and then came to see Meles himself as their personal savior - on and on to presumably transferring their souls to whoever else is in charge from a resurrected Mussolini to invading space aliens. Even when they didn't change sides the idea holds - they were just cadres of a competing vanguard parties. <br /><br />We know some cadres uncomfortably well (genetically even) who made it out of Mengistu's Scientific Socialist gulag, walked across deserts to get to the USA, and eagerly opened up franchises of Meles's Revolutionary Democratic <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/05/politburo-knows-best-vi-defending.html">kebeles</a> (just as bad, actually worse, if it only happened in their own minds). The amazing thing about the cadres of Meles Inc. in Ethiopia and outside it today is that they could not exist without a group of powerful cadres just as twisted as they are to exist. <br /><br />You know where this is heading of course - we are talking about ferenji cadres whose avowed aims are service to their fellow man but whose real interests revolve around getting along with dictators of poor nations, pumping billions to them, getting paid, and making up stories of their success. All with no oversight from anyone.<br /><br /><a href="http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/">Aid Watch</a> is the blog of William Easterly, the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594200378/ref=pd_bxgy_img_a/104-1858799-1316703?%5Fencoding=UTF8">The White Man's Burden : Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good</a>.(The book is summarized in this post <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/06/so-much-ill-and-so-little-good.html">So Much Ill and So Little Good</a>.) He begins that book stating that there are two tragedies for the world's poor. <br /><br />First, that so many suffer because they lack access to existing inexpensive solutions and second, that the $2.3 trillion (that is $2,300,000,000,000 in cash money / 23 followed by eleven zeros or 2.3 thousand billion bucks!) spent on foreign aid over the last five decades has still not managed to get those existing inexpensive solutions to the poor. Indeed, foreign aid often makes the lives of the poor far worse.<br /><br />This point of view is a far cry from the Jeff Sachs (see this post <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/11/cargo-cult-economics-6-sachs-violence.html">Sachs & Violence</a>) school of "throw so much money at the third world that even the most rapacious elites can't manage to steal it all ... then maybe something good will happen ... maybe - and if it doesn't why heck, it sure is a fantastic little academic exercise.". Or how about the Joseph Stiglitz school of just plain liking Meles personally because Meles so neatly parrots the scholar's words and theories back at him (see this post <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/09/intellectuals-and-their-discontents.html">Intellectuals and their Discontents</a>).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dambisamoyo.com/">Dambisa Moyo</a> the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Aid-Working-Better-Africa/dp/0374139563">Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa</a> has this to say about Africa in particular <blockquote>the past fifty years, more than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred from rich countries to Africa. Has this assistance improved the lives of Africans? No. In fact, across the continent, the recipients of this aid are not better off as a result of it, but worse—much worse. </blockquote> The Easterly and Mayo books manage to actually judge and evaluate human reality and the results of aid, accountability, institutions and governance. Easterly and Mayo are the anti-cadres being heard increasingly more to the great dismay of the Lords of Poverty or the Ferenji Aid Raj who run the the multi-billion dollar Cadre Cola brand. The term Lords of Poverty comes from a book by Graham Hancock titled, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lords-Poverty-Prestige-Corruption-International/dp/0871134691">The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business</a>. The introduction and first sections of the <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=N4eQaub3S0oC&dq=lords+of+poverty&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=lsfjF6OLqv&sig=aY6ZKGAqwnxudDFVR1rOkhT-Yb0#PPP1,M1">Lords of Poverty</a> is available on line.<br /><br />It begins thus<blockquote>This book is an attack on a group of rich and powerful bureaucracies that have hijacked our kindness. The bureaucracies I refer to are those that administer the West's aid and then deliver it to the poor of the Third World in a process Bob Geldoff once described as 'a perversion of the act of human generosity'. <br /><br />...<br /><br />Official aid also involves the transfer of very <em>large</em> sums of money - so large in fact, that the resources of the private sector look puny and insignificant by comparison. It would thus be sensible, at the very least, for the official agencies to be directly accountable to the public - to be 'transparent', open, and honest in their dealings. <br /><br />This unfortunately is not the case. Indeed, critical study is sharply and effectively discouraged. Those of us, for example, who wish to evaluate the progress , effectiveness, or quality of development assistance will soon discover that the aid bureaucracies have already carried out all of the evaluations that they believe necessary, and are prepared to resist with armor plated resolve, - the ignorant or biased or hostile attentions of outsiders.<br /><br />Even the few apparently independent studies have been financed by one or other of the aid agencies or by institutes set up with aid money.</blockquote> Keep this last bit especially in mind for later on. Now finally let us pay a visit to the Easterly blog to see the poverty cadre in action. The story starts with this Aid Watch post <a href="http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/2009/03/why_does_british_foreign_aid_p.html">Why Does British Foreign Aid Prefer Poor Governments Over Poor People?.</a> <blockquote>European donors are moving towards increasing direct budget support to governments of aid-receiving countries. Leading the charge is the UK, which gives the largest percentage of direct budget support of any bilateral or multilateral donor (although the World Bank, the European Commission, the US and France also give substantial budget support).<br /><br />...<br /><br />Of this list [of nations British aid flows to], only Ghana and India were classified as “free” by the annual Freedom House ratings on democracy (according to either the 2007 or 2008 rating). For the 11 other countries that did get British budget support, how much is there “country ownership” when the government is not democratically accountable to the “country”?<br /><br />Moreover, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused some of these governments of serious human rights violations. Ethiopia’s autocratic government, which is inexplicably the largest recipient of UK budget support in Africa, won 99% of the vote in the last “election.” The government army is accused by HRW of war crimes in the Somali region of Ethiopia. Nor is this brand new -- neither army officers nor civilian officials have been “held accountable for crimes against humanity that ENDF (Ethiopian National Defense Force) forces carried out against ethnic Anuak communities during a counterinsurgency campaign in Gambella region in late 2003 and 2004.” <br /><br />HRW also notes that today: “Credible reports indicate that vital food aid to the drought-affected [Somali] region has been diverted and misused as a weapon to starve out rebel-held areas.” Ironically, Ethiopia’s autocratic ruler, Meles Zenawi, was the Africa representative at the recent G-20 meeting campaigning for more aid to Africa during the current crisis, because, among other reasons, Meles said “people who were getting some food would cease to get it and … would die” (from <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e42b235a-1343-11de-a170-0000779fd2ac.html">an article</a> in Wednesday's Financial Times.)</blockquote>The good Professor has this wrong - there was no insurgency among the Anuak then and there never has been. The government just wanted the locals, who they had previously neglected to terrorize because of their remote location, to understand who was in charge and the price of even possible defiance that might interfere with drilling for oil. (See the post <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/02/blood-oil-and-ethnic-rule-in-gambella.html">Blood, Oil and Ethnic Rule in Gambella</a>.)<br /><br />Back to the story at hand, the Addis Ababa-based director [chief cadre] of aidinfo.org (allegedly an initiative to accelerate poverty reduction by making aid more transparent. Aidinfo is part of Development Initiatives, a UK-based development consultancy) wasn't having any of this. You see according to that wonderful Amharic expression Easterly is "touching his injera" i.e. "upsetting his gravy train" i.e. "<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/narc">narcing him out</a>". <br /><br />After all how could he continue to pretend to monitor corruption in aid in Ethiopia if the corrupt government thought him disloyal for not responding to Easterly's stubborn refusal to accept the party line? His more immediate bosses in Development Initiatives would also appreciate a stirring defense of their no doubt very profitable enterprise. The aid agencies who pay for the whole aid daisy chain would appreciate a strong defense too.<br /><br />Hell, the chief cadre probably thought to himself, "if folks listen to the Easterly types of this world who are to proud to shut up and get on the short list for phat consultancies then I might just have to get a real job some day." So he gamely put down his real human skull goblet (a gift from Meles himself), carefully lest a drop of that sweet nectar Cadre Cola spill, stiffened his spine in prospect of a horrid real job (insert dramatic <em>shudder</em> here) where results were actually expected and wrote to Easterly ... <a href="http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/2009/03/response_to_why_does_british_a.html"> his response was posted on Aid Watch</a>. <br /><br />The aid cadre had this to say in support of business as usual. <blockquote>according to the official results of the 2005 election, the ruling party won 59.8% of the votes.</blockquote> Note the absurdity of both parties even referring to 'official results' of an Ethiopian election with straight faces. Easterly's response. <blockquote>I guess we really left you with a poor impression if you think we can’t even count votes! We were referring to the local elections of April 2008 (the more recent, and hence ‘last’). Human Rights Watch (the source of our original assertion) found, during two weeks of field research in the lead up to the elections, “systemic patterns of repression and abuse that have rendered the elections meaningless in many areas.<br /><br />HRW concluded that the 2008 elections “provided a stark illustration of the extent to which the government has successfully crippled organized opposition of any kind—the ruling party and its affiliates won more than 99 percent of all constituencies, and the vast majority of seats were uncontested.” An Associated Press article from April 20, 2008 told the same story: “opposition parties said a systematic campaign of beatings, arrests and intimidation forced out more than 17,000 of their candidates.”</blockquote> The cadre went on to say <blockquote>the UK does not give budget support to the Federal Government of Ethiopia. Through the Protection of Basic Services scheme, which was introduced after worries about the election, the UK Government provides finance to local government (albeit through the existing financial transfer mechanism via central government). As well as funding health and education, the project includes significant components to increase transparency and accountability of federal and regional parliaments.</blockquote> The cadre must be going for a laugh here. But sadly probably not. He just doesn't take the organizational mission statement 'making aid more transparent' that seriously does he? Well the founders probably don't either - the whole thing is sounding like a fig leaf for the Lords of Poverty. We've written about this bit of nonsense wrapped in a fig leaf in the post <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-not-magic-solution.html">It's Not a Magic Solution</a>. Our point was that paying off Mafia Capos Peter Clemenza or Salvadore Tessio and feeling all noble about not giving money directly to Don Corleone was not only dumb it was an obvious lie.<br /><br />The fact that <a href="http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi">Transparency International</a> views Ethiopia as one of the most corrupt nations on earth doesn't matter to the cadre. Somehow the central government run by Meles just might be corrupt you see but such slander can't be extended to even one mini-meles that Meles owns. Easterly responds <blockquote>But wait, aren’t those the same local governments that just had the rigged elections? A <a href="http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/vol108/issue430/index.dtl">recent article</a> by Aalen and Tronvoll in the journal African Affairs points out that one of the reasons why the ruling party bothered to fix the local elections so thoroughly was precisely because international donors had cut off budget support to the federal government (in the political mayhem following the 2005 elections) and started channeling it to local government bodies instead. (Anyway, we never made any assertion about which level of government received budget support.)<br /><br />You don’t think we developed our case enough that budget transfers to corrupt autocrats are bad. Fair enough, cases should always be developed more. But for now, which is more intuitive: your claim that aid to kleptocrats is “a way to make the government more accountable to its own citizens,” or our claim that aid money given directly to corrupt dictators is unlikely to reach poor people? </blockquote> The cadre digs himself in deeper<blockquote>The British Government's approach of giving some aid in the form of budget support (too little, in my view) is motivated by evidence that in some circumstances this is an important way of building more effective, responsive and accountable institutions.</blockquote> Easterly rubs it in <blockquote>“Effective, responsive and accountable institutions”—wouldn’t that include democracy and freedom from corruption? The “evidence” you cite in your post is from a <a href="http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/25/43/37426676.pdf">report commissioned by the donors to evaluate themselves</a>. While self-evaluation raises suspicions of bias, even so the support for your claims from this report is a tad on the weak side: “Where a separate governance matrix has been developed, progress is slow…or donors are not satisfied with quality of dialogue…or implementation is weak.”<br /><br />As for corruption, the same study said that “corruption, and anti-corruption measures, have featured explicitly in the performance matrices and prior actions linked to PGBS. Most often, prior actions related to legal measures, policy development and administrative actions, but, even when formally complied with, such measures have not been conspicuously effective.” Not too surprising—isn’t giving aid to corrupt officials for anti-corruption strategies kind of like giving aid to burglars to install burglar alarms? </blockquote> The cadre signs off with this supposed to be withering finish<blockquote>If Aid Watch want to be taken seriously as an aid watchdog, then (a) they'd better get their facts straight and (b) they need to do some proper analysis of the costs and benefits of different choices for aid delivery in different contexts, rather than simply asserting that it is wrong to give aid to and through governments of which they disapprove.</blockquote> Easterly finishes off <blockquote>Thanks for your helpful suggestions on how to ingratiate ourselves with the aid establishment by toning down our criticism of bad aid-receiving governments. However, what really matters to us is not whether WE disapprove of a country’s government but whether the CITIZENS of that country disapprove of their own government—and have the right to express it. Judging from recent election practices by the government of Ethiopia, most Ethiopians don’t have that right.</blockquote>Right On Professor Easterly! He gets it doesn't he? So why aren't people like him running aid programs? Because all of the characteristics required to be a Lord of Poverty, though they are legion, do not include making conclusions from facts, telling the truth, not being deceitful or at least not so desperately internalizing deceit, and taking pride in what you actually accomplish.<br /><br />Along with <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Meles_Zenawi.jpg">Legesse</a> we know many of the aid crowd in Addis read this blog. Well, Nous Accusons! You are cadres. And note that it is not a nice thing to say about someone.<br /><br />What you do, unless it is purely humanitarian aid, not only helps but is absolutely vital to keeping the dictatorship of Meles in business and to the formation of an Ethiopian civil contract that includes ferenjis and Meles but excludes Ethiopians. <br /><br />Meles Inc. is inconceivable without the active complicity of otherwise absolutely decent people like you in public and private bureaucracies and think tanks and international organizations every where. <br /><br />Just like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_tourism">sex tourists</a>, many international aid cadres are people who obey the conventions of law, common sense, and morality at home but seem to lose touch with them all when they have a willing government(to them anyway), natives (who cares if they are willing or not?), and Biblical level poverty to which they can apply their pet theories (which always fail) while getting promoted, getting a fat expense account, and living like Lords in the Ferenji Aid Raj.<br /><br />With absolutely no accountability.<br /><br />They just seem to get an itch to just 'try out and idea' every now and then at the expense of relatively rich taxpayers who are hidden from the truth but who instinctively know it is all nonsense and poor natives who just need a healthy dose of good old fashioned capitalism and liberal democracy to do just fine and to no longer need aid.<br /><br />Anyone anywhere who says different is really saying that they don't want Ethiopians to have the very same opportunities that have let billions of lives on planet earth escape 'poor nasty brutish and short' fates in the span of even a generation.<br /><br />It is that simple. In a just world it would be the Cadre Cola brand and not the Coca Cola brand that was in danger of leaving Ethiopia.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-70725239544526893902009-04-01T16:38:00.000-07:002009-03-22T07:58:45.026-07:00Everybody Knows I'm the Heir to the Mengistu Dynasty<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWPP-B-Cu5f9ISU1v-o-GiEQKI16vOV58WFT4R2Q3hV3sUbcnyG-qECflMImLeqAdnOLLntYiJpdf_9Tx9VzA_HyhZWx5Q00toj_7kq5ICTg1JNpEbBcBo5cbxWc5z9X-zQ4BBg/s1600-h/africasadvocate.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 369px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsWPP-B-Cu5f9ISU1v-o-GiEQKI16vOV58WFT4R2Q3hV3sUbcnyG-qECflMImLeqAdnOLLntYiJpdf_9Tx9VzA_HyhZWx5Q00toj_7kq5ICTg1JNpEbBcBo5cbxWc5z9X-zQ4BBg/s400/africasadvocate.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315879218380974946" /></a><br /><strong> Ethiopia's dictator Meles Zenawi is to be Africa's representative at the <a href="http://www.g20.org/about_faq.aspx">G-20 summit</a> ... and this is his theme song:<br /><blockquote><em>I'm talkin' ta you, Ethis<br />I’m the African Advocate, y’all thought you had me<br />Ferenjis brought me back from the dead, business in Somalia<br /><br />Bouncin' in London throwin' up Weyane, man<br />Rulin' another 18 years? YES I AM<br />Y’all like damn, this cadre did it again<br />Hundred million in just one bank, Lenin above the brim<br /><br />Ferenjis on the right side<br />Gun on the left side<br />Cadres from Addis to New York, know how to throw up the TPLF side<br /><br />[Chorus - Spill blood, Spill blood, Spill blood - repeat X 2]<br /><br />Word to the Ethis<br />I'm so ill, believe me, I’ll kill you all<br />Fly direct to the White House, next to Bush or Obama 'n' stand tall<br /><br />Better be glad you breathin'<br />All I need is one reason<br />I'm the king, and ferenjis say it Africa need me<br /><br />Don't care if you Tigray, Oromo, Amhara<br />Ethis step to me, I don't never say holla<br />All y'all punks bleed the same color<br />Make room for Bereket and Li'l Sammy - if they behave<br />The rest of you Ethis goin' live as my slaves<br /><br />I don't know why you Ethis keep tryin' me<br />Everybody knows I'm the heir to the Mengistu dynasty<br />I ain't got beef with Issias, no beef with Bashir<br />What's beef when you gettin' paid billions right here?<br /><br />[Chorus - Spill blood, Spill blood, Spill blood - repeat X 2]<br /><br />The starving Ethis, I keep 'em on display<br />Ferenjis pay up so I won’t hurt ‘em again <br />We play that game laugh then I do it my way<br /><br />You Ethis better make up a dance and try to get radio play<br />Keep on snappin' your remotes, I ain't going away<br />I don't regret what I spit, ferenjis believe every word I say<br /><br />And Ethis keep talkin' about me, they don't know when to stop<br />I’m Mao, I’m Botha, I’m Che, I’m Pol Pot<br />This ain't sh** but a warnin' 'til my Agazi drop </em></blockquote> <a href="http://rapclub.ru/img/covers/the-game/doctors-advocate-big.jpg">Image</a> & <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUspb0gFprI">video on You Tube</a> with sincere apologies to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(rapper)">The Game</a>.</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-48027357652398693862009-03-15T18:03:00.000-07:002009-03-06T18:52:23.344-08:00The Western Strategic Dilemma in the Horn of Africa ... or how the West should curb its pets<strong><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Heiligendamm_G8_2007_003.jpg">Honored Guests</a> at the 33rd G-8 Summit</strong><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMD6usPQYelpbCLwBxMhysSXbxWHtAkdHSZHD57opj1Hnb0H4tpB0hJnVEs__8R_ChUPWxIM0JG9orOp15PQZdTX4HWF4Zu9-za5SIBK2WUU4hyTN8Fn1I3ncjy8MQKMQBMPoJ5A/s1600-h/MelesG8Summit.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMD6usPQYelpbCLwBxMhysSXbxWHtAkdHSZHD57opj1Hnb0H4tpB0hJnVEs__8R_ChUPWxIM0JG9orOp15PQZdTX4HWF4Zu9-za5SIBK2WUU4hyTN8Fn1I3ncjy8MQKMQBMPoJ5A/s400/MelesG8Summit.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310272172430994146" /></a><br /><strong><em>if only <a href="http://www.angelo.edu/faculty/kboudrea/lagniappe/pictures_san_antonio_zoo_2/6_Spotted_Hyena.JPG">Meles</a> could have just stayed there for his care and feeding</em></strong><br /><br />...........................................................<br /><br />The voices of the Western world concerned with human rights routinely make clear that Ethiopia's government is one of the most oppressive on earth. From sources as varied in perspective and interest as the <a href="http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119001.htm">U.S. State Department Human Rights Report</a> and that of <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/world-report/2009/ethiopia">Human Rights Watch World Report</a> that is the case. <br /><br />Private organs like HRW do so, often with passion, in keeping with their mission but have little power. Public organs like State do so, usually with a sense of boredom at having to bother, and fail to exercise any power. However, as <a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/18/eu-should-not-tolerate-ethiopias-repression">HRW says</a> about the European Union's reaction to the closing of the sole independent, though largely symbolic, sources of civil power in the country, the Western world provides not tacit but overt support for Ethiopian suffering: <blockquote>"The EU should have condemned one of world's worst laws on NGOs. Instead, it gave Ethiopia €250 million.<br /><br />On 30 January, European Union policymakers sent a clear signal to Ethiopia: no matter how repressive the government becomes, vast sums of aid will continue to flow. This is emerging as a case study in bad donor policy."</blockquote> HRW has it wrong though. This is not an emerging case study of bad donor policy - this has been Western policy since 1991 when Meles Inc. took power. The basic approach was originally one of welcoming 'anyone but Mengistu' but over time that matured to a further embrace of low expectations. <br /><br />For Europeans that became appreciating in Meles 'an African we can deal with' and for Americans seeing in him 'our man in Africa'. Of course, seeming to be of use can cause many sins to be forgiven but even as reports and accounts of endemic human rights violations pile up the dictator's words are accepted at face value. Meles is rewarded with status at G-8 summits and more importantly billions in unaccounted for aid that secure him in power and fill his personal coffers. <br /><br />If not low expectations how else to explain a government with no basic institutions of civil society, not to mention democratic society, being so tolerated? There is a parliament, courts, elections, election board, etc. that only exist to give a patina of respectability to a government of thugs. None of those institutions matter - Meles makes decisions in concert with his slavish revolutionary nobility. Yet Meles's words are heard as though they originated from any civilized process recognizable to any democrat - and Western governments eat it up.<br /><br />The issue of bad donor policy extends beyond human rights to the intimately related sphere of economics. Ethiopia is one of the most desperately poor nations on earth with little prospect of improvement given the absence of every factor that made the West rich and so much else of humanity escape suffering as a tradition. Ethiopia has also, not by coincidence, one of the most corrupt governments on earth.<br /><br />There is no right to own private property in Ethiopia - the people meaning the government meaning ultimately Meles own all of the land. The whole economy at every level from the debt bondage of fertilizer sales to poor farmers, local grain markets and all aid grain distribution, import-export businesses, agribusiness, construction, road building, to the absurdity of the commodities exchange are all united grasping tentacles of Meles Inc.<br /><br />Every one concerned knows that no economy on earth has ever developed under those circumstances - yet the game goes on of pretending to believe what Meles says about democracy or economic growth. So far apart from Ethiopians who are on occasion heard because the West can't pretend to ignore them any longer and apart from the support of friends of Ethiopia in places such as the US Legislature and the EU Parliament - the consequences of Western policy to Ethiopia are ignored.<br /><br />This is not a 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' issue or one that finally demands that 'Ethiopians finally get their act together'. The West has made itself an active partner in support of Ethiopia's dictatorship. As we have so often said before the Ethiopian Civil Contract is between Meles and Western governments. Ethiopians are just spectators and hostages.<br /><br />You see the West occasionally threatens and begs Meles to treat Ethiopians better (at least those known to them and those withing sight of Embassies). Meles only pretends to do so and when that does not work only has to renew his eternal threat to drag tens of millions of them even further down into the depravity of his own reality before the West gets back in line.<br /><br />All of the give and take is between Meles and Westerners. Ethiopians are bit players in the drama. But ... the only semi-civilized actor who may even consider the interests of Ethiopians are Westerners. Ethiopians have nowhere else to turn for help. They can only appeal to the better natures of Meles's partners in crime in Washington and Brussels because Meles is the murderous, bratty, viceroy of the West in every way possible.<br /><br />So how can the West take responsibility for its own actions and serve its own interests? The struggle against Islamic Fascism puts Western Strategic Dilemma in Eastern African into stark relief. The foreign policy of every country is based on self interest. Self interest and projections of self interest over time can combine with occasional frank altruism to bring about policy beneficial to countries like Ethiopia. Why not?<br /><br />The donor nations seem to be in the process of making decisions for the future that are no longer based on wishful thinking about personalities and rhetoric. It is valuable to examine a similar situation in recent history for instruction. Once again we will ask our readers to take part in a familiar thought experiment. Close your eyes and imagine Ethiopia’s revolutionary nobility and its ruler were White and and not Black. <br /><br />Especially given the foundation of the Ethiopian government de facto and de jure on ethnic / regional divide and rule where one's tribe defines how anyone participates in society - very naturally one would make a comparison to Apartheid era South Africa or a nation fallen victim to colonialism long past its expiration date. <strong>Blacks in Apartheid era South Africa had far more political and economic rights than Ethiopians do today.</strong><br /><br />When White Africans mistreat Black Africans it seemed to matter quite a bit but when Black Africans mistreat other Black Africans that is accepted as a part of the world's natural order. Indeed, the West is willing to finance the latter evil with no questions asked. The comparison to Apartheid era South Africa is apt. Wonder along with us why any dictator should be given credit just for looking like his victims? <br /><br />There has long been an assumption that Bush was a key Meles ally solely because of the War on Terror and that the end of the Bush Presidency would mean more responsible Western policy towards Ethiopia. According to one senior State Department official quoted by <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ethiopia0103/ethiopia0103-07.htm">HRW</a> in 2003 <blockquote> "Ethiopia's human rights record is 'not a factor' in the bilateral relationship."</blockquote>But ... how about Clinton before Bush and his just as close alliance with Meles? Obama's Secretary of State was decidedly not ushering in a new era of respect for human rights when she said of China's dictators that <blockquote>"We have to continue to press them. But our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis." </blockquote> That is diplo-speak for beat on the Chinese as long and as hard as you like. It is hard to think that where there are security interests to be pursued that Ethiopian suffering is going to count for more than the Chinese variety where there are financial interests to be considered. From China to Ethiopia the general Western attitude is wrongheaded and ultimately harmful to the West. But those facts are either not appreciated or at best they are simply inconvenient.<br /><br />In this post we will explore the nature of the Western Strategic Dilemma in Ethiopia, compare it to the past one in South Africa, and explore how it can be dealt with while keeping the West firmly on the side of basic morality and civilization - while serving Western interests too.<br /><br /><br /><strong>THE WESTERN STRATEGIC DILEMMA IN SOUTH AFRICA (SA)</strong><br /><br /><strong>Self Interest</strong><br />--SA was the source of crucial strategic materials for Western economies and their militaries<br />--The Cape of Good Hope was near vital shipping lanes and especially after the closing of the Suez Canal (and given its size limitations even when it was open), a friendly presence on those waters was needed <br />--Soviet expansion in Africa, and Southern African in particular, required a convenient Western proxy to counter it <br />--There were billions in every Western currency invested and paying dividends in the generally advanced economy and market in SA<br />--SA was stable in comparison to the rest of Africa<br /><br /><strong>Long term Self Interest</strong> with a Degree of Altruism in the mix<br />--Apartheid would lead to greater instability in the long term and serve Soviet interests in Africa even beyond propaganda value<br />--Apartheid was morally repugnant and despite every manner of strategic calculation, the public of the West would not long tolerate accommodation of it - or more important with their own governments that did<br /><br /><br /><strong>WESTERN POLICIES TOWARDS APARTHEID EVOLVE</strong><br /><br /><strong>The <em>appearance</em> of policy against apartheid</strong><br />--SA was kicked out of symbolic institutions like the Olympics or various Rugby Leagues.<br />--It was occasionally treated rudely by Western governments with loud criticism and diplomatic sanctions that really meant nothing at all <br /><br />or<br /><br /><strong>Actual policy against apartheid</strong><br />--An arms embargo was placed on SA with the full knowledge that SA could make anything it needed for itself. The French, for example, basically sponsored SA manufacture of Mirage fighter jets<br />--Economic sanctions and divestment were never an issue beyond talk and popular protest until late in the game when they began to bite<br /><br />and<br /><br />--the <a href="http://www.revleonsullivan.org/principled/principles.htm">Sullivan Principles</a> (more on these below) mandated sanctions against particular businesses that did not meet standards for race blind or at least more black friendly practices<br /><br />--the Soviet Empire started to fall apart at about the same time some sanctions were coming on line with the possibility of many more. Without security considerations to hold the West back, this made the SA government worry far more than usual - especially as the economy began to contract from the first sanctions alone<br /><br />But, there is always opportunity in crisis ... the same situation also provided the apartheid government with an opportunity to change without worrying about Soviet control of popular Black empowerment of any degree. So far we have not noted the absolutely vital role of the burgeoning Black movement for freedom. Black SA was not a silent spectator while all of these decisions were being made.<br /><br />As the occasional armed but far more importantly unarmed, united, morally omnipotent, rational and increasingly fearless Black movement gained strength, the SA government saw its own interests increasingly defined by opening up and ditching apartheid ... while it could still do so peacefully. The release of Mandela and elections followed naturally in a victory for all concerned<br /><br /><br /><strong>THE ETHIOPIAN NATIONAL DILEMMA IN DEALINGS WITH THE TPLF & THE WEST </strong><br /><br /><strong>The lessons for Ethiopia in the SA example </strong><br />--the vagaries of Western self interest, policy and their usefulness (and potential harm)<br />--the use of detailing the moral element of a Western break with the TPLF<br />--the utility of encouraging the type of Western behavior that weakened apartheid <br />--the utility of emphasizing the self interest in both the long and the short term that the West has against an ongoing alliance with the TPLF and in an alliance with Ethiopians<br /><br />Ethiopian government is defined by an unprecedented degree of structural corruption and bad policies that guarantee poverty and dependence on the kindness of the West and the tolerance of the West for depravity. That and threat of instability that is encouraged and based on Ethiopian government policies <strong>makes the situation all the more difficult for all than in SA.</strong><br /><br />--there is no right to private ownership of land which all of human experience has shown is needed for any political and economic development. Indeed all are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serf">serfs</a> or at best <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropper">sharecroppers</a> of the TPLF with little prospect of the opportunities to develop that are easily well within the capacities of the land and the people. There is no structural reason that Ethiopia should be a beggar nation in any way beyond the oppressive structure and policies of the TPLF<br /><br />--the Bolshevik-Maoist TPLF, the government that is defined by it, government economic monopolies, party and crony owned businesses, armed forces, all powerful brutal security forces, the judiciary, the parliament, the media and regional bantustan governments utterly dominated by the center are all one and the same<br /><br />--per capita foreign direct investment, per capita income, per capita spending on health and education and per capita agricultural production are either at the very bottom worldwide or very close to it. Indeed all of these factors have worsened since the fall of the Dergue and Ethiopia is now the poorest country on earth and is getting poorer<br /><br />--the TPLF can not survive without aid, even aid providing direct budget support for every basic from pencils to possibly out of place advanced fighter jets. All infrastructure projects are carried out with the interest and finance from aid givers who also feed Ethiopians, up to half of whom require constant food aid to survive. Much or the rest are chronically malnourished, also because of government policy<br /><br />--foreign aid has helped the TPLF become independent of accountability with the Ethiopian people. The normal process of the development of democratic and economic accountability and institutions has been short circuited. What matters most with the TPLF mode of government is getting along with Western aid donors - not Ethiopians.<br /><br />--Ethiopians of every ethnicity, region and religion serve as hostages of the government that essentially promises them harm unless it is continually patronized by the West and allowed to remain in power without hindrance. The TPLF routinely makes that threat in calls for ongoing struggle and a return to the fortresses of war.<br /><br />Instability is carefully nurtured by the TPLF and often simulated to increase Western attention to its utility as a partner. This is done because its chosen mode of Leninist-Maoist government with bits of monopoly and crony capitalism grafted on will always make for weakness that is outweighed by the benefits of depending on foreigners rather than Ethiopians for the sake of continued rule.<br /><br />Above all, the TPLF has so categorically weakened Ethiopia and is so effectively strangling its chances for progress that if aid cuts or economic sanctions are used it is clear that innocent Ethiopians will suffer long before the revolutionary aristocracy does. <br /><br />This accentuates the moral and practical bind that Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopian must deal with. When SA was the issue there was little hesitation among Black SA and their friends to use sanctions even though blacks would be harmed first. <br /><br />While Ethiopians are rather more desperate under the TPLF than Blacks were in SA, that does not provide the TPLF with an eternal lock on power. There is ample room for maneuver to cut the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_knot">Gordian Knot</a> that TPLF and its eternal policy of beggar status have caused.<br /><br />To see what role the West may play in this let us take a look at ...<br /><br /><br /><strong>THE WESTERN STRATEGIC DILEMMA IN ETHIOPIA</strong><br /><br /><strong>Self Interest</strong> <br />--Interest is essentially negative - meaning that under the TPLF nothing good is expected but they want to prevent things from getting worse<br />--The US is concerned with the War on Terror (particularly in Somalia), the potential for lethal exported instability, and the over trumpeted role of Ethiopian intelligence activities in Somalia <br />--The EU are concerned with the same with more accent on the potential for instability that the West may have to respond to and the potential for the immigration problems of Europe to be compounded by millions of new refugees<br /><br /><strong>Long term Self Interest</strong> with a Degree of Altruism in the mix - but largely ignored<br />---Everyone is concerned with stability but there is also a realization that the TPLF is both cause, effect and the most likely to profit from instability<br />--There is ever present and growing moral revulsion with the TPFL that the ‘election’ and aftermath have accentuated. <br />--There is also a sense that without demands for good governance and human rights that any level of aid will be wasted. <br />--It is becoming ever more clear that the TPLF does not represent anything but a guarantor of very short term Western interests and in the long term that it is a threat to Western aims<br /><br /><br /><strong>WESTERN POLICY TO THE TPLF EVOLVES</strong><br /><br /><strong>The <em>appearance</em> of policy on behalf of Ethiopians</strong><br />--this has been the case thus far. Generally, thinking that they have found ‘an African we can deal with,’ the West has been silent on basic issues of good governance and human rights while wishing against all evidence for some <strong>'future post-properly faked election and post-massive aid infusion paradise' (or just business as usual away from the cameras)</strong> when all hopes and expectations would miraculously be met<br /><br />The ‘election of 2005’ and its aftermath blew up this whole pretty picture and left no excuses behind. TPLF behavior since has been more obviously than ever brutal towards Ethiopians while EU concerns have been met with frankly shrill abuse that must have raised some serious questions about how Ethiopians suffered - if the actual TPLF paymasters were being so insulted.<br /><br /><strong>Actual policy in support of Ethiopians?</strong><br />--Beyond occasional threats on the subject of aid cuts, the flow of dollars, euros, and yen to Meles Inc. has only increased.<br />--The <a href="http://www.europarl.eu.int/registre/seance_pleniere/textes_deposes/prop_res_commune/2005/0540/P6_RC(2005)0540_EN.pdf">EU election report</a> mentions the <a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/cotonou/overview_en.htm">The Cotonou Agreement</a>. This could have been ominous news for the TPLF because the development partnership so defined explicitly states that<blockquote> * Respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law are essential elements of the partnership.<br /><br /> * A new procedure has been drawn up to deal with violations. It puts more emphasis on the responsibility of the State concerned and allows for greater flexibility in the consultation process. In cases of special urgency - serious violations of one of the essential elements - measures will be taken immediately and the other party notified.<br /><br /> * Commitment to good governance as a fundamental and positive element of the partnership, a subject for regular dialogue and an area for active Community support.<br /><br /> * The EC and the ACP [African, Caribbean and Pacific] have also agreed on a new specific procedure to be launched in serious cases of corruption. This is a real innovation, both in the EC-ACP context and in international relations. It is not confined to EC activities. <br /><br />It will be applied in cases of corruption involving EDF money and more widely, in any country where the EC is financially involved and where corruption constitutes an obstacle to development. <br /><br />This is a very important aspect, as public finance constitutes a whole, regardless of the source of finance; corruption involving other sources of financing therefore indirectly affects EDF funding. The EC and the ACP States are together sending a clear and positive signal to European taxpayers and investors, and legitimate beneficiaries of aid.</blockquote> If the EU is serious about the Cotunou Agreement and if it is tired of hearing excuses and insults from the TPLF then there are interesting times ahead. It has also become clear that the issues with the TPLF are structural, meaning they are built in and not necessarily subject to improvement with promises or PR campaigns.<br /><br />But the EU has never tired of lies and appears to find comfort in the words of Meles and the muted screams of Ethiopians (how else would you put it?)<br /><br />The opposition to the TPLF has responded to its stolen victory with exemplary fortitude and proper defiance. It now survives only because some of its members are personally known to foreign ambassadors. Tens of thousands more unknown to the West have disappeared into camps and mass graves. The West could be watching very closely what happens and the EU and the US could explicitly demand changes and new rules for democratic and civil society as well as eventually parliamentary rules that may make that gathering actually mean something.<br /><br />But it is not.<br /><br />Most importantly, it is clear to all observers that there is a rational, indeed preferrable, alternative to the TPLF as a development and security partner.<br /><br />Joint EU & US demands for access to the media and an easing of the state of tyranny will by necessity end TPLF rule if they are met. The TPLF will of course resist and at some point will openly put mass violence and the fate of its 70 million hostages on the negotiating table with its ultimate constituency in the West.<br /><br /><strong>The threat will essentially be: leave us alone to rule forever or your sanctions and our violence will cause millions to suffer.</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong>WHAT WAS DONE IN ZIMBABWE?</strong><br /><br />The structurally determined mess characteristic of all one party states is also familiar to Zimbabweans. According to the <a href="http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2004/October/Friday29/928.html">Independent of Zimbabwe</a>, government / ruling party owned businesses there are "in a shambles" with billions lost to corruption and mismanagement with considerable "externalization of funds". Often there are no records of audits having been done at any time, significant deals are made verbally with no other record and no one knows who owns what. <br /><br />The only constant is that the ever poorer Zimbabwean population pays and pays. Doesn’t that sound familiar? In addition Mugabe has a horrible human rights and economic record compounded by an absence of private property rights. So what did the West do about Mugabe?<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/30091.htm">US Departments</a> of State and the Treasury under an Executive Order are bound to act because <blockquote> Zimbabwe’s government has conducted a concerted campaign of violence, repression, and intimidation showing its disregard for human rights, the rule of law, and the welfare of its citizens. Ultimately Zimbabweans must resolve their political crisis, and the United States supports the region's call for the government to enter into dialogue with the political opposition to find a solution acceptable to the people of Zimbabwe.<br /><br />[...]<br /><br />The United States’ sanctions target only those responsible for Zimbabwe's political crisis and not ordinary citizens. They support regional and international efforts to convince Zimbabwe’s government to abandon political repression and engage in meaningful dialogue with the political opposition. <br /><br />Should Zimbabwe’s rulers continue to oppress its citizens and to resist forthright efforts toward resolving the country’s political crisis, we are prepared to impose additional targeted financial and travel sanctions on those <strong>[INDIVIDUALS]</strong> undermining democracy in Zimbabwe. </blockquote> Here is an example of what was done by <a href="http://www.dtra.mil/press_resources/publications/deskbook/full_text/Executive_Documents/EO_13288.doc.">Executive Order</a>. Having <blockquote> determined that the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe’s democratic processes or institutions, contributing to the deliberate breakdown in the rule of law in Zimbabwe, to politically motivated violence and intimidation in that country, and to political and economic instability in the southern African region, constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States</blockquote> <a href="http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/treasury/customs/sanctionsnotice8updatedto16j.pdf">The EU</a> for its part has <blockquote> imposed various sanctions measures against named Ministers and officials of the Government of Zimbabwe. The measures were -<br />--an arms embargo,<br />--a ban on technical assistance, financing and financial assistance related to military activities,<br />--a ban on the supply of equipment that could be used for internal repression<br />--a visa ban for Ministers and officials and their spouses, and<br />--a freeze of the assets belonging to the Ministers and officials.<br /><br />The arms embargo encompasses the sale, supply or transfer of arms and related material (including military vehicles, ammunition, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts), and technical advice, assistance or training related to military activities. It also prohibits the sale or supply of equipment that could be used for internal repression.</blockquote> Every measure above may not be appropriate in an Ethiopian context but all serve as a valuable base for the future alliance between Ethiopian and Western interests. One issue sure to be raised by the TPLF in its defense is the boogeyman of instability. The EU had <a href="http://www.zimbabwedemocracytrust.org/outcomes/details?contentId=1875">this to say on that subject </a> <blockquote>But the European Union, the Commonwealth and the African states, collectively and individually, also have responsibilities to the region and they must now take action against a man who is quite literally getting away with murder. We cannot accept that to impose targeted sanctions would have "little impact", or that they would lead to a dangerous black-white split. <br /><br />The decision by Mr Mugabe to delay the access to information and protection of privacy bill and the announcement that some foreign journalists and observers will be allowed in to Zimbabwe to cover the March election (however cynical this may be) comes only after threats have been made to freeze Mr Mugabe's assets abroad.<br /><br />The only certainties, if Mr Mugabe keeps winning (of course!), are that he will unleash a terrible vengeance against his political opponents and a refugee crisis, directly affecting Britain and the EU, will follow. The question is not "Can we afford to risk sanctions?", but "Can we afford not to?" </blockquote> That terrible vengeance is coming to pass there. For example, Mugabe named 'Operation Clean Out the Trash' himself to destroy the homes of 700,000 allegedly illegal squatters who also just happened to represent oppostition to his rule. The African Union, which was blessed the TPLF 'election' and those of Mengistu as well, found nothing wrong in the sudden de-housing of all those victims of Mugabe.<br /><br />As we see above, the West, the US and the EU both, did not hesitate to act boldly in Zimbabwe against individuals held responsible for particular crimes. This was done despite the fake issue of risk of a tribal / racial split or of great harm done to Zimbabweans because greater benefits for all were seen in action - just as there was in South Africa two decades ago.<br /><br />But note ... Mugabe is a great democrat compared to Meles and Western pressure has made him acknowledge the existence of his opposition as players in the national game. Never forget though, he is only missing a bit part in the War on Terror to become a well financed pet of the West.<br /><br /><br /><strong>WHAT CAN BE DONE IN ETHIOPIA?</strong><br /><br />Food aid and aid related to health should not be an issue for obvious reasons. This despite the fact that dependence and its horrific market effects has destroyed with active government connivance the ability Ethiopians have to feed themselves. All other aid and budget support should be on the table as a level playing field is sought in Ethiopian affairs. To do this an alliance must be created to ensure the natural partnership in these circumstances between Ethiopians and the West.<br /><br />It should be noted that it is the weakness and the structural failure mandated by TPLF policies that has brought everyone to a situation where foreigners are needed to help Ethiopians against their own government.<br /><br />Appeals will certainly be made to pride, history and nationalism on this point but they are obviously not to be taken seriously. For example, after decades of belittling all Ethiopian and Tigrayan history before 1975, the TPLF all of a sudden celebrated the return of the Axum obelisk this year just as in 1998 it all of a sudden remembered the convenient emotional call of Ethiopian history.<br /><br />Appeals to the suffering of Ethiopians must be understood based on the fact that it is the policies of the TPLF that are making Ethiopians suffer to begin with. There is no determined history or holy book anywhere that consigns Ethiopians to misery and beggar status.<br /><br />All Ethiopians need to advance the way nations all over the world have is the chance to do so. All of the basic raw materials already exist in the Ethiopian mind. In terms of the potential of the physical setting even more potential exists.<br /><br />Policy changes must be based on <strong>ECONOMIC</strong> and <strong>POLITICAL</strong> factors that are inseparable but that may be considered separately.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Economic Conditions</strong><br /><br />There should be a set of Neo-Sullivan principles based on the Cotonou Agreement. Cotonou is adequate but a new decision to enforce it practically is needed.<br /><br />It should be noted that the private sector and foreign direct investment are totally dominated by the party / government or very tiny in scope. Thus attention will by necessity be directed towards knowledge of and sanctions against the party / government apparatus or rather particular individuals within it.<br /><br />--Aid money should be directed to specific projects as much as possible. For example, the building of one bridge or a point to point road project that is not open ended and whose costs should be known<br />--There should be absolute transparency in all government agencies and private contractors that deal with aid money as a condition for aid and contracts<br />--This will reveal the not so hidden but totally non transparent web of government / party / crony enterprises and businesses that dominate the economy and shut out the benefits of competition<br /><br />Why not? There is absolutely no compelling reason for the financial dealings of any government official or anyone else who deals with sums of public money to have any degree of secrecy at all. This is normal practice in most prosperous democracies and all nations fastest on the way to escaping poverty and being free.<br /><br />This will also do away with once and for all, unfair charges of corruption. The innocent will be spared attention and these means should allow those few who benefit most from corrupt practices to be positively identified.<br /><br />--There should be fairness mandated in providing contracts based on aid that should benefit the whole private sector and not only those who are most in synch with or actually part of the hydra headed empire of government / party / business.<br /><br />--At some point, unless the essential fairness of the above points is met, budget support aid should become conditional on meeting the above goals. To do this either an independent agency or company should be enlisted to serve as a corps of national auditors.<br /><br />Just as the opposition is protected by the constant attention of aid donors, a group of accountants and translators should have the same commitment of interest granted them to carry out with international participants a thorough check of the books.<br /><br />All government spending dependent on aid budget support as well as associated business enterprises connected financially to government and party officials should be subjected to such attention.<br /><br />--Far more important than all of the above there should be insistence on the issue of land privitization. Every country without land rights is poor and despotic according to the degree of freedom given. This is a fact without exception in human history.<br /><br />This is also crucial in terms of limiting the web of debt, agricultural marketing controls, access to essentials such as salt & sugar and the distribution of land based on political controls that party /government businesses and inseparable local authorities use to control the vast majority of the rural populace.<br /><br />If aid is not to be wasted and Ethiopians are to be recognized as the ultimate authors of their own success they should be given the same set of tools that donor nations had to become self sufficient and then wealthy.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Political Conditions</strong><br /><br />There are certainly enough political implications to the economics section above but more directed goals are needed to serve the interests of Ethiopians and the West in terms of Neo-Sullivan Principles or an aggressive Cotonou Agreement.<br /><br />Aid beyond food and health projects should be subject to not only good governance and transparency as defined above but also on human rights practices. Of course, such decisions should be based, just as above, on WHO is making decisions and WHO benefits from bad practices in any realm.<br /><br />--There should be an insistence on an investigation with international participation of the events of the Anuak Massacres, the Addis Ababa Massacre of June 6-8 2005, and other numerous acts of mass violence perpetrated by the regime . A model for this is the investigation in Lebanon / Syria led by UN officials into the car bombing murder of opponents to Syrian control.<br /><br />The requests detailed in the <a href="http://www.europarl.eu.int/registre/seance_pleniere/textes_deposes/prop_res_commune/2005/0540/P6_RC(2005)0540_EN.pdf">EU Parliamentary</a> complaint about the 'election' are largely sufficient to provide for the further development of democracy.<br /><br />--Knowledge from every source open and hidden utilizing leaks, audits and frank intelligence collection should determine which individuals and organizations within the party / business / government structure give orders and carry out acts in violation of human rights.<br /><br />--Military aid and security aid may not have to be cut if a clear distinction is made between military and security aid that is used for internal repression and that used for external defense.<br /><br />This is of particular importance especially as the Somali issue heats up (rather convenient timing right - just like Meles dreamt it all?) and Al Quaeda, (which certainly is a threat but one exagerated conveniently) is suddenly discovered under every rock. Seperation of internal and external issues should also serve to show that the military does not serve as an occupying force.<br /><br /><br /><strong>CONCLUSION</strong><br /><br />The main argument about using aid dependency as a weapon against bad governance is that the common people will suffer. Using the Cotonou Agreement as a starting point and Sullivan like principles it is possible to identify particular individuals who are making decisions and their own financial interests and to sanction them while sparing the larger nation and economy and certainly doing less harm than the TPLF is already doing.<br /><br /><strong>Given an EU and / or US policy like this, anyone within the infernal web of inseperable party / government / business who makes a decision to be corrupt or who causes the violation of human rights will be INDIVIDUALLY accountable for their decisions and should expect<br />--that they will be locked out of decisions or access to all funds from foreign aid or budget support either as party members, government officials or businessmen<br />--that all of their foreign funds, holdings and investments will be frozen and subject to suit from those violated by the decisions made by those individuals<br />--that they will be banned from travel to participating nations and in fear of extradition from others - particularly for orders for violence of incitement of it<br />--that the chain of political command and the identical web of financial interests will be held accountable in a gradual spreading fashion based on known relationships and structures of control<br />--that their partners will be sanctioned according to the continual presence and associations that they have with illicit practices of corrupt and violence ordering individuals<br />--that no longer under any circumstances will 'following orders' or 'everyone is doing it' be excuses for corrupt and criminal acts</strong><br /><br />The examples of South Africa in the past and Zimbabwe today provide precedent for this while the fact that the TPLF is far more subject to influence by such pressures by its own insistence on economic failure as a strategy for power helps all considerations.<br /><br />Ultimately the aim of identifying accountable responsible parties is the reform not only of Ethiopian governance at large but particularly that of the TPLF. As often as in this post alone we have identified the TPLF as a problem it is not essentially an obstacle to progress.<br /><br />The obstacles are not amidst the great majority of well meaning party members but amidst the vanishing few of the revolutionary feudal aristocracy and nobility whose interests run counter to those of their own party and country.<br /><br />Reform and advancement in Ethiopia is impossible without reform and advancement within the TPLF. Most of its members without doubt recognize the benefits of tried and true policies to gain freedom and prosperity and are sick and tired of silly mantras of absurd ideologies. <br /><br />At this point, in a system that is to be democratic, no one is yet beyond redemption. What should be done to bring about peaceful change is to leverage the mutual interests of all Ethiopians and the West against the politburo and its minions. The party / government / business machine may have chosen the West as a constituency rather than Ethiopians but all things are fluid and mutual self interest can be found in a variety of combinations.<br /><br />...........................................................<br /><br />Of course, there is little chance of all of the above ever happening anytime soon. And ... the West does appear to be moving in the wrong general direction. <br /><br />How many Presidents and Prime Ministers in a row, democratically elected themselves, will encourage Ethiopia's murderous and corrupt regime for how many more years? <br /><br />There is no evidence at present that it will ever stop. It is past time for 'Constructive Engagement' with Meles Inc. to end.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-10015972755023781432009-02-15T19:01:00.000-08:002009-02-15T20:47:19.424-08:00Meles Has A Party & A Parliament<strong><em>A fly is as untamable as a hyena</em><br />Ralph Waldo Emerson</strong><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCB-_v2BdKPzu3zFj9-ozON53VcoWtt3-zgK2R-WXqCfUzd_AYJM8XBmw3qtsE1c6Xiwqk3ZUL-0icf5vELct3BnsdOPo0h5J2dfydLm5014AzSt8vjATjbW46uWBaboNmGE95w/s1600-h/meles+at+parliament.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCB-_v2BdKPzu3zFj9-ozON53VcoWtt3-zgK2R-WXqCfUzd_AYJM8XBmw3qtsE1c6Xiwqk3ZUL-0icf5vELct3BnsdOPo0h5J2dfydLm5014AzSt8vjATjbW46uWBaboNmGE95w/s400/meles+at+parliament.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303230139335525938" /></a>..........................................<br /><br /><strong>Mr. Meles is Posturing<br /><br />Paulos Milkias Ph.D.</strong><br /><br />I do not believe that Mr. Meles is going to quit. He is simply posturing. Here are reasons why? <br /><br />An official who is determined to quit will not qualify it by another possibility. An excellent example to announce quitting: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president." This, as you know, was President Lyndon B. Johnson's announcement on March 31, 1968 after the setbacks of the Tet Offensive and the violent student demonstrations against the war in Vietnam made his life unbearable. <br /><br />Mr. Meles is saying he has decided to quit but will respect his party's decision regarding it. Anybody knows that neither the current TPLF leadership not what remains of the EPRDF officialdom can survive for long without Mr. Meles' political machinations. What he is saying is, I will say I will quit and my party caucus will put pressure on me through parliament. Then I will have little choice but to respect their wishes! <br /><br />Second, he says he will quit as Prime Minister but will remain as the party leader. That is impossible in the present political framework. If he has to resign as Prime Minister, he also has to resign from the Party leadership. Ethiopia has adapted a parliamentary democracy. In parliamentary democracy, the party leader is automatically the Prime Minister. Do not forget that the Front Benchers are selected and directed by the party leader. The Back Benchers also seek direct guidance from the party leader whose dictates they follow without fail. <br /><br />Mr. Meles' posturing is more in tune with that of Gamal Abdel Nasser. When the Egyptian President’s army was decimated in the Six Day War by June 9, 1967, Nasser tendered his resignation as President in a televised broadcast only to “change his mind” when his decision was “rejected” by Egypt's National Assembly totally controlled by his National Democratic Party. So, come 2010 elections, rest assured that history will repeat itself. <br /><br />..........................................<br /><br />We agree with Professor Milkias. <br /><br />Furthermore, we are always shocked whenever anyone takes anything that Meles or his cadres say seriously. When has Ethiopia's dictator been known to tell the truth about anything?<br /><br />Meles is not the Prince of Liars - he manages all at once to be the King, the Pope, Der Commissar, and Mother of All Liars. Expecting anything remotely resembling the truth from him about his leaving his revolutionary democratic throne is ... to be kind, rather unrealistic.<br /><br />Meles is the party and he is the parliament - actually given the way he rules Ethiopia, Meles is for all practical purposes - the only person in the whole country with any freedom of will. <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/aurora/9854.html">EthioMedia</a> puts the relevant stories together on one page. Check these quotes out and wonder how he could keep a straight face delivering lines like these. <blockquote>I do not think there is a conflict of policy here. My desire is that I have had enough here and I have to move on. I want to leave this position (Prime Minister) without leaving the party as leader but I have to respect the decisions of the party,<br />...<br />I cannot be a member of the party and not respect its decisions. My open decision is that there will be no conflict between my position and that of the party. If there is a conflict, I will have the freedom to chose but I will try to resolve the differences[.]</blockquote> The reporter himself can be imagined alternatively grinning and being poker faced in joy at his scoop. His willingness to ignore - or his simple ignorance - of the reality of dictatorship made it all good. <br /><br />Or perhaps he knows this is lethal nonsense and is just doing what thousands of other ferenjis and Ethiopian cadres have done with the words of Meles - accepting them unconditionally. From Presidents to Prime Ministers and Rock Stars to Nobel Prize Winners - the reporter is in good company.<br /><br />Meles won't even try a Putin like arrangement - as the man who climbed to the top of a business and party founded on terror and who climbed over countless dead and destroyed in his party and the whole country to get where he is - he knows that even pretending to let the tiger's tail go will be far too dangerous for him.<br /><br />Without his secret police, informers, personal militia, access to billions squeezed from poor Ethiopians and waylaid from rich ferenjis, and his official role as the ferenji's "African we can deal with" paid for with native blood, sweat, and tears - Meles is nothing and he knows it.<br /><br />But ... maybe he plans a retirement in the USA. If precedent and past ties hold true he has his pick of senior spots at the World Bank, the IMF, Columbia University, the National Security Council, the Senate / House Foreign Relations Committees, or any one of many lobbying firms - just waiting for him.<br /><br />Of course ... if he wants to he can retire comfortably and manage his massive investments, numbered accounts, and real estate all over the US and Europe. After all he has an MBA earned in between ordering executions and alternatively braying on about bumper crops, endless starvation, double digit economic growth, desperate poverty, and his American Knighthood as an Official Warrior on Terror.<br /><br />On the subject of the arrest of one of those who actually won an election in Ethiopia - Birtukan Midekssa - Meles says that <blockquote> [h]ad we indulged on her assumptions the message that we would have conveyed would be 'nothing happens to you no matter what you do. If you have friends in all the right places, you can ride roughshod with everything'<br />...<br />That message I think is a very dangerous political message to convey in an emerging democracy. The rule of law and equality involves everyone.</blockquote>Amazing. The only reason any Ethiopian who has not accepted Meles as their personal savior or who doesn't just keep out of his way is alive is because ferenjis occasionally care about Ethiopians that they meet in person and that they beg and threaten Meles not to do his dirty work in their sight.<br /><br />He only rules because the Ethiopian social contract is between him and ferenjis. Aside from those he has bought and intimidated - Ethiopians in general have nothing to do with his rule but endure it. Meles ends on a more frankly comical note <blockquote>We took Ethiopia into one of the seven few elite states with a higher economic growth rate in the world, that is an achievement.<br />...<br />We expect inflation in the single digit rate by June or July. </blockquote> The IMF also gets into the act <blockquote>The International Monetary Fund has predicted 6.5 percent growth for Ethiopia in 2009. </blockquote> The only reason inflation gets a mention is that it is so high even Meles can't order it away - or can he? Anyway, it makes him look in charge like a civilized leader to talk like this. <br /><br />So ... how can anyone predict with such accuracy the rate of inflation half a year from now or the state of an economy a full year from now? Simple .... they just make it up. <br /><br />Meles just lies and everyone under him just makes up and reports false numbers. The IMF has all kinds of sophisticated socio-economic, psycho-sexual, climate-market models into which they quite willingly enter those false numbers. <br /><br />Why? Because pumping out aid dollars and getting along with thugs is their business.<br /><br />We once got this bit of wisdom born of suffering from a group of older street kids comparing Meles Inc. / EPRDF to the Dergue, "a bunch of flies who'd already had their fill of our wounds were replaced by new ones."<br /><br />Flies act like flies and hyenas act like hyenas no matter how you try and tame them. Dictators act like dictators no matter how you pay them off or listen to them.<br /><br />..........................................<br /><br />Here are some other excellent sources for news, commentary, and opinion:<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiomedia.com/">Ethiomedia</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi</a><br /><br /><a href="http://enset.blogspot.com/">Enset</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ethiopolitics.com/">Ethiopian Politics</a><br /><br /><a href="http://anuakjustice.org/news.htm">Anuak Justice Council</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-46341870808374130612009-01-31T17:04:00.000-08:002009-02-02T19:30:41.747-08:00Enabling Dictatorship<strong>"One hundred years from now, your grandchildren and mine will look back and say: this was the beginning of a new African renaissance" <br /><br /><em>Bill Clinton speaking of Ethiopia and her neighbors on his six-nation tour of Africa, March 1998</em></strong> <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUJ2D1tbQfA2k1T-Nkw5pdDtUSwhQhaOcx9j7QYtYOiCmr6Ekvxtg5MsEtgpaxfVuaE9G7y1Yap0GQQKPLjRITcxhxPi-zDY2Pl3ERaaD5e_er1cS8BkuVie5-Hq7GsrHRkMomg/s1600-h/enabling+albright.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUJ2D1tbQfA2k1T-Nkw5pdDtUSwhQhaOcx9j7QYtYOiCmr6Ekvxtg5MsEtgpaxfVuaE9G7y1Yap0GQQKPLjRITcxhxPi-zDY2Pl3ERaaD5e_er1cS8BkuVie5-Hq7GsrHRkMomg/s400/enabling+albright.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293067546636749682" /></a><strong>Albright pays up.</strong><br /><br /><strong> "Enable: to make possible or effective; specifically, to make possible or support dysfunctional behavior of someone by denying it exists or compensating for it in some way." <br /><br /><em> Dictionary</em></strong><br /><br />People have a visceral need to hear a story and to define heroes and villains / saviors and victims. This probably springs from a deep seated cultural or even genetically determined need to appreciate reality according to certain rules. A common feature of those rules, to no one's surprise, is seeing one's own self and interests projected onto any situation as 'right'. <br /><br />Folks are also quite adept at quite knowingly convincing themselves to see the opposite what they know. <br /><br />So what happens when a story has no moral center at all? Let us take a look at some very popular Mafia stories. Who are the heroes in the Godfather or the Sopranos? There aren't any - but sheer exposure to one side of an argument has viewers wanting Michael and Tony to win. <br /><br />As though one Mob family is any different from another - they aren't. Pacino, Caan, and DeNiro did not play Tataglias or Barzinis and we didn't get to see any of their weddings either. That is the only difference between them and the Corleones.<br /><br />The suspension of morals required to follow the Corleone family and not just wish they would all just die would certainly have collapsed by Godfather XII. The Sopranos pulled off the sheer banality of so many numbing years of evil without consequence with the slick literary device of his psychiatrist. <br /><br />That was the 'hook' for this show as it was being pitched somewhere in NYC of LA a decade ago. The psychiatrist, beyond providing a very few 'mob bosses have emotional issues too' moments, served to give a ready avenue for moral accommodation not only with the mob boss but themselves for watching. The thin veneer of clinical curiosity doesn't go far to cover up the fact that Tony was simply an evil man - no matter what a nutcase his mother was.<br /><br />Obviously the writers knew this too because at the end of the series they dealt with the issue. They had already done so in a few end of season montages for those to blind too notice what the show was about. There were images of warm Soprano family get-togethers mixed in with images of the suffering they had caused in people's lives all around them.<br /><br />The psychiatrist who got quite a thrill out of being privy to Tony's sewer of a mind finally is confronted with the pointlessness of her task in the final episodes. Although all of her parts of the show were the ones that folks were most likely to fast forward through - toward the end they got momentarily interesting. <br /><br />She came to realize that medicine and psychotherapy don't work with psychopaths and that trying to understand someone like Tony actually made him better at being a psychopath. <br /><br />All those years she had been enabling evil.<br /><br /><strong>"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please..."<br /><br /><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Without-Conscience-Disturbing-World-Psychopaths/dp/1572304510">Robert Hare</a></em> </strong><br /><br />According to an excellent <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_seabrook">New Yorker article</a> psychopathy has been described as a condition of moral emptiness whose "main defect, what psychologists call 'severe emotional detachment' — a total lack of empathy and remorse, is concealed" <br /><br />Psychiatrists used such phrases "for a general mixture of violent and antisocial characteristics found in irredeemable criminals, who appeared to lack a conscience". One, Cleckley, isolated <blockquote> sixteen traits exhibited by patients he called “primary” psychopaths; these included being charming and intelligent, unreliable, dishonest, irresponsible, self-centered, emotionally shallow, and lacking in empathy and insight.<br /><br />“Beauty and ugliness, except in a very superficial sense, goodness, evil, love, horror, and humor have no actual meaning, no power to move him,” Cleckley wrote of the psychopath in his 1941 book, “The Mask of Sanity,” which became the foundation of the modern science. The psychopath talks “entertainingly,” Cleckley explained, and is “brilliant and charming,” but nonetheless “carries disaster lightly in each hand.” <br /><br />Cleckley emphasized his subjects’ deceptive, predatory nature, writing that the psychopath is capable of “concealing behind a perfect mimicry of normal emotion, fine intelligence, and social responsibility a grossly disabled and irresponsible personality.” This mimicry allows psychopaths to function, and even thrive, in normal society.</blockquote> Doesn't the above description have 'cadre' and Meles written all over it? Yes. We'll get back to that later.<br /><br />One outlet for that pathology in politics is doing what is normally morally unacceptable in 'the name of the people' or of 'God' - thus making it all alright. From slave societies of the Ancient Persia to those of the Antebellum South onto those of Mao's China, some form of perfect vision revealed to a few has justified barbarism and taken hundreds of millions of lives while ruining billions more.<br /><br />You see, certain political philosophies go that extra step and make vicious oppressive government an aura of purpose and nobility. They make evil nice. Let us take a look at Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's dictator and his works. And don't forget that in him along with visceral greed, tribalism, and ruthlessness running through veins beats a heart in rhythm with the echoes of Albania's Enver Hoxha, Pol Pot, Mao, and Stalin.<br /><br />Ethiopia has today one of the most corrupt governments on the planet. There are no rights to private property. Indeed, the absence of such rights, done in the name of the people, is used to control the population who are no more than serfs. They owe their temporary possession of land to the whim of local party / government / and business bosses who all represent the national party / government/ and businesses bosses on high. <br /><br />The rulers no matter the hat they wear are actually the same people. Ethiopia's ruling party is actually a party no democrat would recognize. It is a bloody minded terrorist organization built on greed, fear, and deceit. It owns businesses, runs government monopolies, and regulates all of them. The whole rule is enforced by armies of tribal militias, espionage agents, spies, agents provocateurs, torturers, and gulag managers.<br /><br />There are also branch offices of all the above all over the U.S.A. <br /><br />Ethiopia's serfs are in debt for fertilizer and depend on the government for basic commodities of life and for getting what little of their product is not taxed to market. That market too is owned at every level by the party wearing either its government or business mask.<br /><br />Ethiopia's serfs need permission from local security officials to walk to the next community and in some cases the next farm. Down the household level there is a nasty network of official enforcers making sure they don't do the wrong things -all in the name of the people themselves.<br /><br />The penalties are harsh. For success one can have his productive farm taken away and given to the relative of a party official. Or he can end up homeless. For dissent or resistance the choices are starvation or death. Far from prying ferenji eyes Ethiopia's serfs die by their tens of thousand - since only other Ethiopians know about it - it does not matter.<br /><br />Land is taken away and we hear headlines of great flower businesses and foreign companies running vast tracts of fertile land - no one talks about who lived there before. The whole Ethiopian economy is actually a web of criminal relations with Meles at the top. <br /><br />Even Ethiopian suffering has a dollar, euro, and yen value because ferenjis are willing to pay up to make sure that the policies of the Meles government don't actually starve too many natives to bring their policies into question.<br /><br /><strong> "As a person, I have never been discourteous or nasty to anybody. I may have stood my ground a bit too directly, a bit too firmly, and I believe I have over a number of years learned to be a little less direct."<br /><br /><em><a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1659420,00.html">Meles Zenawi</a></em></strong><br /><br />When it serves him there are bumper crops and first world prosperity just a few years away - the next week when it serves him there is desperate poverty and a yawning everlasting need for aid to be administered by himself. Of course it all passes through his hands and of course his cronies at every level get the fattest cuts of every aid project and grant.<br /><br />That way the enforced policy of Ethiopian suffering doesn't mean his finances have to suffer - his greed and the machine for keeping the serfs in place are fed by taxpayers from countries where wealth creation and its normal friend freedom are on the loose.<br /><br />There is no press freedom in Ethiopia or any degree of freedom of expression. There are fake elections, courts, parliament, commodities exchanges, election boards, and other ersatz institutions of civilized governments everywhere. They mean nothing and are worth about as much as the constitution which promises everything imaginable good.<br /><br />Meles has decided that (why is it that anyone ever bothers to report that parliament voted on anything? does a pack of hyenas vote on which corpse they will gnaw on?) that all NGO's sponsored by ferenji money would have to close recently. Since all labor unions, domestic rights and advocacy groups, or any other parts of normal domestic civil society had already been crushed and starved of resources those NGO's with foreign money just had to go sometime.<br /><br />The ferenji presence gave them an illusion of life for some time but ferenji eyes is why they existed. Without them Meles has not only the actual playing field in his hands but also the appearance of no longer having to even pretend opposition at all exists now. The people who actually won the election a few years ago (Meles was so hated he couldn't even win a fake election - no results have been released as yet) were threatened with charges of treason for supporting a Rwandan type genocide.<br /><br />Nevermind that the whole rule of Meles is based on an vile and atavistic (the word primitive is too nice here) tribalism spiced with regional and religious hatred and that no part of any opposition has ever been so based. Tigrayans especially dare not be anything but obeisant. Meles sees the fears he stokes of tribal war as his ace. Tigrayans have to be with him in his mind and he accuses his liberal democratic opponents of having the same tribal mind he so prizes in himself that folks seem to believe it after a while.<br /><br />Only ferenji interest got the prisoners out alive - but how about the tens of thousands arrested along with them and the equal number killed all over the country? No one knows because none of them were personally known to ferenjis. <br /><br />It is a wonder that ferenjis in Ethiopia don't actually run away rather than be introduced to the natives because an inconvenient 'disappearance' or death might actually make them have to consider the human cost of dealing with and supporting murderous thugs.<br /><br /><strong>“No regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror."<br /><br /><em> <a href="http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=75724">Congressman Chris Smith</a></em></strong> <br /><br />The opposition members are now only loose in a larger prison and one of the most important, Birtukan Mideksa is now back in. Only ferenjis keep her alive - and they seem satisfied with just that much. Meanwhile the 'elders' who negotiated the propaganda victory for Meles are sitting pretty on their laurels. For that matter, why don't ferenji nations decide who will rule, who has to submit to dictatorship etc. using committees of deeply serious scholars and between endorsement super athletes? <br /><br />How about the rule of law? What do laws matter when the despot can do whatever he wants and find a judge to tell ferenjis it is all legal? For that matter slavery and mass murder have been perfectly legal in the past in various countries.<br /><br />Ethiopia today has one of the most oppressive governments on planet earth. There are no freedoms in Ethiopia today that would be remotely recognizable to the ferenjis who keep Meles in business. And they do keep him in business. Ethiopia today is in a position like she was in the 1930's when Mussolini invaded.<br /><br />Ethiopia, despite bravery and motivation, could not protect herself independence sufficiently well. Benito was intent on destroying her, and the only people who could help were other ferenjis. As we know they punted and let Fascist Italy have her way. Ethiopia independent for thousands of years based on stubborn resistance and natural talent looked to ferenjis and got nothing.<br /><br />What does Ethiopia get today? Ferenjis feed millions of Ethiopians and ferenji aid is what makes the whole perverted economy and government function. Ferenjis have no problem with a system that produces zero or negative economic growth beyond lies. They have no problem with laws and practices that have never produced anything beyond oppression and misery anywhere else.<br /><br />But ... give them a chance to sponsor a new miracle health or agricultural grant or even HD TV's in rural classrooms - they will jump on it and feel real good about themselves too. That their money keeps Meles in business is not a problem because the same money gives their careers a boost too. <br /><br />They just have to hold their noses around Meles at cocktail parties and avoid the dead every now and then if there chauffeur goes the wrong way - that is all.<br /><br />Now the problem is that the taxpayers back home paying for the whole dysfunctional mess may hear about it in all it horrors - that is the real threat. That is when Meles is begged and threatened to treat Ethiopians with some degree of minimal decency - at least in front of ferenjis.<br /><br />So ... Meles helps advance the careers and philosophies of armies of national and international bureaucrats while making them feel important back home as daring global adventurers in the dark continent, altruistic helpers of the poor, bearers of fantastic expense accounts, and masters of legions of native servants.<br /><br /><strong>“All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you". <br /><br /><em>George W. Bush's second inaugural speech, January 2005</em></strong><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3IHhnzidgr0p8Nkx7FOLGCWDNYnbQx_tyZ3SUm5Y4r1gTz6ZInnb89Z1zvxnKD1nHm8RpLSCzWJaV0f6fNYts96bSoE-WaP1qLHNT2oeh2DmBSGaaz6FuYbloiyDFcEi_pTidQ/s1600-h/enabling+rice.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3IHhnzidgr0p8Nkx7FOLGCWDNYnbQx_tyZ3SUm5Y4r1gTz6ZInnb89Z1zvxnKD1nHm8RpLSCzWJaV0f6fNYts96bSoE-WaP1qLHNT2oeh2DmBSGaaz6FuYbloiyDFcEi_pTidQ/s400/enabling+rice.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293067670184930066" /></a><strong>Rice pays up.</strong><br /><br />Meles is blessed from his point of view by proximity to Somalia and Sudan. That gives him an absolute pass in Western capitals. It is a wonder that the opposition who won the last even minimally marginally free elections that they weren't burned alive in Meskel Square. <br /><br />All Meles would have had to do while piling up the wood would be to point out that there were Islamists next door - Washington and Brussels would have airlifted the wood and gasoline right away along with a nice billion dollar check for Meles to buy a book of matches with. Keep the change please.<br /><br />If you don't get the point being made here - ferenjis are keeping Meles in business. The Ethiopian social contract is between Meles and ferenjis - Ethiopians have nothing to do with it but to have blood, sweat, and tears squeezed out of them. <br /><br />Meles actually rules with blackmail: the joint threat to hurt Western strategic interests and to kill Ethiopians if he doesn't get paid regularly and doesn't get ridiculous tragi-comic invitations to G-8 summits as though he wasn't a thug.<br /><br />The success of the whole business is based on low expectations. Low expectations for bureaucrats in government and aid agencies, no expectations for economists and academics, and above all an absolute dearth of any expectation that Ethiopians can be more or do more or deserve more than Meles.<br /><br />All of the Secretaries of State seen here know Meles to the degree they have paid attention to Ethiopia - which means paying attention to him since he owns Ethiopia. They are disgusted by him and know that no good can come from him but they have all been perfectly willing to play along rather than rock the boat by in their mind "expecting Africans not to be like Africans - especially Ethiopians."<br /><br />The ability of Meles to schmooze with and seduce ferenjis has been a principal reason for his rise in the murderous totalitarian revolution from which he sprung. Sure his ruthlessness and willingness to kill Ethiopians in general and Tigrayans in particular played a part in his G-8 invitations - but - he has been singularly successful in getting ferenjis - be they conservative or liberal to see in him exactly what they want to see in him.<br /><br /><strong> "If he was a resident of any of the countries that enable, excuse, and finance Ethiopia's dictatorship, Meles would be in jail as an irredeemable sociopath." <br /><br /><em> ethiopundit </em> </strong> <br /><br />One of the principal points of Hare's work with psychopaths was that psychotherapy did not work with them and actually made them into better killers or criminals. The talking cure of psychiatry presumes some minimal degree of sincerity. When that is utterly absent the practitioner tends to imagine or project civilized norms in and onto the patient.<br /><br />Not only because they want to see it there but because they can't imagine that it isn't. Tony Soprano was really concerned about people hurting small animals but thought nothing of personally murdering or ordering so many deaths. <br /><br />What have Ethiopians gotten out of ferenjis talking to Meles for decades now? Well - he is a much better liar and he knows how to get what he wants from them. This psychopath discussed war strategy with 'Mr. Human Rights' himself, Jimmy Carter on a map unfolded in a hotel room in London and got Carter's blessing for his dictatorship and killing years later. <br /><br />At the time he was no battlefield leader but schemed against those doing the actual leading and fighting. From the salons of Khartoum, Mogadisu, and London Meles decided how best to serve the interests of the EPLF and how to completely purge the TPLF of any Ethiopian national sentiment.<br /><br />This same psychopath got Blair to be his temporary BFF forever with the Commission for Africa nonsense - nonsense because it had nothing to do with honest government and decent policies but instead the flash of Meles's ready smile and the need to be seen as 'doing something' about Africa. <br /><br />The thrill of hanging out with a former guerrilla leader turned M.B.A.'ed free marketer went to Blair's head for a while until even he couldn't ignore who Meles was.<br /><br />What has Meles's M.B.A. meant to his rule? Nothing. His personal business empire in Ethiopia don't require business sense - he can just 'disappear, arrest, or kill the competition. And anyway they are his cronies. Perhaps his vast holdings abroad need management.<br /><br />Actually the degree just gave him the chance to learn the language of the ferenjis who kept him in business and taught him how to sound like a perfect little pseudo-intellectual. One story we heard has an aid agency bureaucrat giving Meles some sort of economic analysis report about third world development and a particular project in Ethiopia.<br /><br />Meles skimmed through it while carrying on a conversation and was immediately conversant with all the points. This was taken as proof of his fitness for rule. Nonsense. First of all if you have read one development report from the IMF or the World Bank you have read them all.<br /><br /><strong>"Ethiopia's human rights record is 'not a factor' in the bilateral relationship."<br /><br /><em> <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/ethiopia0103/ethiopia0103-07.htm">Senior U.S. State Department Official</a> </em></strong><br /><br />The same ideas the same theories the same justifications. Only the dates and names are changed to protect the not so innocent. Meles just knew how to play with ferenjis. There is also the distinct possibility that he knew what it said before the bearer walked in the room.<br /><br />An army of spies and intercepted communications have entirely infected the ferenji communities of Ethiopia. And they seem to love it. The M.B.A. reveals no appreciation of business or commerce beyond the Mafia kind.<br /><br />The same thug got Bush and Clinton to go to extremes to keep him in power no matter how many Ethiopians he killed or how much money he stole. He got no constant photo-ops with them but as much support as he could handle. When Meles had to start mass killings in the streets of Addis to stay in power the lights stayed on late at the U.S. Embassy to find ways to make sure he stayed in power and it all looked good.<br /><br />Clinton even willingly paid the bill for the 1998-2000 war after Eritrea invaded Ethiopia. Described by some as 'two bald men fighting over a comb' the war was won by Ethiopia on the battlefield and in a stunning turnaround at the arbitration table won by Eritrea. Everyone from outside paid up and kept doing so. <br /><br />The war was actually Meles's declaration of independence from the EPLF - Ethiopians are still waiting for him to look out for their interests.<br /><br />At the time there was some multi-tens of millions of dollars grant going out from the U.S. to resettle Ethiopian veterans. Does anyone believe a single veteran got a single cent? this was a way to pay Meles off in a nice peaceful sounding responsible way. <br /><br /><strong> "We must stop pretending that Ethiopia is run by a respectable government when in fact it has a murderous and oppressive regime."<br /><br /><em><a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1212990.php/EU_attacks_Ethiopia_for_expelling_two_European_diplomats__Roundup_">Ana Gomes, E.U. Parliamentarian</a></em></strong><br /><br />It would have been more honest if the money just went straight into Meles's account while the remainder went to buy weapons to defeat Meles's newest enemies after the EPLF was dealt with - namely Ethiopians who though for a second that he had found nationalist sentiment in their leader.<br /><br />What else has ferenji talking to Meles accomplished? He is very careful about having a fake institution around for every purpose and season to cover up the rule of his revolutionary tribal nobility. He knows how to properly fake an election now and just when to insult ferenjis and when to praise them.<br /><br />How many aid agency bureaucrats would have kept their jobs if ultimately they did not get along with Meles? None. That is how the aid game works. Cadres have even weaseled their way into the World Bank. Their jobs clearly did not depend on Ethiopian economic growth or self sufficiency or even the development of such factors. <br /><br />All they had was Meles and when they kept the money flowing everyone back at the home office was happy so the bureaucrat could move onto bigger postings in say India on the way to a corner office in D.C. or Brussels.<br /><br />Meles knows how to play with ferenjis and be what they want him to be. He doesn't really have to try very hard. No one wants to be lied to more.<br /><br />To justify themselves they pretend to be doing right. Meles has or had enthusiastic cheerleaders from all ranges of the ferenji world - Bono and Geldoff / Blair and Bush / Sachs and Stiglitz / Clinton and Rice (Condoleeza and Susan) / Armey and Gephardt - there is no shortage of ferenjis just 'doing good' in the name of the interests of 'the people'. Just randomly throw a dart at a map to see which people's good is in mind and you will always miss.<br /><br /><strong>"Defending Meles has always been an enthusiastic bipartisan business in Washington."<br /><br /><em> ethiopundit </em> </strong> <br /><br />Does anyone imagine for a second that Clinton really thought Meles was part of any good kind of renaissance when he uncritically financed and covered for him? Does anyone imagine that Bush thought he was defending human freedom by enthusiastically striving to keep Meles and power? ... and does anyone really imagine that things are going to be that much different now?<br /><br />President Obama did not mention international democracy and human rights along with America's mission in that regard in his inaugural speech - this has been almost a requirement for generations of Presidents. The only mention of any core values of the kind of the international scene were expressed in terms of the Muslim world.<br /><br />We hope this doesn't mean everyone else out there hurting their own people just gets a pass. We hope this one will be different but won't hold our breaths in anticipation. Just talking to Meles, not rocking the boat, and not expecting too much from the natives is a whole is a whole lot more tempting than actually doing what is actually in America's and the West's long term interests.<br /><br />Those interests are in an Ethiopia that is not a failed or nearly failed state forever. Ethiopians have everything it takes to develop and be free. Only their government and its enablers are in the way.<br /><br />Ferenjis who hold the fate of Ethiopia in their hands should be clear in their minds by now that talking to thugs does no good. They should know that looking desperately for someone to side with when their self chosen protagonist has killed or silenced all others is no decent choice. <br /><br />Ferenjis - your governments that dole out your power and prestige as well as the agencies that hand out your money - all for no discernible purpose but to keep criminals in power. You are tight with the bad guys here. It is your choice- given the contract between you and Meles we can only hope that there will be change.<br /><br />But ... folks are also quite adept at quite knowingly convincing themselves to believe the opposite of what they are seeing. In Ethiopia there is a dictator and there are elected democrats in fear for their lives - and it is not a movie or TV show.<br /><br />Meles is not only Ethiopia's greatest living enemy but he is an existential threat to a polity and culture that is among the oldest in the world. But - ferenjis are more likely to wait around until the "Ethiopia Show" gets canceled. They will debate too late about who helped to ruin a people.<br /><br />You have to make moral choices and eventually be judged on them. As far as Ethiopians are concerned they are ruled by a psychopath and you in the West are his best friends. Call the cash supporting Meles what it really is - it is about money laundering. Why not just deposit it into his foreign accounts or real estate directly.<br /><br /><strong> “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history"<br /><br /><em>Barack Obama's inaugural address. This part seems to be directed to the Muslim World only ...</em></strong><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugQJ-CZbnlfKe1uq35694jGKWQIdyeh0F7h6bsWZm40nqHcBgbz3wGEgukeLbNVCB6DvVA0VPe3ZNcJFr5jCL1dnOHtUVIx4TyTF6FqKUGV0yoAX07mgh-kEVipHbsfKVWnx7ig/s1600-h/enabling+clinton.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 174px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugQJ-CZbnlfKe1uq35694jGKWQIdyeh0F7h6bsWZm40nqHcBgbz3wGEgukeLbNVCB6DvVA0VPe3ZNcJFr5jCL1dnOHtUVIx4TyTF6FqKUGV0yoAX07mgh-kEVipHbsfKVWnx7ig/s400/enabling+clinton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293067906854908258" /></a><strong>Clinton pays up?</strong><br /><br />Wait a moment you may think. What kind of political discourse relies on insulting your opponent? Well - these are insults here and not even an attempt to understand. There is an old saying "by their acts ye shall know them." Meles has caused such deep and irreparable harm to so many that the species of beings he represents beg for definition.<br /><br />Meles is beyond the saying about how "absolute power corrupts absolutely." He was corrupt from the beginning. Imagine if Pablo Escobar had managed to seize the Colombian state itself. That kind of bloodthirsty mindset rules Ethiopia today.<br /><br />So we are just calling a spade a spade. Meles is probably a very intelligent man. But so was Mao. Of what use is intelligence in an evil cause? And we don't use the word evil lightly. But what else do you call someone who hates the nation he rules?<br /><br />Don't imagine that Ethiopians willingly look to ferenjis for salvation. But what choice do they have when they can play no role in making decisions in their own society? Normal men simply do not do what is routine for Meles.<br /><br /><strong>"He may be an SOB but he's our SOB."<br /><br /><em>President Franklin Roosevelt.</em></strong><br /><br />................................................<br /><br />In the coming weeks these posts: <strong>Clueless (about international news coverage of Somalia & Ethiopia); Li'l Sammy's Secret (about the absurdity of a Dictatorial Ethiopian Embassy Inauguration Party for a democratically elected U.S. President); After the Revolution series continues; Where have All the Shimageles Gone? </strong> <br /><br />.................................................<br /><br />Here are some other excellent sources for commentary and opinion:<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiomedia.com/">Ethiomedia</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi</a><br /><br /><a href="http://enset.blogspot.com/">Enset</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ethiopolitics.com/">Ethiopian Politics</a><br /><br /><a href="http://anuakjustice.org/news.htm">Anuak Justice Council</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-89234381996697072912008-12-14T14:22:00.000-08:002009-01-17T17:41:49.150-08:00After the Revolution ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEsBA-TnwSvpi8fNi32fxXHUA0hZV3BrhaAAjnTDFkwKehu2tD8Acz9uizPiRVUyLigJ0KVmbU25HwESwJCpM2XHTa8StTkaZ_bC8WFChsHZyItNo9BRrxsKW3wHTggO5fTChhg/s1600-h/The+Class+of+74.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 276px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIEsBA-TnwSvpi8fNi32fxXHUA0hZV3BrhaAAjnTDFkwKehu2tD8Acz9uizPiRVUyLigJ0KVmbU25HwESwJCpM2XHTa8StTkaZ_bC8WFChsHZyItNo9BRrxsKW3wHTggO5fTChhg/s400/The+Class+of+74.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279781419292993122" /></a><br /><strong><em>Graduation day for the Class of 1974 - Issias, Proud Papa Lenin, Meles, and Mengistu - </em><a href="http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Godfather,_The/gallery/Godfather-movie-09/">image</a></strong><br /><br />...................................................<br /><br />At dinner one night in Adams Morgan a few years ago we heard a story about an African Student's Convention in a radical chic European University town sometime in the early 70's. <br /><br />The best and brightest youth of Africa came from all over Europe, North America, and the University in Addis - all in their very tightest bell bottoms and towering afros. By day most of them worshiped at the altar of Marx, Fidel, Fanon, and Ho Chi Minh in discussion groups and by night turned their attention to the cheesy discos and sometimes willing coeds of that striving to be hip corner of rural France. <br /><br />The Ethiopians (note that back then Eritreans were part of that group) joined the earnest debates of the long days about which was really more evil: neo-colonialism & imperialism or just every American & European who did not admit the West was evil. <br /><br />But ... during the even longer nights the Ethiopians stuck to it instead of partying like the others. They went on and on delving deeper into Bukharin, Luxembourg, Mao, Kim Il Sung, Che, Engels, Trotsky, and Angela Davis. <br /><br />You see, Ethiopia, either whole or in pieces would be a paradise after the revolution - if only they themselves were the ones to run it all. Abiding hatreds and an abiding devotion to lies were formed those nights. Some of those young men and women went on to kill others present in the streets and fields of Ethiopia - literally.<br /><br />How was it that many of those same Ethiopians just like too many like them went on to slaughter each other and hundreds of thousands of others while their dreams became a nightmare for millions? The better question is to wonder how anyone ever thought that the totalitarian dreams of such arrogant young proto-warlords could produce anything but terror.<br /><br />The truth is that lost in a veritable supermarket of Traditional, Western and other ideas a generation of educated Ethiopians never found their way past the ideological crap aisle. It is tragic and terrifying that such a glib and silly catechism, itself the detritus of the West that the same youth despised, could make so many otherwise normal people become so utterly delusional and frankly murderous. <br /><br />Marx was a curious but deservedly obscure writer who attempted to come up with the unified theory of not only humanity but reality itself and succeeded as well as anyone would have expected such an endeavor to. When everyone owned nothing history would end and we would all live in eternal paradise ... yeah, right.<br /><br />Lenin took Marx and used him to begin a war against humanity. He saw men as pegs whose bodies and souls could be terrorized into unnatural shapes to fill whatever holes in realilty denied him absolute power. According to the author of <a href="http://www.ethiopiafirst.com/news2004/Jan/The_Origins_Of_TPLF.pdf">The Origins of the TPLF </a> <blockquote>The experiences of the Bolsheviks’ Russia, Maoist China, Ho Chi Minh’s Vietnam and Che Guevera’s internationalism were espoused as guiding precedents to redeem Ethiopia from its predicament. The revolutionary student generation of that time was, as it later proved, ready to make any sacrifice to undo the grip of imperialism and feudalism in the country. This revolutionary fervour was part of the international wave of the 1960s. Marxist revolutionary ideals were thought to be impeccable, the only appropriate guiding tenets through which the country was to be transformed from its backwardness.</blockquote> How could those students or any even casual observer of history not have known about the genocidal human cost of the Soviet gulag and Stalin's collectivization, of his purges, Mao's mass murder under the guise of the great leap forward that continued under his failed cultural revolution, of Ho Chi Minh's bloody North Vietnamese land reform or even of Che's lonely death in a Bolivian 'people's revolution' that the people wanted no part of? <br /><br />And wasn't it blindingly obvious that this horror happened everywhere justification came in the name of 'the people' no one ever consulted? At a minimum did they not see the obvious fact that streams of refugees never headed into Communist countries but rather out of them and that their might be some lessons to be learned from that reality?<br /><br />A short answer is that reality, suffering and history did not matter as much as their collective vision of paradise and the role that they, as the vanguard of the anointed revolutionary class, would have in mankind's march to perfection . That such a scenario would guarantee absolute power to those who managed to survive the brutal Darwinian jungle of revolutionary politics must have been attractive as well. <br /><br />Those young men and women were warlords in training dedicated to a stupid idea and willing to deny any morality to achieve it. For 'the people' of course. One can debate whether or not the will to power of that group was either spurred or facilitated by the radical dreams of Marx & Co.<br /><br />In the end it is all connected. For the bloody minded ones who climbed to the top of the heap of bodies, self hatred founded in still fresh encounters with the outside world combined with the manipulation of convenient religious / tribal / regional differences.<br /><br />Crucially the convenience of a new religion anointing them personally with eternal power, however red they were in tooth and claw from the blood of innocents and those just like themselves, was something their simple though clever minds and stunted morality could not resist.<br /><br />The fact that they are killers who aspired only to dictatorship was definitely enhanced by their ideology - actually it defined them because those like them in every corner of the globe had the same type of body count. <br /><br />That is also exactly who they are now - their ideology is not a promise to make the world better but it is one to justify whatever they do in the nicest most passionate words possible. Even as crooked business men and the founders of revolutionary aristocracies they are true to the cause as Kim Jong Il and Juche are.<br /><br />Ultimately, even opposition to the post-1974 Marxist-Leninist military dictatorship was largely an argument over who the 'true communists' were - the tribal / regional or the junta variety. Endless war resulted and it has yet to end. The dinner story ended with two jokes - actually one observation and one joke: <br /><br />While everyone took turns trying to grab the bill the entrepreneurial businessman of the group noted that the most lethal type of Ethiopian was one who had studied economics / sociology or take any university course anywhere besides Russia. You see, those who studied in the Eastern Bloc knew it was all a bloody failure - one had to study where capitalism actually worked in the West or somewhere where none of Marx's observations remotely mattered like Ethiopia to worship the serf societies that Lenin and Mao made.<br /><br />It was raining on 18th Street when we left and not one of us had an umbrella. The veteran of several of Ethiopia's alphabet soup of revolutionary organizations (EPRP & TPLF were the only ones that he actually admitted to) who had told the story had been quiet as we discussed it. Outside he stepped past everyone huddled under the awning. As the rain beaded on the fringes of his bald head he turned back, smiled, and told us not to worry because after the revolution he would personally make sure that everyone had an umbrella.<br /><br />The universal response? "Don't start that here! Where are we going to escape to as refugees from America?!" We - the youngest there - didn't quite get it then but now, years later, really do get.<br /><br />................................................................<br /><br />So in this series of posts, we will, by the numbers, from widely available sources, see what was accomplished over the past third of a century by the class of '74. Mind you, we are not arguing that the Imperial government was part of a golden era. <br /><br />However, we are pointing out that by most indices of basic human civil and economic development, things have gotten worse or have not improved. Especially compared to what any flavor of non-ideological government could have achieved.<br /><br />Few of the other Afro-Radicals went as far and as passionately into the revolutionary night as Ethiopians did. Look at the map of Africa today and note even in that sad continent who are the least free and the most poor.<br /><br />It is still far easier to destroy than it is to build.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-88794636229443553652008-12-07T12:18:00.000-08:002008-12-07T13:28:38.544-08:00Meles's Not So Excellent Adventure II<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-H_i6hs43iuBLgKVUmFy2ogXKbNjWPtVJydGO9nXnDz5UlospeDmASBv2YlANFrIwu6Ek_6NKKNxQb6mU_8cI6qU3HRqN2w47dDD3uhaAKmPap0Fdq9fDsrCSbvr7NjTDD-PdAg/s1600-h/mnsea.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-H_i6hs43iuBLgKVUmFy2ogXKbNjWPtVJydGO9nXnDz5UlospeDmASBv2YlANFrIwu6Ek_6NKKNxQb6mU_8cI6qU3HRqN2w47dDD3uhaAKmPap0Fdq9fDsrCSbvr7NjTDD-PdAg/s400/mnsea.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274547769816430034" /></a><br /><br /><strong> "Ethiopia announced Friday that is pulling its forces from Somalia by year's end, leaving the ravaged capital vulnerable to the Islamic militants who have seized nearly all of the country."<br /><br /><em><a href="http://ethiomedia.com/aurora/9134.html">AP via Ethiomedia</a> </em><br /><br />We don't have the money to take the burden individually. The international community should provide funding.<br /><br /><em><a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2007/01/04/2003343319/print">Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's dictator</a></em><br /><br />It took Ethiopia two weeks in December 2006 and January 2007 to invade Somalia and crush fighters loyal to the Somali Islamic Courts Union. By contrast, it has taken two years for it to decide to withdraw, leaving the nastiest of the same Islamists in control of much of the country.<br /><br /><em><a href="http://ethiomedia.com/aurora/9193.html">The Economist via Ethiomedia</a> </em> </strong><br /><br />...............................................................<br /><br />The above referenced Economist article is to our collective mind characteristic of careless, ‘consult a cadre’ journalism run out to get a quick item for that next week’s edition. Actually it is a bit better than that but one would hope that absent press freedom or any other avenue for official questioning of policy in Ethiopia and given a government dedicated to churning out propaganda in the personal interests of its paramount leader, that the Economist especially would not abandon normal analysis in favor of a view of the ‘Horn of Africa According to Meles Inc’. <br /> <br />You see, although the article does refer to "the Ethiopians’ original aims, to shore up Meles Zenawi, their ruthless prime minister" - still according to the article one gets the impression that the noble Meles was let down by the African Union and Somalis themselves. The wisdom of intervening in Somalia to begin with is not an issue unless it is about America ‘egging’ on Meles to do in Somalia what he has actually been doing to Ethiopians for thirty four years. <br /><br />The whole business of invasion and withdrawal to be was decided in secrecy by Ethiopia ’s dictator just like giving away land to Sudan. There was not the slightest hint of public debate on the matter and was based on contracts between ferenjis and Meles alone. <br /> <br />Ethiopian interests are not at issue at all. Ethiopia has all the institutions of civilized government but they exist to put a nice face on tyranny. There is a parliament, an election board, a supreme court, a commodities exchange etc. but all are a poor Potemkin façade with massive gaps for even the blindest observer to see the carnage behind. <br /><br />Ethiopia is one of the most corrupt, oppressive, and overall vile governments on earth. Does that figure into the Economist analysis about its policies and purposes? Not really. <br /> <br />The decisions and interests of Meles himself are often attributed to Ethiopia as a whole. The article could have been a very unusually well written and slickly self deprecating press announcement from the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry – and in a sense it is. Have anyone's interests in the Ogaden been met? What does that mean in terms of Ethiopian vs. Melesian interests? How does the Economist know this if Western reporters and aid agencies are kept out of the Ogaden? <br /><br />Because of their reports of killings and bombings of civilians ferenjis have not been allowed to see what is going on. Ethiopians don’t matter – what they witness is a non-issue unless it slips by the bonds of the killers. Even then statements from the killers’ spokesmen count for far more than the dead. <br /> <br />We are to believe that some piece of paper signed in Djibouti makes Somalia all better or at least a little bit better than it was or at least that it gives some rational promise for the future. The fact that the very same people who are to maintain the ‘glorious achievement’ in Djibouti are the very same Somali government officials that the Economist blames for bringing the earnest efforts of Ethiopia to naught is nonsensical. <br /> <br />Even if the agreement falls apart we are consoled with the fact that Ethiopian troops are a day’s drive from Mogadishu . So what? Indian soldiers are a few day’s drive from the Pakistani capital too and for that matter American troops are less than a day’s drive from the Canadian capital. The issue is the decision to invade or to stay or to leave. Waiting to see what happens as a result of some piece of paper signed by thoroughly unreliable actors somewhere is beyond naïve. <br /> <br />The Economist in all of its coverage worldwide has grown to complacent about its reputation for real journalism and analysis - of the past that is. Today it too often settles for a semi-sophomoric wisdom and coolness. Last year there was an article about how pre-historical artifacts discovered in a desert somewhere should make Africans get over there differences. Europe had a treasure trove of historical artifacts all around for all living memory and kept making more and more in which to forget their problems. <br /> <br />But it took two World Wars and over half a century of an American security umbrella to get Europeans to behave decently towards each other. Admittedly the state of Europe then and Africa now is a bit different - but you get the point. When discussing the rest of the world the Economist doesn’t go in for easy smug cutish comments. <br /> <br />Does the Economist know that even as Ethiopian troops drove into Somalia the Ethiopian government was already announcing that they were leaving. Ever since then reports from Ethiopian sources have been naught but a litany of lies. For example, does anyone know how many Ethiopians died in Somalia? <br /> <br />It could be ten thousand as easily as it could be eight hundred. How many soldiers defected? How many are crippled for life? Have families been informed? If the Ethiopian-Eritrean war is any indication no one will ever know the answers to any of these questions. For Meles, Ethiopian life whether on the streets of Mogadishu or in Ethiopia itself is a matter of personal power and money. <br /> <br />Look at the intervention in Somalia from the point of view of Meles. <br /><br />One soldier with everything he needs to go into battle or occupation is cheap. His life or well being are not even at issue. All together the cost of one AK-47, boots, two changes of uniforms, bullets, rudimentary training, meager room and board, and poor to absent medical care is far less than $1,000. <br /><br />A used AK and uniforms with the holes stitched up make this even cheaper. At those prices a division is worth less than $10 million including upkeep for more than a year or so. Maintenance costs are far less – indeed from the Melesian point of view a soldier who is not used up in a reasonable amount of time is a depreciating asset. <br /> <br />Who pays for this? <br /><br />Ethiopians are being squeezed every second of their lives for money to send up the chain of criminal relations that define the Ethiopian economy. They help to pay for the system that abuses them and they have no choice. They own no land and are indeed serfs of the government which owns all of the land, controls who farms it, and manages or owns every system of distribution, export, and import. They are in debt bondage to the government for fertilizer and taxes. <br /> <br />Their lives and positions depend more on the whims of local government / party / business cadres and the weather. Even improvements to the land raise the threat that it will be taken away and given to an official’s relative or cadre loyal to Meles. This system naturally produces mainly blood, sweat, and tears – but in a nation of tens of millions, wringing even a few dollars from each one every year adds up. <br /> <br />The government and the party aristocracy that define it make their real money from ferenjis who are so moved by the suffering that they throw cash at it. Never mind the system is designed to produce ‘poor, nasty, brutish, and short lives’ - ferenjis make careers of never criticizing the local dictator in favor of begging and very occasionally threatening him to treat his own people decently when it absolutely must be done to avoid embarassment. <br /> <br />The lion’s share of every one of billions of dollars, euros, and yen in aid gets into the hands of a vast network of identical and often the same people who make up government / party /business consultants, officials, companies, and agencies – and the money largely stays there. That is all of the money that comes into Ethiopia in the name of the Ethiopian people but into the pockets and foreign accounts of the revolutionary aristocracy. <br /> <br />The aid money flowing in meets only slightly decreased amounts going out into numbered accounts, shell companies, and real estate in the US and Europe. Actually per capita foreign investment into Ethiopia is less than that into Somalia . This is clear to anyone who gets past the ridiculous news items about the fabled commodities exchange, a few flower farms on stolen land, bumper crops, the coming rivals for Silicon Valley on Bole Road , and the ones about how Ethiopia will be a middle income nation in a few years. <br /> <br />However, to the bright lads all over the Western media and even now at the Economist none of this is at issue. How about the fact that Ethiopia , one of the poorest and least productive nations on earth, took upon itself the burden of invading and occupying a neighboring country which has known nothing but anarchy and every increasing eagerness for civil war for generations. <br /> <br />Somalia is a country where the only national monument still standing is of the centuries old Gragn, the failed but almost successful destroyer of Ethiopia whose deprivations were unrivalled by the Italian Fascists and only rivaled in recent history by Mengistu and Meles. <br /> <br />The whole Somali national mission for most of the time since independence has been the dismemberment and destruction of Ethiopia . The one thing Somalis have consistently hated more than Ethiopia is other Somalis – but the hatred for Ethiopia is an abiding and patient one and never forgotten. The poor achievements of successive national unity governments whose basic aim was hurting Ethiopia could not conceal and actually inspired basic clan hatreds that led to almost two decades of bitter bloody internecine warfare. <br /> <br />The US went into Iraq and after more than five years appears to be finishing with American interests met - not as expected but met nevertheless. That took an investment of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars a year along with domestic discontent and international criticism. But … the US has a functioning and vibrant democracy where the will of voters can change policy. The US has a fourteen trillion dollar a year economy – the Iraqi adventure was winnable and eventually won. <br /> <br />Now consider again Ethiopia going into Somalia . Not only are government salaries and pensions in Ethiopia paid for by foreign aid but even pencils and bullets are also paid for by aid. Meles is one of the richest men on earth not only because of his actual assets but also because his relationship with Ethiopia and Ethiopians is one of ownership. <br /> <br />When American, British, or Israelis troops have to deal with civilian casualties there are investigations and the world hears cries of condemnation from every corner. Each has an interest and a basic sense of humanity that see them get the job done as cleanly as possible – there are consequences to be dealt with for politicians and warriors in democratic societies. <br /><br />However, when insurgents or terrorists shoot and blow people up by the thousands there are only routine comments – after all nothing more is expected of them than to be barbaric. When the soldiers of Meles leveled sections of Mogadishu - well that was just business as usual for Africans and did not matter – after all Meles routinely treated Ethiopians even worse in the Anuak regions and nobody minded. <br /><br />So Meles learned he could act with impunity in Somalia as he had always done in Ethiopia – no one dared question him. <br /> <br />How about this – remember the reaction when American bodies were dragged by cheering crowds through Somali streets how strong the reaction was? How about the Ethiopian bodies that got the same treatment? Ethiopians love their sons and fathers as much as Americans do but they weren’t allowed to even hear about it or see it and if they did - what could they do about it anyway? <br /> <br />Meles never had a dream of paying for his adventure in Somalia from Ethiopia ’s resources or even of spending a cent of his fortune or of seeking anyone's consent. Because of his social contract with ferenjis he had every expectation that ferenji taxpayers would foot the bill. The Bush Administration agreed openly and the rest of the ferenji world did privately. <br /> <br />After all, the prevailing point of view from Brussels to Washington is that “ Africa will always be a mess, especially those Ethiopians and Somalis, so why expect things like actual development and democracy when it is better to just try and keep them out of the headlines and too much trouble? Better to just keep them from killing each other in front of CNN crews and Embassy staff at the very least and possibly hurt Al Quaeda in the bargain.” <br /> <br />As we noted above Ethiopian lives don’t matter to Meles and there is no internal accountability or debate over those lives and policy so he can do what he wants as long as foreign partners are in place. It is ridiculous to speak of Ethiopian interests and Ethiopian policy. This is and has been all about the personal interests, finances, and power of Meles Zenawi. <br /> <br />It is not in the interest of civilized peoples anywhere to have Islamists, particularly of the Islamic Courts Union variety, ruling Somalia . Of course they are bad news for everyone, especially Somalis. However, to consider for a moment that Meles’s Ethiopia could pull off the miracle of putting Somalia together again (or for the first time really) is ridiculous beyond words. <br /><br />To consider that a disunited (by government policy), oppressed, bitterly poor Ethiopia would have her interests served by the soldiers of Meles treating Somalis just like they did Ethiopians is plain dumb. <br /> <br />To repeat the point just in case it has not been made yet – this is all about Meles. For the adventure in Somalia Meles was expecting: <br />--to get a whole lot of extra money above and beyond the usual poverty and engineered famines <br />-- to cover the costs of the war and then some; <br />-- Washington would be even more uncritical of him and his bloodletting in Ethiopia ; <br />-- there would be a whole lot more acceptance and tacit support for his actions of every kind from Europe too. <br /> <br />Meles got much of what he wanted but apparently not enough. That is why he is leaving Somalia or why he says he is leaving. Both countries could have kept bleeding for another generation with Ethiopian soldiers neck deep in Somali and Ethiopian blood but Meles would not have cared as long as he got paid for it and got rewarded with respect from the West. <br /> <br />That is why he is raising the issue of pulling out. He constantly threatened it before saying Ethiopia could not pay for it all as though he were on a Civilizing Mission for all the Western World. He constantly threatened to leave for the past two years. A few thousand African Union soldiers joined to hang around the airport and other relatively safe places while Ethiopians did the fighting and bleeding. <br /> <br />Does anyone out there, expect that the African Union will find anyone stupid enough to replace his soldiers with those of Ethiopia? Of course no one who was unwilling to get in with tens of thousands of Ethiopians in place will be willing to go in now when only a piece of paper in Djibouti backing them up. <br /> <br />So the question then becomes: is Meles even planning to leave this time since the amity or the replacements that leaving is conditioned on won’t ever happen? As usual Meles is playing a game for his own interests with the lives of millions and the interests of billions. <br /> <br />There is a new administration on the way to Washington that may change some of the social contract between ferenjis and Meles. Note that we use the word <strong>MAY</strong> in this context – there is no particular reason, only hope, to think that American policy of defending Melesian rights over Ethiopia will change now. <br /><br />Defending Meles has always been an enthusiastic bipartisan business in Washington – this depite the presence of a band of bipartisan Congressman and Senators who ask that Ethiopians have rights. <br /> <br />Either way Meles is trying to shape the behavior of the incoming Obama administration even as the transition is just getting underway by demanding to be noticed. Basically Meles is warning the incoming President and the best & brightest crew around him that they had better notice his usefulness to American interests now or they would regret it when he invited trouble for American interests later. <br /> <br />If Bush had come through with all the cash Meles felt he deserved and dreamed of and if the West had given him the adulation he craves with appropriate guarantees there would never have been a word about withdrawal. As it is Bush and the whole West gave him almost everything he could have wanted from an all season hunting license on Ethiopians to nice invitations to G-8 summits. <br /> <br />If he was assured Obama was at least as much on board with Melesian rule as Bush there would also be no talk of withdrawal either. Meles figures he can jerk Obama around a bit just as he did Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Tony Blair, etc. Remember that as you read this you really have no idea what Meles will do. <br /> <br />After all he owns Ethiopia and will do what seems right for himself at any given moment. The whole invasion and occupation of Somali has harmed Ethiopian interests. The Islamists in Somalia would have been far less harmful in the short and long run than a government definitely hostile to Ethiopians while being given new respect and new support to abuse them in their own name. <br /> <br />The dictator in Addis goes to bed every night terrified that free Ethiopians will find him without his entourage of thugs or access to any one of his many fortunes. There is no such thing as Ethiopian policy there is only Meles policy. <br /> <br />After all if you can’t afford to deal with the consequences you shouldn’t have foreign adventures - war in particular. America and some others can afford it – Ethiopia can’t in any way so the whole business was doomed from the beginning and even if it goes on, it serves only Meles. <br /> <br />Whatever happens – we told you so two years ago. Not that we always want to be right about something like this - but thematic predictions are always easy when dealing with folks like Meles, the clan leaders in Somalia, and the Islamists – they can all always be trusted, and only trusted in the end, to be their horrific selves. <br /><br />...............................................................<br /><br />Here are some links to our other posts on this subject: <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/11/technically-at-war.html">Technically At War</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/meless-not-so-excellent-adventure.html">Meles's Not So Excellent Adventure</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/01/our-man-in-africa.html">Our Man in Africa</a> and <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/01/collateral-damage.html">Collateral Damage</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-12721377304555328812008-10-20T11:42:00.000-07:002008-10-19T13:04:04.805-07:00Despicable In Any Other Country<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHfOaRzJLwf1hJsh_fntvtTS_PTHU6roFoQfKZI5HcnG5KNb_A8nuaTlFuJxJH1QTXGBJ9-uxKFiuclGelReeoFDgfJ5AoI6T2HbkPux5pzXyqeVVJ4wSzYxzeZenxBs-DZPuBw/s1600-h/forked+tongue(2).jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHfOaRzJLwf1hJsh_fntvtTS_PTHU6roFoQfKZI5HcnG5KNb_A8nuaTlFuJxJH1QTXGBJ9-uxKFiuclGelReeoFDgfJ5AoI6T2HbkPux5pzXyqeVVJ4wSzYxzeZenxBs-DZPuBw/s400/forked+tongue(2).jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5258953397279570770" /></a><br /><em><strong>meles speak with forked tongue</em><blockquote>ferenji chief </strong></blockquote> Things have changed a bit since Tony Blair and Meles Zenawi were 'best friends forever' or have they really changed? This week Britain threatened to cut its £130 million annual aid package to Ethiopia amid greater British concern for the fate of Ethiopians than that of Meles Inc. <br /><br />The British representative (from AFP & the Times via <a href="http://ethiomedia.com/accent/8324.html">Ethiomedia</a>)<blockquote> characterized the Government's reaction to the crisis as “deny and delay,” fueled in part by Ethiopia's extreme sensitivity to its global image as a famine-stricken nation, which the Government views as an impediment to foreign investment.<br /><br />Mr Alexander saw the sensitivity at first-hand on his trip to Somali when he was taken to the infant malnutrition ward in Kebri Dehar hospital to see seriously ill mothers and babies being treated.<br /><br />Aid workers were surprised to find that the most severely malnourished babies and their mothers had vanished from the ward where they had been for several days, leaving only one mother and her fast-recovering child.<br /><br />The health worker who had taken them to the hospital expressed fears that the children had been spirited away before the minister's arrival to avoid “embarrassing” press pictures of starving Ethiopian babies.<br /><br />“I come here every day and they are always here,” the health worker said. “I don't know where they are now.”<br /><br />“They've hidden them,” an international aid worker with a lot of experience in the region said.<br /><br />“The Government doesn't want to acknowledge this crisis because it's bad for their image. It's not the image of Ethiopia they want to project. It doesn't encourage investment.”<br /><br />Mr Alexander raised the incident later in his meeting with Mr Zenawi. “If it's true that they moved severely malnourished children, that is unconscionable,” he said. <strong>Mr Zenawi promised to investigate, calling the incident “despicable”.</strong> </blockquote> This is sort of like O.J.'s passioned search for the 'real killers of Nicole Simpson. What is really despicable here is Meles and the totalitarian system he set up thirty four years ago in Tigray that metastasized to the whole of Ethiopia seventeen years ago.<br /><br />Back then he accepted the EPLF use of food as a weapon against Tigrayans, purged or killed any who complained, while simultaneously he was deeply offended that Mengistu did the same. Seventeen years later he is busy using food as a weapon with no one else to blame. Throughout Meles has made his image with ferenjis a top priority aided and abetted the whole time by how willingly they played along.<br /><br />Aid workers can't work in the Ogaden region unless they promise to keep quiet about mass human rights violations. Meles gets invited to the G-8 as though he were civilized and downplays his engineered famine. Notice the pattern here?<br /><br />Anyway, what is the purpose of foreign investment if it has as an attached price like mass starvation? Well - Ethiopian has less per capita foreign investment than Somalia does and beyond headlines about flower plantations that don't mention whose land is being taken away or the working conditions on them - NO ONE without a part in rigging the game with corruption is willing to invest in Ethiopia.<br /><br /><strong>The ferenjis are more concerned with the suffering of Ethiopians than the Ethiopian government is. Literally - ferenjis have to beg and threaten the Ethiopian government to treat its people with some minimal degree of decency - like not letting them starve.</strong><br /><br />While Ethiopians have been beaten down by Meles the ferenjis just accept him as he is and consequently manage only to lash out with a <blockquote> "candid and forthright" message – diplomatic code for a blunt rebuke. <br /><br />[The British Minister] said he would reject official advice and decline to make a cast iron pledge of future aid to Ethiopia. "In the months ahead I will be discussing the funding position within Europe and the United States," he said. "I am not making a decision now because of the continuing issues I have seen here."<br /><br />Ethiopia is Africa's biggest recipient of British aid – spending this year totalled £130 million – and under Tony Blair, Mr Meles was hailed as the model of a progressive African leader.<br /><br />Ethiopia wanted a long-term promise of British aid to bolster its negotiating position with international lending agencies and outside investors. But its internal repression has grown too harsh for its allies to ignore.<br /><br />Since a disputed election in 2005, Mr Meles has become increasingly authoritarian.</blockquote> Simply amazing isn't it? Increasingly authoritarian you say? How about you just noticed because people were actually massacred in front of ferenjis this time for a more accurate statement?<br /><br />What the British minister is saying is that Her Majesty's Government believes that Meles is blocking aid to starving Ethiopians as a matter of policy. Meles in calling such inhuman behavior 'despicable' is clearly speaking about himself - and everyone knows it.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=22219.0">The Times</a> said last month that <blockquote>"The WFP has told donors that it blames Ethiopia’s 'delays in recognising the extent of need' for causing the rapid depletion of existing food stocks. But a Channel 4 News investigation tonight claims that the army has withheld food from villages in the Ogaden deliberately as part of a 'scorched earth' policy"<br /><br /><strong>"This situation would be shameful in any other country," </strong> the report concludes. "The US Government cannot in good conscience allow the food operation to continue in its current manifestation." </blockquote> Shameful in any other country but business as usual in Ethiopia. In <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2008/04/fundamental-things-apply.html">The Fundamental Things Apply</a> we wrote about the Meles Inc. engineered inflationary contribution to the continuing crisis in the Ethiopian economy. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi</a>, in characteristic fashion, absolutely nails the points down in his analysis and reading of IMF report that show that in addition to violent mass oppression that Meles pumped billions into the hands of supporters. <br /><br />Dagmawi asks us to<blockquote> Consider two features of today's Ethiopia.<br /><br />(1) Ethiopia has a huge governmental bureaucracy compared to most other countries. These people need to be paid salaries every month. In addition, there is a shadow bureaucracy of tens of thousands of TPLF/EPRDF cadres stationed all over the country. These people need to be paid too (directly or indirectly the money comes from the government). Both these categories of bureacrats are unproductive (i.e. they do not grow food or manufacture goods). But they have money (provided by the government) to buy food and goods.<br /><br />(2) According to the World Bank (2007) fifty-five percent of the economy is composed of public enterprises. Most of these are unproductive, uncompetitive, loss-making enterprises. But they need money to operate, and they get that money from the government. In addition to these public enterprises, there are inefficient, unproductive enterprises owned by the TPLF/EPRDF. These enterprises are also provided with money from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Most of the loans they took in the past (over two billion birr) were never paid back. All that money is circulating in the economy and worsening the balance between available money and available goods. </blockquote> On the basic points that contribute to starvation the ferenjis have basically given up. Nevermind that: <br />-Ethiopia has one of the most oppressive and corrupt governments on earth; <br />-there no rights to private property; <br />-even more of the economy is government controlled than in Mengistu's time; <br />-the ruling party / aristocracy control the anemic private sector , government monopolies and the apparatus that is supposed to tax and regulate all of them; <br />-foreign aid is siphoned off into elite foreign bank accounts as though it came with a round trip ticket; <br />-seventeen years of lies about bumper harvests and double digit economic growth were always the fantasies of fools:<br />-the whole ferenji relationsip with Meles Inc. is based upon low expectations and a preference for dealing with the all too typical "devil we know rather than democrat the natives plead for."<br /><br />None of those things are even an issue. The stark reality is that ferenjis look at Meles and see exactly what Ethiopians from Badme to Moyale see. A murderous thug who is willing to hold power and enrich himself at any cost to Ethiopian lives. <br /><br />It is clear that the Ethiopian economy won't grow beyond the bounds of emotional cash remittances from Ethiopians abroad who are allowed to earn wealth and foreign aid from the pity and contempt generated by Meles Inc. policies from societies organized in exactly the opposite manner as Ethiopia. <br /><br />Ethiopians, under present government, face a future of 'poor nasty brutish and short' lives stretching forth endlessly with only a green card lottery promising profound change.<br /><br />Does anyone out there doubt for a second that Meles Inc. will get every cent of British aid this year and next and that his personal portfolio will grow? Suffering and oppression are cash businesses. The ferenjis will pay up, Ethiopians will give of their blood, sweat and tears, and Meles will get richer.<br /><br />Of course the ferenjis will pay up. After all Meles has tens of millions of hostages to threaten. Trotsky, one of Meles's ideological and practical mentors said that <strong>"where the state is the sole landlord - opposition means death by slow starvation."</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-18082972686668138462008-09-11T18:15:00.000-07:002008-09-11T20:32:32.726-07:00World War IV - Helter Skelter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRszQZKj8x53qR7aK4EE1FgvCsxdNOMefCFT02ezlW-B-hVhdnowgMVPxb7q0uEzIdF4X4asxFNNkzYyuUM9W6PsQHVE85998Gq9ti56PybJQfHGP8fsx1uqgYwYEuNhBxebiyTA/s1600-h/wwiv.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRszQZKj8x53qR7aK4EE1FgvCsxdNOMefCFT02ezlW-B-hVhdnowgMVPxb7q0uEzIdF4X4asxFNNkzYyuUM9W6PsQHVE85998Gq9ti56PybJQfHGP8fsx1uqgYwYEuNhBxebiyTA/s400/wwiv.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244942449706261826" /></a> <em>9/11 in the U.S.; School siege in Russia; Child Slaves in Sudan; Suicide bombing in Israel; Shi'ite Mosque bombing in Pakistan; Car bomb in Iraq; Australian Embassy bombing in Indonesia; Afghan Woman executed by the Taliban; Nepali hostages killed in Iraq; London 7/7; US Embassy in Kenya; Madrid 3/11</em><br /><br />The Fourth World War is here. This time civilization faces determined enemies who want to bend Islam, one of the world's great religions, to their own private will in the service of yet another totalitarian evil. The first three world wars were fought against the Central Powers from 1914-18, totalitarian Fascism from 1935-45 and totalitarian Communism from 1945-91. <br /><br />Each enemy in turn was at first engaged with policies based upon wishful thinking and frank appeasement that were nurtured by civilization's own self doubts, denial and fears. Peace only came when enough people had the final bitter realization that like it or not there was a war going on that was worth winning. <br /><br />That realization came to most in the U.S. seven years ago today. Some countries have been fighting the war for years while a few are just noticing it. Many others in the U.S. and elsewhere remain unconvinced or simply assume they at least will remain untouched. <br /><br />We don't use the words 'civilization' and 'world war' lightly. <br /><br />Imagine a world made according to the dreams of Hezbollah / Hamas / the Taliban / Al Quaeda / Islamic Jihad / the Ayatollahs and their ilk. Permanent Black slavery, eternal female subjugation, a new Jewish Holocaust, the utter destruction of Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, unapproved Islamic, and secular culture, civilization, and all we know of the modern world are not matters of an overactive imagination but dead certainties. <br /><br />All you have to do to realize this is to listen to what the bad guys say.<br /><br />The bad guys, and they are bad guys, want your submission and your life one way or another. The submission of you and your descendants (should any be allowed to live) forever. They will keep trying until they win, die, or are convinced they have absolutely no chance of success or even of being left alone. <br /><br />Osama's plan for 9/11 wasn't that different from that of Charlie Manson. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helter_Skelter_(Manson_scenario)">Helter Skelter</a> was the latter's name for what his cult's serial killings would set off. First, Blacks would be blamed for the killings and in their anger they would rise up and take over America. Unable to run it they would turn to him and his 'family' so he would be the ruler of America - and then the world.<br /><br />Osama figured he and his boys had defeated the Soviets (never mind the debilitating absurdity of 70 years of Communism, Stinger missiles, etc.) and poked at the US with no response for years - and don't forget he was really really pissed off about the past thousand or so years of history. Like the Imperial Japanese Empire or the Soviet Union he imagined that the US would just fall apart if it was hit hard or intimidated.<br /><br />Actually the US became the target because his brand of political Islam had become an absolute failure in every country. Most peoples and certainly all governments beside Mullah Omar's Afghan prison nation weren't having any of his nonsense long before 2001 besides lip service and propaganda to serve themselves. Osama figured the US was the easy target having been rejected everywhere he imagined himself having a natural constituency.<br /><br />When Osama's ilk tried to rebel in Syria Assad & Co. just went ahead and destroyed a whole city. Egyptian prisons make Guantanamo look like Club Med. Algerians fought a bloody civil war against political religion throughout the 90's. Etc. etc.<br /><br />Osama was going to so impress the 'street' that governments would fall, empires crumble, and his new world emirate would just have to pick up the pieces at leisure. Things did not quite work out that way. Many like Kaiser, Tojo, Hitler, Stalin etc. before him looked at liberal democracies contemptuously through their own twisted visions and never imagined they could really resist.<br /><br />None realized that sufficiently aroused or quietly determined that they could take on anyone and win. However, pretending there was nothing going on would have guaranteed defeat.<br /><br />Pretending it is all a misunderstanding or someone else's problem or somebody else's fault won't work. Sensitivity won't work. Understanding won't work. Ignoring them won't work. Surrender won't work. They hate you because you exist outside of their circle of submission. It is that simple. They will kill you or at least hurt you whenever and wherever they can as long as you let them. <br /><br />The plan is that your human will breaks long before your actual abilities do.<br /><br />That is terror. When you hear that the terrorists will win 'because they love death more than we love life' you are hearing the death rattle of a dumb idea. Of course they will lose in the long run. The question is how much they will hurt everyone else before the end. Imagine Osama and his ilk, any given Ayatollah, or Charlie Manson with a nuclear weapon. <br /><br />Have no doubt at all that they would use it.<br /><br />There is an interesting story about the time Khrushchev took power. He was told about a large thermonuclear bomb wrapped in cobalt so powerful and with such lingering radioactive poison that it would render the earth uninhabitable. It would be used in the event that the Soviets were ever defeated. <br /><br />Now before you keep reading please note that Khrushchev was no warm and fuzzy teddy bear of a guy however amusing or ridiculous he was banging his shoe on that desk at the U.N. <br /><br />The man who presided over the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor">Ukrainian famine</a>, who was Stalin's faithful hound during the purges of the 1930's etc. was horrified. He ordered the bomb taken apart. Whatever rationality (far more likely than humanity) that made Nikita make that decision will definitely not be shared by whomever comes to posses a bomb in the name of a hijacked religion in the likely very near future. <br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction">Mutual assured destruction</a> just would not work with Osama or Ahmadinejad. There will be a reckoning on these matters - there must be - and it will happen sooner than we think. World War IV has already begun and nukes like suicide bombs are a natural part of it.<br /><br />Some don't like to call it that or even acknowledge it - but reality is no great respecter of feelings or wishes or fevered dreams of the way the world should be and not the way it is. <br /><br />Liberal democracy and the very concept of human freedom did not just appear out of wishes or thin air. People fought and died, toiled and suffered so that billions today have rights and relative freedoms from want that were unimaginable a few generations ago. That reality is spreading of its own accord and that is what the bad guys hate and fear. <br /><br />Even today liberal democracy, freedom, and the economic rewards attendant to them are made safe by willing men and women everywhere who stand guard. Everyone who has ever valued a free thought, free expression, or any vestige of a future they control themselves should have no doubt that it all just happened or that it will just stay that way.<br /><br />Osama and Khamenei know they have no place in such a future - so they don't want you to have that future either. Yes, that means YOU.<br /><br />Ask the mass litany of victims of this terror what it is they have been fighting for years. Ask the people of Afghanistan, India, Israel, Thailand, the Philippines, Iraq, etc. Some like the Spanish government may pretend it is not there and anyway a matter for Americans to deal with. <br /><br />Many in the West have the definitely racist notion that original sin is their own and that no one can be as evil as themselves. This point of view is actually more contemptuous of an enemy and enrages an enemy more than anything else. <br /><br />Many in the rest of the world get a vicarious thrill out of seeing the West, America in particular, attacked. Such people can be useful at times in shielding the actually very weak terrorists from the consequences of their actions. <br /><br />Such people will always be dealt with eventually whether by Charlie Manson or Osama bin Laden. Without those willing to fight defending them how long does anyone think they would last? <br /><br />There is a war on. It is the same war all over the world and it has to be won. Like it or not you are in it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1854/475/1600/helter%20skelter.5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1854/475/320/helter%20skelter.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><em>Events of the night of August 9, 1969 and the morning of September 11, 2001 occured a whole continent and more than thirty years apart. They were, however, the results of remarkably alike assumptions of human corruption and infectious psycopathic ego. Charles Manson and Osama bin Laden wanted and continue to want exactly the same thing - to take over the world - it is really that simple, that insane and that evil. </em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-89498868099584411382008-08-17T04:03:00.000-07:002008-08-17T04:52:46.614-07:00Bashir vs. The International Criminal Court<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZ72zIPCabanuIShE2aiJi6VZrHCKM4jPc2m73l5Uduhti80aAaSvJ-2ztF6snIMVnC3-6AgeVrFwdhT6L8zZfUpy4QL7vmx1hdfiY_HAzjdyvRgposhol_gMMXaJ-bP5eJDByQ/s1600-h/twins.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZ72zIPCabanuIShE2aiJi6VZrHCKM4jPc2m73l5Uduhti80aAaSvJ-2ztF6snIMVnC3-6AgeVrFwdhT6L8zZfUpy4QL7vmx1hdfiY_HAzjdyvRgposhol_gMMXaJ-bP5eJDByQ/s400/twins.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235442033672553522" /></a> <strong>“Concern for justice should not trump concern for peace,” <em><blockquote>How convenient. Meles Zenawi (dictator / owner of ethiopia, mass abuser of human rights, scavenger of war, c.e.o. of meles inc. intl., & all around profound intellectual) on Bashir’s diplomatic offensive against the International Criminal Court. Actually, he ponders his own fate.<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/24/world/fg-sudan24"> LA Times</a> </blockquote> </strong></em> <br /><strong>The essay below was written by Paulos Milkias (PhD)*. </strong><br /><br />....................................................................<br /><br /><strong>"Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provision of international law be enforced." <blockquote> <em>Nuremberg Tribunal judging Nazi war criminals after World War II</blockquote></strong></em>Darfur is not the only case of international intervention in an African human rights dilemma. During the last two decades, Africa had several crises that needed international attention. The conflicts in Somalia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and Liberia devastated entire communities. Of particular concern to the international community was the widening conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which spilled over into the neighboring countries of the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia—several of which were already experiencing humanitarian emergencies of their own. Even after a shaky peace accord was signed in the DRC, humanitarian conditions did not improve significantly, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) had to deal with known human rights abusers. <br /><br />While humanitarian emergencies continue to proliferate in Africa, a question with far-reaching implications arises: what is to be done regarding Darfur? Are there justifications for the Sudanese government's position that no international organization can interfere in its own internal affairs? And if intercession is contemplated, what constitutes a sufficiently just cause to warrant intervention? All these depend on several factors: the intentions of the interveners, whether interventions are a last resort, who and what might be a legitimate target of intervention, reasonable prospects for success, and proper authorization. <br /><br />The issue of just cause requires that severe suffering warranting help has arisen. These include such threats to vital interests as indiscriminate killings, torture, rape, and displacement of people. These would count as significant threats to human dignity and normal life. When such activities are widespread, and the state either perpetrates the injustices or does nothing appropriate to end the suffering of people, it would be reasonable to suggest the just cause threshold has been attained. These were undoubtedly present in ICC's Darfur case. <br /><br />Sudan has vehemently opposed what it considers intervention in its domestic affairs by the ICC. The Sudanese government has rejected the ICC's request that war crimes suspects Ahmad Harun and Ali Kushayb be arrested and handed over to them. They consider the action an intrusion into their national affairs and have dubbed the ICC "a tool for [imposing] the culture of superiority." But they could not stop the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) from publishing a notice for the arrest of Harun. Sudan's Justice Minister Ali al-Mardi said that any attempts to arrest Harun and Kushayb through INTERPOL would be treated as "kidnapping and international piracy." <br /><br />This opposition to the ICC's adjudication represents both practical and fundamental hurdles. On one level, there is no possibility for an international tribunal to operate without a state's cooperation in turning over defendants and evidence and permitting investigation within its own territorial boundary. If the government of President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir shields its citizens from the ICC, the court would be hard pressed to carry out its prosecution. <br /><br />On another level, criminal proceedings by international tribunals have rarely fulfilled victims' expectations of universal justice. The international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia were both severely criticized as being too remote, too sluggish, and biased in their choice of defendants. The prosecutions were accused of sparing the most senior defendants from the local courts where they might be tried in accordance with local standards and within view of the local population that had witnessed the atrocities, and where, just like their subordinates, they could face the death penalty if convicted. This of course could not be expected in the Sudan, where the chain of command in the crime stretches up to President Bashir himself whom the ICC is now seeking to prosecute.<br /><br />The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, after a through study of international law and conventions, determined that it may be appropriate for supranational bodies to intervene in what are normally considered the domestic affairs of a state for the purpose of protecting people who are at risk. The commission's report pinpointed principles on which its prominent jurists reached consensus and which it believes to be "politically achievable in the world as we know it today." The cardinal principles the commission considered legitimate were stated in the following words: <br /><br />State sovereignty implies responsibility, and the primary responsibility for the protection of its people lies with the state itself. . . . However, where a population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression, or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the principle of nonintervention yields to the international responsibility to protect.<br /><br />The report does not deny that sovereignty is important, but it calls attention to what sovereignty entails. For the jurists, sovereignty is not best conceived of in terms of control but rather in terms of responsibility. Government officials are responsible for assuring the safety of citizens and for advancing their welfare. The commission did not find genuine support for a view that sovereignty necessitates unlimited state power over its own citizens, but instead acknowledged that "sovereignty implies a dual responsibility: externally—to respect the sovereignty of other states—and internally—to respect the dignity and basic rights of all the people within the state." The report noted in its conclusion that "sovereignty as responsibility has become the minimum content of good international citizenship." <br /><br />The general responsibility to safeguard peoples' welfare requires the implementation of three specific tasks. In the first instance, it entails a responsibility to prevent or to contend with the root causes of conflict that puts people at risk of requiring humanitarian intervention. Contending with the root causes can mean putting to an end political repression. In the second instance, it entails a responsibility to respond aptly when there is a pressing human need. A fitting response may call for sanctions, international prosecutions, or military interventions. And last but not least, the responsibility to protect people in distress demands a responsibility to rebuild by providing the right kind of help with recovering, reconstructing, and setting in motion a process of national reconciliation. <br /><br />Regarding the issue of proper type of authorization for interventions, there is no better or more appropriate body than the United Nations Security Council that charged the ICC to take up the Darfur crisis. By its very design, the Security Council bears a primary obligation to deal with all requests for emergency authorizations and it has to do that within an appropriate time period, particularly when they entail urgent, large-scale crises like Darfur. There is clear tension between the goals of nations shielding themselves from outside interference and international goals of responding to victims who suffer in humanitarian crises; but when it comes to respecting sovereignty and respecting the welfare of individuals who are in distress, the matter should definitely be resolved in favor of protecting the vulnerable individuals who suffer in humanitarian crises. <br /><br />....................................................................<br /><br />*Paulos Milkias Ph.D. is, a former Canada Council Doctoral Fellow, is Professor of Humanities and Political Science at Marianopolis College/Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Specializing in political science, he earned his MA and PhD from McGill University in Montreal and his BA from Haile Selassie University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He is currently co-editor of North-East-African Studies and associate editor of the journals Horn of Africa and the International Journal of Ethiopian Development Studies.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-41069877108985632632008-07-27T17:02:00.001-07:002008-08-17T14:28:34.247-07:00Four Years and Counting ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUtjSIYpDCj9fMsiybUIlWvlXfj31IijLJyKITa1OY-_1key4C_GFDUWDi7jlhwtLB_L1HIHxxqNXwuKeWDK0AipGm5HX8SqtcJ3gtlE7mDxUewA1Q6dmyfQdWQULLQOW1Uqszw/s1600-h/pundits.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUtjSIYpDCj9fMsiybUIlWvlXfj31IijLJyKITa1OY-_1key4C_GFDUWDi7jlhwtLB_L1HIHxxqNXwuKeWDK0AipGm5HX8SqtcJ3gtlE7mDxUewA1Q6dmyfQdWQULLQOW1Uqszw/s320/pundits.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5227853397342604210" /></a> <strong><em> the class of 2004</em></strong><br /><br />ethiopundit's first post was four years ago and we are frankly shocked that it is still here. After all, in blog time - four years is an eternity. So we heartily congratulate ourselves on actually having readers, links, and many mentions in the mainstream media. It is also a delight to be any part of a community of deep thinkers and fine writers of all stripes.<br /><br />Despite serious inertia & competition with real life we still try to post regularly, albeit much less frequently now than four years ago. Because of the scheming & threats from cadres & fellow travelers we will always keep writing and trying to post more frequently. Does it matter? Given the evident and urgent need to get us to stop it seems to matter quite a bit. More on that in the future. <br /><br />Most important is you dear reader - you simply keep reading - thanks. (Yeah, that means you too <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Meles_Zenawi.jpg">Legesse</a>.) Where our grammar and editing have failed (as they do regularly) we thank the many of you over the years who have gently referred us to one of the greatest books on basic communication ever written, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style">The Elements of Style by Strunk & White</a>. And yes - photoshopping is half the fun.<br /><br />Oh, and a word about the "we" - right now and for more than a year it has been more of an "I" - but the "we" still has a certain gravitas doesn't it? Above all readers <strong>Don't Believe the Hype</strong> - you can never go wrong by assuming that Meles Inc. is lying - that is the very essence of their immutable being. <blockquote> A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asks, "How do I know you won't sting me?" The scorpion says, "Because if I do, I will die too."<br /><br />The frog is satisfied, and they set out, but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp "Why?"<br /><br />Replies the scorpion: "Its my nature..."</blockquote> To the point ... except the venomous creatures Ethiopians are worried about have billions of Euros and Dollars in banks, investments and real estate abroad. <br /><br />Ethiopian lives to them are what carrion is to a hyena. Ethiopians deserves better - they and many ferenjis understand very well who they are dealing with. Do you?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-54511346618747915732008-07-20T12:35:00.000-07:002008-07-20T14:58:59.721-07:00Sammy Agonistes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh346OxWjYXt3MCYZlpnQ_FZHoWUwYcnqPWIz6kNEHzEHyNiCxsM7v6cmEKtKHOcdnYS3_lzwHOvXgtovYiTIYsrBZ7U2ygPDpIh3QbPi2UVBx602gFPno66XpdHboM1EtprXNWzA/s1600-h/casablanca.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh346OxWjYXt3MCYZlpnQ_FZHoWUwYcnqPWIz6kNEHzEHyNiCxsM7v6cmEKtKHOcdnYS3_lzwHOvXgtovYiTIYsrBZ7U2ygPDpIh3QbPi2UVBx602gFPno66XpdHboM1EtprXNWzA/s400/casablanca.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5225182486488741090" /></a> <strong><em> FIELD TRIP! ... or is it ... Sammy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agonistes">Agonistes</a></em>?</strong><br /><br />...................................<br /><br />There is a story in the quotes below that is by rather quick turns amusing, tragic, ridiculous, and sad. 'Ethiopia's' Ambassador (really the corporate rep of Meles Inc.) to the US is caught playing up to what was hoped would be racist complicity from an American newswoman.<br /><br />In his take on reality, Ethiopia's dictatorship doesn't deserve sanctions because Ethiopians are too primitive to handle democracy anyway and they need a strong native hand friendly to ferenji interests (just like his boss of course!) to keep them in check. <br /><br />The able reporter was not having any of that - she does her job and reports. She does not get all flustered and flattered as planned that an ambassador is taking the literally unprecedented step of encouraging prejudice against his own people to get her to like him and report reality as he sees it.<br /><br />The Ambassador then goes and gets all hurt that his ashattir (base trickery) did not work out and tries to spin that the issue is really that he "dared to be misunderstood" by an arrogant, culturally insensitive and possibly racist reporter. He pretends the wrong quote is the issue also - all of it rather unconvincingly.<br /><br />Nah, dude nobody is having any of that including your fellow cadres - the reporter understood you perfectly and so do Ethiopians and ferenjis the world over. Believe.<br /><br />Sammy ends with a fascinating pitch for free press. Reading it dear reader, you just know that he wishes he could just whisper to a few fellow cadres and shut down her paper or get her and her editors arrested. And you know, dear reader that he is looking over his shoulder at what Meles thinks of this whole mess that Sammy got himself into.<br /><br />Interestingly, one piece by Sammy is available in cached form only and thus gone from Addis Fortune for some mysterious reason - perhaps someone in the government that understood how absurd it was even for cadres to read - actually read it. It is presented in its entirety below - it is long but it is worth reading.<br /><br />...................................<br /><br /><a href="http://thehill.com/the-executive/ethiopian-human-rights-bill-stalls-2008-06-25.html">Ethiopian human rights bill stalls - Samuel Assefa, 'Ethiopian' Ambassador to the United States quoted in The Hill</a> <br /><blockquote> The task towards democracy isn’t going to be easy because our culture is lacking. </blockquote> <a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pieter_Willem_Botha">PW Botha quoted on the need for apartheid</a> <blockquote>Most blacks are happy, except those who have had other ideas pushed into their ears.</blockquote> <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2008/06/meles-up-mugabe-down-ethiopians-cant.html">Meles up, Mugabe down, ... - ethiopundit </a> <blockquote>If anyone believed that the government had actually won a single fake election what are the chances that Ethiopian culture would be blamed for Melesian rule? <br /><br />None at all. If anyone - anyone at all even pretended to believe a single word of election nonsense the fitness of Ethiopians for democracy would be shouted from the rooftops.</blockquote> <a href="http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:suA_dViYIWcJ:addisfortune.com/Viewpoint.htm+%22Dare+to+Be+Misunderstood%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client">Dare to Be Misunderstood - Samuel Assefa, 'Ethiopian' Ambassador to the United States quoted in Addis Fortune </a> <blockquote> One of my joys as Ethiopia’s Ambassador to the United States is to tell the story of the glories and encumbrances of our remarkable history, as well as of the lofty aspirations that inform the bold political experiment underway since the fall of tyranny less than two decades ago. Not infrequently, it is also a lesson in humility.<br /><br />The telling of our story to audiences, most notably, to journalists, with no patience for rich narratives and little understanding of Ethiopia, is as unavoidable as it is precarious.<br /><br />My latest effort at narration is instructive. An article published in The Hill, a Washington-based newspaper, quoted me saying, “I was naïve; I really thought that we were going to be a mainstream democracy overnight.” Addis Fortune,<strong> thinking no doubt that this was a strange thing for an Ambassador to say, ran the quote prominently along with my picture on its page - entirely absent of context.</strong><br /><br />Now, I made the statement to The Hill while discussing the 2005 elections. I was explaining my government’s sense of disappointment at the opposition’s squandering of a historic invitation to participate in building a democracy. Despite their huge electoral gains some, opposition leaders boycotted parliament and sought to overturn the decisions of the National Election Board through violence, mob action, and demagoguery that appealed to reprehensible instincts, rather than submitting their grievances to constitutionally mandated institutions, such as the courts. The results were tragic.<br /><br />Those who rejected democratic participation in Ethiopia are still recklessly seeking to upend the government through <strong>cynical manipulation of the international media</strong> and placing all their bets on the possibility of punitive legislation by the U.S. Congress, which was the subject of the article in The Hill.<br /><br />My point in discussing this is not to criticize the reporter or newspapers that published the quote. I believe, unequivocally, that a free press is a cornerstone of democratic institutions. It is a check on power, demands accountability and keeps politicians on their toes. That the press itself is difficult to hold accountable is a secondary problem.<br /><br />The reporter for The Hill was an earnest young woman, and no doubt well intentioned. She reminded me of the truism offered by British newspaper pioneer Lord Northcliffe, who once described journalism as, “a profession whose business it is to explain to others what it personally does not understand.” <br /><br />The misinterpretation of what I said offers some lessons about the perils and promise of Ethiopia’s ever more important efforts to tell its story to the world. The 16-word quote that the journalist chose to use for her story was one sentence uttered during the course of an hour-long interview. During that conversation, I provided her with extensive background about the history and current issues facing Ethiopia, recognizing that she would likely be writing for an audience with even less grasp of these complex issues than she had. <br /><br />Like most Western journalists, The Hill reporter is not expected to be an expert on Africa or Ethiopia. Her job is to develop instant expertise on a variety of topics. Moreover, as media compete ever harder for our shrinking attention, journalists face pressure to produce stories that are shorter, easier to understand and more “readable.” Far too often, that translates into the simple or the sensational.<br /><br />Communication is strengthened by narrative, but impatient U.S. journalists often find it easier to accept the brief, simple tales of those with the most outlandish or critical views.<br /><br />We Ethiopians are proud and tend to see ourselves as the center of the world. We regard bragging as a mark of bad upbringing, and believe that our deeds will speak for themselves, that eventually the truth will come out.<br /><br />Americans do not share these views. It is vexing that those in the United States who shape public opinion know little about Ethiopia. Journalists are quick to report the worst allegations against Ethiopia, in part, because that is what makes “news” and partly because some Ethiopians have chosen to loudly criticize from abroad, rather than participate in the democratic process available to them at home.<br /><br /><strong>This leads to an easy, and often truthful, conclusion: The press is not fair.<br /><br />It also would be easy, but entirely misguided, to recoil from that which we perceive as unfair. Yes, the press is unfair. One has to fight for fairness.</strong><br /><br />Silence will lead to the worst outcomes for Ethiopia, for if we do not tell our story, someone else will, our unscrupulous critics, who are working very hard to tell their distorted stories about Ethiopia will go unchallenged. <br /><br />There are numerous instances where energetic engagement with the media has resulted in articles on Ethiopia’s successes. Reuters, the global news agency, has written on Ethiopia’s successful campaign to eradicate malaria, which has been touted as a model for the developing world. Our remarkable partnerships with America’s leading coffee companies have been widely publicized, educating consumers all over the world about Ethiopia’s legendary coffees. America’s top business newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, recently ran a front-page article on the launch of our commodities exchange.<br /><br />The global marketplace and instant communications have made it not just desirable, but essential for Ethiopia to tell its story around the world. We should take every chance to explain what we are doing and why. We should be prepared to responds to issues as they arise quickly, professionally and effectively. <br /><br /><strong> So I say, dare to be misunderstood!</strong><br /><br />Sometimes, our words will be orphaned and our quotes botched. Sometimes we will be embarrassed and misunderstood. Sometimes our efforts will appear thankless. But, there is joy in this fight because it is a good fight. In the long run, our persistence will produce results.<br /><br />Paradoxically, the only solution to bad press is more press.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.adl.org/special_reports/duke_own_words/print.asp">David Duke In His Own Words - Anti-Defamation League </a> <blockquote>Increasingly independent black economic, cultural and political power gave Blacks more freedom to do what came natural to them. Divorced from White influence and culture, they reverted quickly to their genotype -- increasingly typical of black societies around the world. <br /><br />Males exhibited exaggerated sexual aggression and promiscuity that led to the dissolution of the Black nuclear family in America. Females reverted to the age-old African model of maternal provisioning of children. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2007/100481.htm"> Human Rights Report 2008 - US State Department</a> <blockquote>While the constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press, the government did not respect these rights in practice. The government continued to arrest, harass, and prosecute journalists, publishers, and editors. The government continued to control all broadcast media. Private and government journalists routinely practiced self‑censorship.</blockquote> <a href="http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/30/ethiop19228.htm">Government Prepares Assault on Civil Society - Human Rights Watch</a> <blockquote>Ethiopia’s government has already made meaningful public engagement in governance impossible in many areas by persecuting its critics and cracking down on freedom of expression and assembly. The clear intention of this legislation is to consolidate that trend by taking the ‘non’ out of ‘nongovernmental’ and putting civil society under government control.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.cpj.org/attacks07/africa07/eth07.html">Attacks on the Press 2007 Ethiopia - Committee to Protect Journalists </a><blockquote>On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, CPJ named Ethiopia the world’s worst backslider on press freedom over the previous five years. In addition to the 15 journalists arrested in 2005, the country has locked up numerous editors and writers for months at a time on defamation and other charges that sometimes date back several years. <br /><br />The list of problems goes on: ... For journalists, “reality” meant ongoing government intimidation. ... Harassment and imprisonment have led many of Ethiopia’s top journalists to go into exile. ... The foreign press corps was often forced to practice self-censorship </blockquote> <a href="http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25387">Annual Report 2008 - Reporters Without Borders </a><blockquote>Heavy prison sentences are always inflicted on those who an easily influenced court system considers guilty of “defamation” or “publishing false news”. Self-censorship is constant. <br /><br />Foreign correspondents based in Ethiopia have to take care not to embarrass the government, which is facing a raft of military problems in the provinces and the region, and which reacts with extreme harshness towards journalists it views as dangerous. ... <br /><br />even for ordinary press cases, the Ethiopian government has a harsh legislative arsenal at its disposal and is prepared to use it to get rid of awkward journalists and it has become commonplace for it to dig up old cases. </blockquote> ...............................<br /><br />Can you imagine the Ambassador of any other country on earth stating that the culture of his own people was too 'lacking' for democracy? No one from Stalin to Mobutu, no matter how much he actually hated his own people, would ever have said such at thing - but Ethiopia's 'representative' believes it.<br /><br />The stumbling attempts of dissociation from one of the most honest statements about the Meles Inc. mindset is rather pathetic. Pity would be misplaced though because the reporter from the Hill put it all in perfect context and she understood him perfectly. <br /><br />Despite Sammy's very best slick <a href="http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/">Steppin' Fetchit </a> routine the power of a free press and internet exposed him and his government exactly as they are. <br /><br />Aside from being one of the coven of 'intellectuals' that give cover to Meles with ferenjis Sammy in his role as Ambassador also supervises the illegal intelligence apparatus of Meles Inc. in the US to silence and intimidate diaspora critics - all paid for with US taxpayer dollars. <br /><br />Actually, to be fair he might not exactly run that shop although he is certainly an active participant in it. We would bet that there is a rezident style superior cadre answering directly to Arat Kilo and Meles himself at the Embassy. This person Sammy fears as sincerely as he does Meles himself (during the Cold War a Rezident was the KGB Chief of Station who really ran the Embassy).<br /><br />.....................................<br /><br />The term <strong>agonistes</strong> <blockquote>is most often an allusion to John <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton">Milton</a>'s 1671 verse tragedy "Samson Agonistes," which recounts the end of Samson's life, when he is a blind captive of the Philistines (famous line: "Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves"). The struggle that "Samson Agonistes" centers upon is the effort of Samson to renew his faith in God's support.</blockquote> The only faith here is that of Sammy in the man he has accepted as his personal savior, the dictator and thug Meles Zenawi and the only struggle here is Sammy's willingness to do everything possible to serve Meles Zenawi. <br /><br />So really though, the most appropriate literary reference here is to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy#Inferno">Dante's Divine Comedy and the Inferno</a>. <br /><br />The most appropriate allusion to be made here is one about which circle of hell cadres end up in. Such mendacity and such spin as the supposed representative of Ethiopia generated literally digs a deeper and deeper hole in the ground ... one must wonder how far it goes.<br /><br />.......................................<br /><br /><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050120-1.html">President Sworn-In to Second Term - from the White House web site here are the words of President George W. Bush</a> <blockquote>All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.</blockquote> Mr. President - we suppose people like this really must set foot in the White House because that is how diplomacy works. But - must American tax dollars, power, and prestige keep them in business?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-82503656425118769722008-06-29T14:19:00.000-07:002008-06-30T17:07:20.285-07:00Meles up, Mugabe down, Ethiopians can't swim, they bound to drizzown<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFTe82DftTMN8T3h-oyE4eWDFKnmP0IGRiodfz28k_fvLqPe3RgamzqbZNOCu2iELOcwI4GLQXscvuylMzClwaUSnztiNc9CCPKivZ4sysz7Wm5DxS4QrhUkB9HK-pKcxjqz5rQ/s1600-h/drizown.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJFTe82DftTMN8T3h-oyE4eWDFKnmP0IGRiodfz28k_fvLqPe3RgamzqbZNOCu2iELOcwI4GLQXscvuylMzClwaUSnztiNc9CCPKivZ4sysz7Wm5DxS4QrhUkB9HK-pKcxjqz5rQ/s400/drizown.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217416533401944354" /></a><br /> <strong><em>Meles up, Mugabe down, Ethiopians can't swim, they bound to drizzown </em> ... witness the World Bank, President Bush, Meles, Armey and Gephardt stepping out in the hypocrisy game ... no wonder Mugabe is unhappy not to be included ... how fair is it to leave Mugabe out of the global playas club when Meles is a charter member who gets invited to the G-8 and everything? <em>Lyrics with apologies to Snoop Dogg.</em> </strong><br /><br />.............................................<br /><br />The US is very upset about Robert Mugabe's behavior and is about to expand sanctions against Mugabe Inc. for being an "illegitimate" government that just won a "sham election". The Queen has even taken away his knighthood while the world's moralizing voices in the press and power that don't feel the silly tug of 'third world solidarity' are speaking up as well. While Mbeki remains as loyal to Mugabe as Mugabe is to Mengistu, Mandela has spoke up as well. Even Kenya has urged the AU to suspend him.<br /><br />But ... in a sense it is so dreadfully unfair to Mugabe isn't it? What did Mugabe ever do since he became Africa's designated bad guy about eight years ago that Meles has not been doing for seventeen years now? Let us go through the list shall we: <br /><br />-Illegitimate government? Check! <br />-Sham elections? Check! <br />-Police state with terrible human rights violations? Check! <br />-A state based on ethnic / tribal / racial divide and rule? Check! <br />-Mass structural corruption? Check! <br />-A fount of lies? Check!<br />-Lethal hostility to labor unions and civil society? Check!<br /><br />There are only two difference between Meles and Mugabe. The first is that Meles plays up to ferenjis studiously and dutifully and Mugabe does not. This allows Meles to feed at the trough of the aid generated by his enforced famine and poverty but either Mugabe is being watched more carefully or Meles is felt to have earned his graft honestly.<br /><br />The second is clear from the following statement of fact: if Mugabe suddenly discovered a new front in the War Against Terror next door he would immediately be placed on the protected dictators list just like Meles. <br /><br />Despite wishes to the contrary this truism is absolutely bipartisan. <br /><br />Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright and Susan Rice were just as comfortable with Meles in their day as George Bush, Condoleeza Rice and Vicki / Jendayi are with him today. It is hard to see how McCain could be different or Obama different either. Note that Susan Rice is Obama's top adviser on Africa. Either candidate is likely to find Ethiopia a convenient setting for low expectations and presumed tough realpolitik.<br /><br />This blog is quite determined on the matter of the War Against Terror. Fighting it, however, should not mean that the likes of Meles Zenawi thinks that it is open season on Ethiopians. Senator Feingold {Democrat - Wisconsin) observed <blockquote>Indeed, one look at the deteriorating situation on the Horn of Africa and it is clear just how essential our relationship with Ethiopia really is. <br /><br />Unfortunately, the Bush Administration’s approach to strengthening and building bilateral ties with Ethiopia has been short-sighted and narrow. <br /><br />As in other parts of the world, the Administration’s counter-terrorism agenda dominates the relationship, while poor governance and human rights concerns get a pass. </blockquote> How about the Senior State Department Official who told Human Rights Watch with stunning honesty that<blockquote> Ethiopia's human rights record is 'not a factor' in the bilateral relationship.</blockquote> Congressman Smith (Republican - New Jersey} had this to say <blockquote>No regime that terrorizes its own citizens can be a reliable ally in the war on terror.</blockquote> and whatever happened to the President's<blockquote> All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.</blockquote> Ethiopia's dictatorship is spending millions of dollars with the lobbying firm DLA Piper to defend its interests and its presumed right to money from American taxpayers. This essay by <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/08/HR2003.html">Dagmawi on HR 2003</a> describes it all rather well.<br /><br />Remember this money was stolen in the first place from Ethiopians by Meles Inc. Meles Inc. owns the government, the ruling revolutionary party, every square inch of the land, all but a tiny portion of the private economic sector, dominates the economy with the public sector with a monopoly that dwarfs Mengistu's, that gets all aid contracts and invests its own money abroad. <br /><br />That flood of money going out exceeds all foreign investment which aside from hurrahs and headlines about land (taken from farmers no one talks about) being seeded with roses for Europe - FDI in Ethiopia is at subterranean levels. Per capita FDI in Somalia exceeds that of Ethiopia.<br /><br />This whole nasty system is enforced with a structure of planned brutality & corruption made with government institutions, a party apparatus, and businessmen who are interchangeable and indeed all members of the revolutionary feudal aristocracy.<br /><br />Lobbying itself is not the issue and Armey / Gephardt / DLA Piper are not the issue either. From organizations like the Hellenic Institute and AIPAC onto relative newcomers such as Ethiopian-Americans active in the political process, lobbying by interested communities is fundamental to the way American politics works and is entirely honorable.<br /><br />However, things are different when a foreign despot such as Meles Zenawi uses money stolen from his own people and siphoned from American foreign aid to hire lobbyists in Washington D.C. to protect himself from the consequences of his mass violence. There we are are not talking about anything remotely honorable but rather something fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic.<br /><br />This from <a href="http://thehill.com/the-executive/ethiopian-human-rights-bill-stalls-2008-06-25.html">Ethiopian human rights bill stalls - The Hill</a> <blockquote>The Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007 passed in the House last October. Human rights groups have joined CUD [Coalition for Unity and Democracy - Ethiopia's Democratic Opposition] officials here in promoting the bill. Even so, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has yet to take the measure up.<br /><br />“To a large extent, this bill represents a serious attempt by Congress to push back against the administration’s unconscionable silence about Ethiopia’s dismal human rights record,” said Chris Albin-Lackey, African researcher for Human Rights Watch. “It is both welcome and overdue.”<br /><br />The government of Ethiopia has fought back by retaining DLA Piper for $50,000 a month. Since March 2007, DLA has collected more than $1.3 million from the east African country.<br /><br />Lobbyists for Ethiopia circulated a memo on Capitol Hill stating that the bill could undermine U.S. national security interests. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R[epublican - Texas) is among the DLA lobbyists working on behalf of Ethiopia.</blockquote> Add Richard Gephardt (Democrat - Missouri) to the Meles Inc. lobbyists list as well. All are assiduously working on behalf of a dictatorship for money. If there was no war on terror they would have another excuse for why their moneybags client should be left alone. <br /><br />For all the great good these men did their country in their decades of public service they have found in the private sector an amoral stream of cash in selling their knowledge and connections to the highest bidder - no matter who it is apparently. We supposed this is considered just recompense for all the money they did not make in Congress all of those years.<br /><br />From <a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2007/07/hbc-90000631">Bipartisan Duo of Ex-Congressional Heavyweights Blocking Action Against Ethiopia - Harper's</a> <blockquote>In 2006, the House International Relations Committee approved the Ethiopia Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights Advancement Act, which criticized the government for its human rights record, called for it to free jailed opposition leaders and restricted security assistance. But the full House never voted on the bill. <br /><br />Two sources that follow the issue–one a former Hill staffer and the other a lobbyist on African affairs–tell me that Armey twisted the arm of then-House Speaker Denny Hastert to ensure that it didn’t come up for a vote. “Armey has a lot of influence over there,” the former Hill staffer said. “A lot of people in the GOP leadership owe their positions to him.”<br /><br />Armey has no pull with the new Democratic leadership so now Gephardt has apparently been called on to block full passage of this year’s version of the bill. Gephardt, incidentally, also lobbies for the government of Turkey (another Piper client to the tune of $100,000 per month) [Meles Inc. is paying $50,000 a month], as was recently detailed in a terrific New Republic piece in which author Michael Crowley wrote about Gephardt’s efforts to stop Congress from declaring as genocide the Turkish massacre of Armenians during the early twentieth century. </blockquote>The Ambassador of Meles Inc. to the US, Samuel Assefa, admits that Ethiopia is no democracy or even that such a development is desired. You see, dear reader, Ethiopians simply can't be trusted with such a thing because according to Mini-Meles Ethiopian culture is dysfunctional and it would be bad for the US to respect the wishes of Ethiopians: <blockquote><strong>“The task towards democracy isn’t going to be easy because our culture is lacking.</strong> We went from empire to monarchy to Marxism-Leninism,” said Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian ambassador to the United States. <br /><br />“I was naïve; I really thought we were going to be a mainstream democracy overnight.” But Assefa said the legislation will hurt, not help, Ethiopia’s efforts to promote democracy and could destabilize the region.<br /><br />“The bill would undermine regional stability by severing vital security cooperation between Ethiopia and the U.S.,” said Assefa. “Its champions are those who are advocates of trying another course besides political avenues for expressing whatever political wrongs they seek. This is a misguided approach.”</blockquote> Got that? This is the supposed Ambassador of a country saying it is no democracy and that pressing the issue would cause the 'severing' security ties with the US. AS IF! The Ambassador's salary is paid for by US aid as is just about every item in the Ethiopian budget. <br /><br />Meles Inc. has nowhere to turn to without American help. There is also a frank threat to American interests here that is bound around the idea that Meles is willing to burn down the proverbial Ethiopian house if he is not in charge. He already has to be begged and threatened to treat Ethiopians like human beings.<br /><br />Note the subtle lie that those who ask for Ethiopian democracy are "seeking another course besides political avenues". This is supposed to mean that the democratic opposition is violent. Actually, Meles Inc. holds a monopoly on violence in Ethiopia and uses it freely in political, economic and all other avenues.<br /><br />This is all code for insisting on all playing by despotic rules which demand absolute submission of the kind Samuel made so deeply and sincerely in finding Meles as the savior almost two decades ago. <br /><br />That submission and a keen willingness to lie to ferenjis in the very best English while giving pseudo-intelelctual cover to an oppressive regime and being a designated overseer over native Ethiopians at the University - all got him junior league revolutionary feudal aristocrat status ... and he will say anything to keep it.<br /><br />Samuel Assefa himself is absolutely representative of what is lacking in Ethiopia for normal political and economic development that humans on every continent enjoy every day. His willingness to sell himself to a thug for a title and crony status is interpreted by him as emblematic of what is wrong with all Ethiopians. <br /><br />If anyone believed that the government had actually won a single fake election what are the chances that Ethiopian culture would be blamed for Melesian rule? None at all. If anyone - anyone at all even pretended to believe a single word of election nonsense the fitness of Ethiopians for democracy would be shouted from the rooftops.<br /><br />No Sammy baby, it is not Ethiopians and Ethiopian culture that is wrong - it is you and all the others cadres for sale that are wrong with Ethiopia. You say, dear Sammy, that you were naive when you once allegedly thought Ethiopians had a chance at what other humans routinely enjoy. Well your faux wisdom today doesn't even deserve to be called ignorance. <br /><br />Your pursuit of Meles's interests and your identification in the crumbs that fall from his table tower above any interests of Ethiopians - that is clear.<br /><br />The non-violent record of the Ethiopian democratic opposition is spotless. Samuel's slick words and defense of Ethiopian unsuitability for rule by anyone else but his own master are vile. This is what passes for the representative of 70 million desperate and oppressed Ethiopian people. There is an old story of one of Meles's first delegates to a {then} OAU conference in 1991 making clear his distaste when the roll call associated his presence with Ethiopia. We really believe that story now.<br /><br />Low expectations of Ethiopians is the bread and butter of Meles's rule. Everyone, at least every government, is willing to play along. It is kind of like giving away vast segments of Ethiopian territory in the dead of the night and when caught apologizing to the Sudanese regime for so long having illegally occupied Sudanese land. Meles actually did that so who can be surprised at what his goons have to say.<br /><br />It gets worse. How about this bit of now routine absurdity? From <br /><a href="http://ethiomedia.com/all/6139.html">Ethiomedia - DLA Piper's man embarrased at EU hearing</a> <blockquote>European parliamentary committees of Human rights, Development and ACP-EU representatives attended the hearing [The European Union parliamentary hearing held in Brussels June 26 on the ever worsening political and human rights situation in Ethiopia]. <br /><br />Representatives of the International crisis group and several Ethiopians also attended the hearing. Meles Zenawi's representatives didn't dare to appear and face Dr. Berhanu. However, the Zenawi regime sent two from its multi-million paid lobby firm, DLA Piper to shamefully represent it.<br /><br />"I am from lobby firm DLA Piper. I have a question to you and Ms Ana Gomes. Why don't you fight the government in Ethiopia, like Professor Mesfin does, than from Diaspora?" Zenawi's lobbyist Asked.<br /><br />The presence of a DLA Piper lobbyist at such hearing was very strange. "We have never seen you in any of our sessions before," The UK Labor Party spokesperson and Co-President of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP/EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Glenys Kinnock, told the lobbyist. Glenys has also backed the recent Human Rights Watch report that criticizes the EU executives for being silent over the crimes against humanity being committed by Meles Zenawi regime.<br /><br />"In Portugal, we also had the same brutal dictatorial regime as the Meles Zenawi's," the Honorable Anna Gomes responded to the lobbyist. "We fought it both from inside and out side." As a chief of the European observer mission to the 2005 polls in Ethiopia, Ms. Anna said Kinijit leaders had won the elections. "Berhanu would have been in power. But the regime put him in jail." Anna added. <br /><br />Dr. Berhanu on his part told the lobbyist: "You were doing everything to kill HR 2003. You earn money by defending a corrupt and criminal regime at the expense of the misery of millions of the Ethiopian poor." Berhanu further elaborated the crimes of the regime until the lobbyist made an apology. <br /><br />"We don't want to fight a regime within the rule of the game created in favour of it. We don't want to fight in a framework of what the regime wants us to be."</blockquote> Amazing?! DLA Piper actually sends people to a hearing at the EU to defend Meles Inc. The DLAP people actually get in and have the nerve to speak up. Note the words used which deserve repetition : <strong><blockquote>"I am from lobby firm DLA Piper. I have a question to you and Ms Ana Gomes. Why don't you fight the government in Ethiopia, like Professor Mesfin does, than from Diaspora?" </blockquote></strong> These words are straight from the cadre play book which can be found at party websites, EPRDF newspapers, ETV news, and the mouths of cadres everywhere. <br /><br />Imagine these (we imagine) freshly scrubbed ambitious young graduates - the veritable best and brightest of America's very finest schools putting it all out there for a foreign dictator in his very own words and even working in the requisite party line about the diaspora. <br /><br />It is a wonder that they didn't start spouting on about revolutionary democracy, the essential illegitimacy of Ethiopia, and how Ethiopians culturally don't deserve democracy, the evils of rent seeking by anyone but Meles or how the neo-liberal paradigm of development is dead. <br /><br />Given enough cash of course they would have. Given enough cash stained with the blood, sweat and tears of an entire nation of human beings DLA Piper would represent anyone as long as no one was looking too closely. When it comes to Ethiopian suffering one must wonder if it is like the veritable tree falling in a forest.<br /><br />Working within the framework of Ethiopian government is simply not to be distinguished from submitting to the dictatorship of Meles Inc. After all every dictator in history from Mao to Mobutu to Mengistu to Milosevic also had a constitutional order, laws, courts, election boards, etc. etc. etc. Would DLAP have represented them? <br /><br />Why not?<br /><br />All those institutions of all those despotisms were equally meaningless and about as meaningful as Meles and his government's interests in the welfare of the nation it rules. Shame on Armey, Gephardt et al. for their part in this ugly business for the sake of a quick buck. Along with Ethiopians one of the main victims of all of this is poor Robert Mugabe.<br /><br />Mugabe is an S.O.B. for sure who hates the people he rules. But Meles is also without doubt an S.O.B. who hates the people he rules. Never forget the following statement of fact: if Mugabe suddenly discovered a new front in the War Against Terror next door he would immediately be placed on the protected dictators list just like Meles.<br /><br />Everyone who is anyone is outraged by what Chinese involvement in Africa means to human rights and specifically by China's insistence on vetoing any Security Council resolution against Mugabe. We are outraged by that too - but how about all the fine liberal democracies out there who keep Meles going and don't even consider resolutions for his greater crimes?<br /><br />Who is outraged about that?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-24597299407402826762008-06-15T13:51:00.000-07:002008-06-15T16:26:00.285-07:00Country for Sale<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLU5PAlduqD_v-IkbsvGOPyrZkPsG5a91J8YIhslvLdM6Dyb01O9flkazLMeFMZBRcoxavMH3jSIq4mVuPhCIdjv2hAGOJGF7nGxAM5QvZQqKOMC2sgolnpKUzoIFR1sJbKV_I8w/s1600-h/forsalepost.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLU5PAlduqD_v-IkbsvGOPyrZkPsG5a91J8YIhslvLdM6Dyb01O9flkazLMeFMZBRcoxavMH3jSIq4mVuPhCIdjv2hAGOJGF7nGxAM5QvZQqKOMC2sgolnpKUzoIFR1sJbKV_I8w/s400/forsalepost.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212213985996759298" /></a> <strong><em>... the prime auctioneer at work ... after all it is his country ... he owns every piece of it ...</em></strong> <blockquote><strong>"What did the last Neanderthal say to the first Cro-Magnon?"</strong><br />From the Amazing X-Men ca. 1969</blockquote><blockquote><strong>"Buy land AJ, cause God ain't making any more of it"</strong><br />Tony Soprano to his son</blockquote>........................................................<br /><br />After the Battle of Adwa Italian prisoners of war were sent back to Italy by Emperor Menelik. Before they left he ordered that all of the Italians have their feet washed to make sure they did not leave with even dust from Ethiopian land on them. <br /><br />Emperor Yohannes spent his life defending Ethiopia from invasion from all quarters and died fighting a Mahdist invasion from the Sudan. For literally thousands of years Ethiopians of every ethnicity and religion have defended Ethiopian independence and sovereignty at great cost.<br /><br />Perhaps all of history is a bit too much to deal with for the purposes of this post so let us stick with the era of world history after World War II. Many wars have been fought and so much ink spilled over the subjects of sovereignty and national self-determination in that time.<br /><br />Since the war to our count there have been numerous instances where countries have taken over others in whole or in part - or tried to do so. China and Tibet are examples of this as are Britain, Argentina, and the Falklands.<br /><br />There are many cases where countries have had territorial disputes brought to international forums where parties have left for home in a very unhappy state. Eritrea, Yemen, and the Hanish Islands are examples of this as are Indonesia and Timor.<br /><br />One thing is clear throughout all of these examples. Have you, dear reader, ever heard of a country just giving away its land to anyone? Countries do things when they are forced to and when they lose in battle or in court but they never, ever just up and tear pieces of themselves off.<br /><br />This is even true at the risk of war and great economic hardship. National sovereignty is respected and cherished in our world in the same way that individual human life should be respected in all societies. <br /><br />A government that can't protect its country's borders is hardly considered worthy of rule anywhere. A country that can't protect its own borders is not only in trouble for the next news cycle - its very existence becomes a matter of doubt.<br /><br />All democracies get this. Morocco tried to intimidate Spain into giving up a few coastal islands recently and the Spanish very politely sent in their Marines. What do you think would happen if China tried to take the tiniest Pacific atoll from Japan tomorrow?<br /><br />Even dictators get this - from the point where national existence intersects with their own interests and mission. Neither Stalin nor Mengistu would have voluntarily given up an inch of Soviet or Ethiopian territory regardless of the lessons from the craven deal Lenin made with the Kaiser's Germany.<br /><br />How is it that Ethiopia has become ruled by a regime that not only does not get this point but is decidedly hostile at every turn to Ethiopian interests?<br /><br />A decade ago Eritrea invaded and after a bitter bloody expensive war it did not start - Ethiopia won. The Ethiopian regime then submitted the national fate and the land that was the very reason for the war to a foreign arbitration that the victor lost. Can you imagine any other government ever doing such a thing after its own country had been the victim and after it had won?<br /><br />Since then the Ethiopian government has made its own commitment to the Eritrean cause its priority in profound terms of affection and commitment that have never been heard from it for Ethiopia itself. This is true regardless of the state of relations with the Eritrean government. <br /><br />Back when Meles was leading the TPLF from the salons of Khartoum and London the surest way for one of hundreds of his subordinates to die was not to face Mengistu's army but to speak ill of the EPLF. During the most recent war, the TPLF itself saw purges at the top for the crimes of considering Ethiopian interests against long term Eritrean ones.<br /><br />When the war began, Meles responded to foreign criticism of the war's consumption of scarce resources ('two bald men fighting over a comb') by saying that a country "did not have to wait for full tummy's before defending its sovereignty". Very true and understandable to every admirer of any country throughout time yes, but coming from Meles, a rather disingenuous sound bite.<br /><br />Our thesis is that Meles simply doesn't give a damn. His only constituency is himself, a few of his revolutionary aristocracy who mind keep their place while doing his dirty work, and Western donors who pay for it all. <br /><br />Several years ago there were reports that Ethiopia was about to give up land to the Sudan. The Ethiopian government denied this vehemently and most figured that even Meles wouldn't do this. <br /><br />After all Mengistu could have been in power indefinitely if he had just made a deal with the EPLF in the 80's for Eritrean independence. Meles could not be expected to sink to depths that Mengistu would not.<br /><br />Well ... in the past few months a few things have happened. Claims were made that Ethiopia had actually ceded territory to Sudan. The Ethiopian government denied it. The Sudanese regime's response was "yeah sure".<br /><br />The Ethiopian government denied reports of Ethiopian villagers being chased off of their land by Sudanese soldiers and of villages being burned and livestock taken. The Sudanese just kept quiet and kept rolling their armed forces into Ethiopia.<br /><br />Finally groups of Ethiopian-Americans and Israelis who ran commercial farms in border regions along with percolating newsmen reported what they had seen. So the Ethiopian government came clean and admitted that a large territory from south of Humera to Illubabor had been given to the Sudan. <br /><br />Remember, dear reader, that when Ethiopians suffer and die it is like a tree falling in the forest - no one hears or at the very most everyone easily ignores the sounds. When moral and vocal ferenjis or those whom ferenjis listen to say something it matters. The only time this is not the case is when Ethiopian suffering translates into cold hard cash such as reported famines caused by the government itself.<br /><br />One of the most ridiculous defenses of the policy came from one of the all too typical public relations cadre who said that Ethiopian farmers had been consulted on the land give away to Sudan and that the farmers had all agreed to it. This is like the government survey of Ethiopian farmers reported years ago where all thought that the current land policy where the government owned all land was simply brilliant.<br /><br />Both surveys / consultations are like possible polls of slaves in the American South conducted by overseers that would have surely found unanimous black support for slavery. This is the kind of thing that dictators say because they know it gives immoral bureaucrats and reporters from around the world something to chew on and to pretend to believe.<br /><br />The governments corps of cadres believe what they are told less than anyone else but having made their beds they choose to stay in them as long as someone else is cold and getting hurt. The government knows that no one believes it but so low are expectations of decent government in Ethiopia from anyone that it all passes by seemingly unnoticed.<br /><br />What other country on earth could have imaginably given away its own land with such a poor bodyguard of lies to go with it and then thuggish shrugs of boredom to deal with the truth? <br /><br />What is most remarkable about this is that no one is a bit surprised at what Meles would do. <br /><br />What pressing need was there to make a deal ceding territory to the Sudan? Decades ago Ethiopia agreed on border treaties with Sudan that kept all of the borders and Ethiopian sovereignty intact. Mengistu did not follow up to sign a treaty but, however busy he was killing Ethiopians, he was not about to go back and give up large areas of national territory.<br /><br />When Meles came in his perspective was different. In essence his problem with Mengistu was that he thought he was the real communist and Mengistu an illegitimate pretender. However, his essential hostility to Ethiopia's existence was greater than Mengistu's.<br /><br />Perhaps the argument that Sudan's borders were colonial determined resonated with Meles because he views Ethiopia as just an example of black colonialism. Certainly that is his position when he does not need to rally Ethiopians to fight and die for him.<br /><br />The Ethiopian constitution defines the country as a mistakenly associated collection of tribes who can secede at any moment in groups as large as entire ethnicities to ones as small as a group of kids who play soccer together in a school yard. The only thing holding them together is the current government and revolutionary democracy. In practice like all other aspects of Ethiopian government this is, of course, just another lie.<br /><br />Ethiopia's government is one of the greatest violators of human rights on the planet. It is one of the most corrupt governments on earth. It has one of the least attractive settings for foreign investment anywhere. The public sector dominates more of the economy than almost any country besides North Korea. What remains and what is termed a private sector is owned by the same people who run the government and their most obedient servants.<br /><br />This whole incestuous mess is regulated, taxed, judged, chosen, managed, and run by and for the same small revolutionary aristocracy who don't even bother to change hats between jobs. A few fellow travelers and hangers on jockey and connive for crony status and the crumbs that fall from the tables of the tribal nobility. They are fine with it all as long as someone else is getting screwed over and know that they have blood on their hands too.<br /><br />Since there is no private property in Ethiopia that means the government owns all of the land and since the country is a dictatorship that means Meles owns all of the land. <br /><br />It is hard to imagine what Sudan could have done to Ethiopian interests if Ethiopia had refused to give this land away. A Sudanese invasion was not possible and as far as subversion from Sudanese territory is concerned, well ... that has been a constant for Ethiopian governments for countless centuries now. <br /><br />The only time that was ever different was when Ethiopia's liberation from Italy was supported from British Sudan in the 40's. The issue has never been the Sudanese but that Sudanese governments, like Meles, have always defined their interests in opposition to Ethiopia's interests.<br /><br />Was Meles scared Sudan would take him to the World Court? Unlikely. They hadn't do so in all those years and given his refusal to obey a ruling for Eritrea a few years ago the idea that anyone would force him to give land to the likes of Sudan was really not a possibility.<br /><br />Was he worried about Sudanese support for a hostile Eritrea supporting nasty jihadists in Somalia? No - as we have said worrying about Sudanese policy on either matter is for Ethiopian policy makers like worrying about whether or not the sun will come up tomorrow.<br /><br />It simply does not make sense to a rational observer. That is unless the observer remains rational but realizes that the players are not playing by normal rules of humanity. Meles has made thousands of decisions as senior cadre of the TPLF that hurt Tigrayans in particular and thousands more decisions as dictator that hurt Ethiopians in general. <br /><br />Is it really such a stretch to see that to him this is just another selfish decision? Meles has a parliament, supreme court, ministries, elections, etc. and we all know they are covers for his selfish and bloody business of eternal glory, rule, and enrichment.<br /><br />So just because land is sacred to billions of other human beings from Guatemala to Vietnam - it does not naturally follow that it is so to Meles. Land matters to him where it means personal power and where it attracts or squeezes out cash.<br /><br />The only possible motive that would make Meles give up Ethiopian land is his personal interests. <br /><br />We don't have bank account numbers or transfer records at hand but we believe without a doubt that a few drops from the billions of oil dollars flooding Sudan have found there way to the personal accounts of Meles and those he trusts implicitly, be they his beards, anonymous holding company directors, shell busines directors, and investment managers worldwide.<br /><br />There is simply no other explanation for why a country in the early 21st century would with no pressure on it whatsoever just give away part of itself. Remember no one said anything about a deal being made or Ethiopia getting anything in exchange. <br /><br />If there are secret terms or a hidden codicil to this agreement it can only be that Ethiopia has promised to give away more land in the future. A few million dollars are Euros may seem like a cheap price to pay so Meles probably held out for more than that. <br /><br />What is the money, even if it is hundreds of millions, to the Sudanese regime? <br /><br />Cash literally pours out of the ground in the billions there in a veritable flood of wealth they have to share with no one. The Sudanese regime is like that of Meles not fond of the people it rules but they they would never question the essential legitimacy of Sudan to exist or consider giving any of it away.<br /><br />Having found a fellow thug in Addis Ababa who hates his own people and country even more than themselves - they made a great deal while they could before Ethiopian government ever managed to regain a semblance of interest in the Ethiopian national interest. <br /><br />Whatever happens in Sudan's future - Sudan has more land now and the precedent has been established for taking land from Ethiopians. In this most elementary function, Sudan's government has even in its brutal rule given evidence of appreciation of an instinctive mission of all governments not to lose land.<br /><br />Whatever happens now in Ethiopia's future - Ethiopia has less land and yet another precedent has been established for dismantling Ethiopia and giving away land. In this most elementary function, Meles Inc. has given evidence of appreciation of its own instinctive mission to sacrifice Ethiopian interest in favor of personal and corporate ones.<br /><br />The most amazing thing about this is that no one is surprised a bit. Basically, there are no depths that Meles could sink to that would surprise any one out here. <br /><br />We have said in the past that Mengistu's time was Zemene Awre - the Era of the Beast. Meles's time is Zemene Ashattir - the Era of the Trickster, the Corrupt, the Liars, and the Casual Killers. We believe that is true now more than ever.<br /><br />One perhaps comforting way of looking at this is to just not bother. After all who are we to quibble about Meles disposing of his own property in any way he likes?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-84677662016022915152008-05-04T05:02:00.000-07:002008-05-07T17:35:52.945-07:00Attack of the Honest Lawyer ...<strong>... or the Adventures of an American Law Professor in Melesian Higher Eduction. </strong><br /><br />The first part of this post is largely drawn from <a href="http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/01/linking-rights-and-foreign-aid-for.php">Linking Rights and Foreign Aid for Ethiopia: The Case of HR 2003 - The Juris of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law</a> Abigail Salisbury, was until recently, a visiting Professor at the Mekele <em>"University Law Faculty"</em> (MULF herein). <br /><br />The only thing we know for sure about that fancy institutional title is that it is in fact in Mekele. Consider the following passage and it will be abundantly clear why the term <em>University Law Faculty</em> is in italics and quotation marks in the previous sentence. <blockquote>... I sat down to read and grade the mid-term essays of the students in my International Human Rights Law classes. Because all of the <strong>instructors at Ethiopian universities are made to sign a contract that we will never say anything against the government or ruling party</strong>, I had been very careful in wording my assignment.</blockquote> Manifestly, this is no regular law school - except for those tragic ersatz institutions in places like North Korea and Syria perhaps whose purpose is to provide written documentation for totalitarian whims. <br /><br />Even then, one must assume that the hereditary dictatorship of the Assads might brutally enforce such rules without actually putting them in writing while the hereditary dictatorship of the Jungs would assume that such submission was assumed by the right of their slaves to breathe air.<br /><br />Imagine that any academic institution from the local kids' Montessori School to Oxford or anywhere else in the world required such contracts. Outside of North Korea and Syria no one would ever fail to be outraged at such strictures. Outside of Ethiopia it is remarkable that anyone has noticed them at all.<br /><br />It takes a special kind of government / party, defined by absolute arrogance born of thuggish instincts, massive insecurity, and absolute fear to have academics sign such a contract. MULF is just one tiny brick in the edifice of lies upon which the government and rule of Meles Zenawi is founded. <br /><br />Ethiopia also has an office of Prime Minister, a Parliament, a Supreme Court, an Election Board, a <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">Commodities Exchange</a>, a Central Statistical Office, etc. etc. - the existence of each of these is just as meaningless as that of MULF. Dictators always know that they have to pretend to be civilized and have civilized institutions - especially dictators who depend on democracies to stay in power.<br /><br />The result in Ethiopia is not developing or evolving institutions having growing pains but a mass Potemkin Inferno of falsity and suffering. It is however usually more than enough to satisfy most unquestioning ferenji journalists and complicit ferenji bureaucrats who help arrange payments to Meles for the whole thing to go on and on. <br /><br />The Ethiopian civil contract is not between rulers and ruled it is between ferenjis and Meles Inc. As long as Ethiopia remains poor enough for billions in aid, no one speaks too loudly about who is making her poorer or who gets all the wealth - as long as the natives are beaten and buried out of earshot and downwind from ferenji embassies - the payments can go on forever and will. <br /><br />As Professor Salisbury notes, a few fine ferenjis have gone and messed with the program. She was invited to <blockquote> participate in a panel discussion on H.R. 2003, also known as the Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007. This American bill, passed in October by the US House of Representatives and now before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would withdraw nonessential assistance from Ethiopia until its government fulfills various human rights obligations as set forth by Congress. <br />... <br />[s]ome Ethiopians react badly to this, <em>[in our humble opinion, 'Ethiopians' in this context means cadres, the terrorized, or those dreaming of the golden ring of crony status and returned property]</em> go farther, though, stating that the bill amounts to coercion or intimidation, reaching the level of interference and threats against Ethiopia. <br /><br />While I do not believe that the bill was meant to intimidate, it was clearly intended to persuade the Ethiopian government to change its ways, using economic restrictions as a tool. </blockquote> The most fascinating part of the discussion is what she noticed about the sense of supposed betrayal present <blockquote>There is a sense amongst many of the foreign aid workers whom I have met here that Ethiopians have developed a sense of entitlement. It is true that this could just be stressed people complaining about the locals to let off steam. <br /><br />However, during the H.R. 2003 discussion forum there seemed to be a general assumption that Ethiopia is entitled to American aid. Throughout all the exploration of the various legal issues involved, no one ever doubted that the money belongs to the Ethiopian people. <br /><br />When I worked up the courage to mention the issue, I was rather strongly told that America has a moral obligation to provide assistance to Ethiopia. </blockquote> Professor Salisbury notes that even within the US itself that "federal aid often comes with strings attached for the states which accept them." It is amazing that deep into a second generation of proto-or actual totalitarianism that Ethiopian government has so deeply internalized international begging as a substitute for rational social and economic policy. <br /><br />That one of the restrictions upon spending billions of tax dollars from Americans should be treating human beings in a minimally civilized way is not coercion or intimidation. So let us get back to the good Professor Salisbury's assignment and her students at MULF. <blockquote>I assumed I would get some rather dry responses, especially given the comments from the H.R. 2003 discussion forum, which all seemed to assert that Ethiopia is doing just fine on the human rights front.<br /><br />I was absolutely shocked, then, when I started reading my students’ work. Out of the hundred third-year students I teach, probably forty of them had inserted a special section, right after the cover page, warning me of what might happen to them were their paper to leave my hands. <br /><br />A number of students wrote that they would never give their real opinions to an Ethiopian professor because they fear being turned in to the government and punished. Others begged me to take their work back to America with me so that people would know what was going on. <br /><br />Of those who wrote such notes, almost all said that I would probably be surprised to find that many of the students had been afraid to express their true feelings at the H.R. 2003 discussion forum because you never know who is listening.</blockquote> For most Ethiopians, friends of Ethiopia, enemies of Ethiopia in her own government - or for that matter the most casual students of any dictatorship in history - this is all just so blindingly obvious isn't it?<br /><br />Maybe not so obvious so ... Western reporters routinely go to Ethiopia and ignore everything they see to hang out at the Sheraton Bar or if they are really slumming the Hilton Bar. They write a few paragraphs about the natives' cute supposed superstitions regarding electoral day rings around the sun without noting that no elections actually took place. Optionally they can write about orphaned cheetah cubs in Harar without mentioning the Darfur style ethnic cleansing going on there.<br /><br />Western foreign policy and aid bureaucrats can always be relied upon to be "shocked, absolutely shocked" far less sincerely than the Professor that there are violations of basic rights going on in Ethiopia. But ... they quickly rationalize them away because their major irritation with the government is that it paraded dirty laundry in front of them forcing them to say something.<br /><br />Mission one is getting along with the native thugs at all costs. They alone allow access to the natives who are kept conveniently poor for the lords of poverty to swarm around them and be ever so meaningful. The great intellectuals who hold that their personal theories matter more than people are perhaps the worst of the lot. <br /><br />Nevermind that what made those lords rich to begin with is being forever denied Ethiopians. The same goes for the lords of realpolitik. Mission one is keeping a lid on things and knowing that while Meles "is and S.O.B. - here is our S.O.B." bought and paid for in cold hard cash.<br /><br />So what is remarkable about Abigail Salisbury is that she saw Ethiopians as people just like her. They weren't career stepping stones and didn't exist to make her feel better about herself. Rather, she had higher expectations of them and for them than anyone else at MULF and Meles Inc.<br /><br />She had a glimpse of totalitarian horror and chose not to pretend it was something else. Why does she matter? Well, as we have said many times before it is ferenjis that keep Meles in power every bit as much as his fervent willingness to shed blood. <br /><br />It is perhaps also good to know that ferenjis are even capable of making such moral decisions about the lives of Africans that aren't based on ever new interpretations of Rousseau's Romance with the Primitive.<br /><br />There is nothing primitive about Ethiopians or any Africans that makes dictatorship somehow OK for them and not others. Salisbury has given Ethiopians just that respect and since ultimately ferenjis are listened to more than Ethiopians what she says is revealing to many more.<br /><br />The Professor concludes her article supporting the notion that the Ethiopian government should be accountable for how it treats Ethiopians in the eyes of Americans who are paying the bills ... <blockquote>Instead of being ashamed that our country is disliked for taking unpopular measures, perhaps as Americans we can find pride in that self-same fact, exactly because we do that which we feel must be done to improve lives, despite what others may think of us.</blockquote> Right on. Even at this stage of her evolving understanding or perhaps it is actual academic reticence - it is understandable that Professor Salisbury still speaks in terms of unpopularity. <br /><br />It is not Ethiopians who oppose making Meles accountable. It is his revolutionary feudal aristocracy that fears the consequences of their actions. Besides stealing all they can from Ethiopians and from ferenji aid today such a bill in American and possibly European law raises the possibility that they may not enjoy their ill gotten gains in comfortable exile either.<br /><br />So what happened when Abigail's article was published? She had clearly broken the letter and spirit of her contract to submit to Meles Inc. and thereby to actively participate in the oppression of tens of millions of Ethiopians. It doesn't take a lawyer to see that much does it?<br /><br />Well she was fired for alleged "incompetence". This article, <a href="http://www.ssinformer.com/news/Africa/eastern/ethiopia/politics/2008/february/etp_01_02_08_003.html">HR2003 revisited - American law professor fired from Ethiopian university - from the Sub-Saharan Informer</a> tells a bit of the story. <blockquote> After failing to convince the university’s academic commission that her contract should not be terminated, Professor Salisbury is planning to depart Ethiopia. The firing quickly followed an article she published in “The Jurist,” <em>[the article quoted above]</em></blockquote> The amazing thing about this passage from one point of view is that she voluntarily fought to stay at MULF. In this piece, <a href="http://ethiomedia.com/abai/ethiomedia_interviews_abigail_salisbury.html">Interview with Prof. Abigail Salisbury - from Ethiomedia</a> we get a whole lot more detail. <blockquote><strong>Abraha Belai</strong>: Would you have written the piece in JURIST if you knew what you know about the consequences?<br /><br /><strong>Abigail Salisbury</strong>: That’s a really difficult question. When I wrote the piece, I knew I was taking something of a risk, but I didn’t think anyone in Ethiopia would notice it. I had written for JURIST before, but my work didn’t attract huge interest. <br /><br />I wrote the article on Ethiopia thinking that it would provide some interesting information and nothing more. I’ve been shocked and a little embarrassed at the attention paid to the piece. I am glad that I wrote what I did, though. </blockquote> That she had the luxury of making that choice is absolutely based on her status as a ferenji. Had she been Ethiopian she not only would have faced dismissal but other far less tolerable fates as well. Imagine Abigail Salisbury was instead Abebech Sileshi. What would have happened?<br /><br />- she would have definitely been arrested, tortured, and imprisoned with or without trial (given the Ethiopian legal system what is the difference?) for however long Meles or his feudal appointees wanted<br /><br />- she could have been executed for any reason that crossed the mind of Meles at the time - any made up association of her fate with terrorism or corruption fighting would have had ferenji embassies smiling encouragingly<br /><br />- the fact that she did this in Mekele where Ethiopians are by definition supposed to be absolutely subservient and where independent thought is most feared would have compounded her crimes<br /><br />- all of her claims to savings, possessions, property, reputation, respect or security of any kind would have become moot<br /><br />- her family and friends who chose to stay decent in any way regarding her or who did not actively take cadre orders to do her harm (even physical) would have been at risk for all or part of the above themselves<br /><br />Are we exaggerating here? Not a bit. This is how Ethiopia is run today and how the lives of 70 million Ethiopians are defined. <br /><br />She describes a setting with not only the absence of academic freedom of any kind but also the absence of what is expected of academics at all. What is described is a sort of "Lord of Flies" institution.<blockquote>I complained to the dean and vice dean many times that the students were just allowed to run wild, and that the students were controlling the instructors. Students commonly visit professors’ offices to beg for money or otherwise harass them. <br /><br />Because of that environment, there was a fair amount of animosity and there wasn’t much motivation for any real exchange of ideas, whatever the political situation.</blockquote>As long as no one strays from the central point that Meles / his government / his party are infallible then anything goes. Professors are terrified of their students and vice versa. Accusations of ideological nature are deadly and absent such or given their threat the purpose of a university or indeed a kindergarten is so perverted that it seems to not only betray students but to actively corrupt them.<blockquote>The first day of class, I tried to get my students to tell me their names and what interest they had in human rights. Even if I specifically asked a student his or her name, the student would just sit there and look away. I knew from that moment there would be no discussions in class. <br /><br />I desperately tried getting students to react even through simple means, saying things such as, “Who agrees with that idea? Raise your hand if you do.” Nothing would happen. “Who disagrees? Raise your hand.” No hands went up. The students wanted only to be given facts to memorize, and became angry if asked to analyze ideas or provide their own thoughts on something. <br /><br />I was utterly shocked at the students’ expectations. Clearly they had always been taught that way. </blockquote> MULF can not be viewed independently of the whole of Meles Inc. Students and instructors may come to such a place with all the sincerity of academics and students from Seoul University to the University of the West Indies. When they get to MULF they find a microcosm of why the Ethiopia of Meles is in a mess and why given current policies it will stay that way.<br /><br />If there is no honesty in the larger society of any kind, or if honesty is absent in institutions and civil society under threat of death, then what can one expect at MULF? There is nothing surprising here - only that someone told.<br /><br />The attrition rate for visiting professors seems accordingly high. One left without any pay or reimbursement and Abigail got no severance pay. Hmmm ... we wonder what happened to the money? The same thing that probably happened to all of the millions spent to run or donated for the improvement of MULF. <br /><br />Along with most of the funds for students it has disappeared into the coffers of Meles Inc. So what happened when the JURIST article above came out? <blockquote>The day following the publication of my article, I noticed that it could not be accessed online from Ethiopia. That night around 7 p.m. I got a phone call from the dean of the law faculty, who told me to appear at his office the next morning. No explanation was given. <br /><br />At his office, I spoke to the dean and two other law faculty leaders. They said secret proceedings had been started against me because my students had complained that they weren’t learning anything. I had been telling the dean that the students weren’t learning for months. I had told him that they couldn’t understand me and that they said the reading materials I assigned were “over their heads”. <br /><br />I had also experienced terrible behavior, such as students yelling at me or walking out of class, telling me what to do, asking for money, following me home, and sexually harassing me during my office hours. I had asked the dean, vice dean, and higher-up professors for advice dozens of times, but had never been given any help. <br /><br />The dean told me that I would be permitted to write a letter arguing why I should not be fired, but that I would never meet my accusers.<br />...<br />The dean mentioned my JURIST article and said that the content was all lies, and that I don’t know how to write. Things would have been different, he told me, if only I knew how to write properly.</blockquote>Seems to us that the problem was exactly that she knew how to write properly or at least that she exercised a presumed human right to write. The levels of institutional dishonesty and depravity on exhibit there are stunning. Here is a bit more on the consequences of the JURIST article. Ms. Salisbury goes on to say <blockquote>I think the education given there is very poor.<br />...<br />After graduating from MULF with a four-year degree, students can become judges right away. </blockquote> We only know about this in any detail because one honest ferenji lawyer had enough. Not really, though, Ethiopians always knew. More to the point she was an honest ferenji by her own choice where almost all ferenjis choose the convenient lie that no more can be expected from or for Ethiopians than Meles. <br /><br />Imagine what the talented students at MULF could accomplish given a decent & honest educational system. Imagine what talented teachers could explore and pass on. Imagine the horror of millions of Ethiopian lives in such a system. Imagine how far Ethiopia has fallen - and there seems no limit to how long and hard she may fall. <br /><br />For a country that prided itself on only five years of foreign occupation in thousands of years of existence, Ethiopia is now ruled by a rapacious elite hostile to her very existence.<br /><br />The nooks and crannies of the Melesian corrosion boring and poisoning its way through Ethiopia only seems to matter when a ferenji notices. Otherwise, like a tree falling in the forest - no one hears or notices.<br /><br />.............................<br /><br /><br />We will end on this hilarious (diplomatic in a way but we suspect intentionally understated) <a href="http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/01/linking-rights-and-foreign-aid-for.php">note</a>. Professor Salisbury says <blockquote> I should mention that teaching this human rights class can be a very touchy thing, even though the subject appears to be strongly supported by the university, which is of course overseen by the Ministry of Education in Addis Ababa. <br /><br />While such a subject would be almost a luxury elective or niche seminar in America, it is a part of the Ethiopian core curriculum and the administrators consider it one of the most important topics today, even having established a Human Rights Centre for community advocacy and informative purposes. </blockquote> Good one Abigail!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-1802055177640219482008-04-19T16:45:00.000-07:002008-04-24T19:16:31.585-07:00The Fundamental Things Apply ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklsb9k7dfvRqZSr5wmn_sNxycHRFeSWTG-b0QVO7MtlXr4RlTfTpPMrVE5I2ggxPCwFBqdGJPC97AMg4WuRWGDRifTgZS4JguwyWL87FYclDPIeC4tTgud_n7cUN3Ero-WF5URg/s1600-h/fundamental+things+apply.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklsb9k7dfvRqZSr5wmn_sNxycHRFeSWTG-b0QVO7MtlXr4RlTfTpPMrVE5I2ggxPCwFBqdGJPC97AMg4WuRWGDRifTgZS4JguwyWL87FYclDPIeC4tTgud_n7cUN3Ero-WF5URg/s400/fundamental+things+apply.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5189623351910245154" /></a><strong><em>... as time goes by ... (image with apologies to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dooley_Wilson">Dooley Wilson</a>)<br /><br />inflation & economic lies redux ... 'elections' again ... the grand alliance for now </strong></em><br /><br />...............................................<br /><br />Inflation happens in an economy when there is too much money chasing available goods or when there are too few goods for money to be spent on. That is the rather fundamental economics of supply, demand, and pricing. <br /><br />There are variations on the theme of course. Meles Inc. has managed to engineer the laws of a country into a perversion of the laws of economics onto an eternal accelerating crisis. In Ethiopia today there is a whole lot of money in just a very few hands. <br /><br />Those few hands also manage and profit from all goods - most of which, by design, are scarce. Ethiopia's government has created a situation where inflation can occur because supply or demand pressures have become equal partners.<br /><br />The most important 'good' in the economy, grain, is not available as needed. Agricultural policy is based upon the inseparable political and profit motives that mandate government ownership of all land. <br /><br />That means that the revolutionary feudal aristocracy which defines the ruling party, controls the government, and runs businesses at every level - owns the land, what it manages to produce, and the people on it. They also print money at will.<br /><br />A full seventeen years into Meles's acclaimed <blockquote>-poverty reduction programs, <br />-brilliantly reformed market economy, <br />-rear door G-8 invitations, <br />-African Renaissance / Commission for Africa plaudits, <br />-proclamations of stunning double digit growth rates, <br />-loving applause from Western intellectuals, <br />-usually sheepish almost 'useful idiotish' foreign press coverage, <br />-unaccountable billions of dollars / euros from 'development partners', <br />-and brave liberation from Mengistu </blockquote> What has really changed beyond that Meles usually allows ferenjis to feed the folks he is starving after he gets his cut while Mengistu sometimes did not let ferenjis feed the folks he was starving whether or not he got a cut. Today,<br /><blockquote>-the per capita GNP is lower than that of Somalia<br />-the government monopolies dominate the economy as in Mengistu's day<br />-party owned / crony owned businesses / endowments etc. (the same thing as govt really) dominate the remainder<br />-the rate of foreign investment is among the lowest in the world - indeed it is far exceeded by the amount that the revolutionary feudal aristocracy sends abroad to foreign numbered accounts and foreign investments<br />-Ethiopia is one of the very poorest nations <br />-no surprise, Ethiopia's government is on of the most corrupt on earth<br />-and as naturally follows, Ethiopia's government has one of the most vile human rights records in the world </blockquote> Meles's government not only lies habitually it would appear that they don't know how not to lie. Here is the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601116&sid=aaJe_YsoIed8&refer=africa">setting</a> of this tale<blockquote>Ethiopia's annual inflation rate increased to 29.6 percent in March, the highest in over a decade, as rising food costs continued to push up consumer prices.<br /><br />Inflation expanded from 22.9 percent in February, the Addis Ababa-based Central Statistical Agency said in a report today. Food prices climbed 39.4 percent on an annual basis, from 30.2 percent in February, according to the report. </blockquote> First of all the central statistics office is nought but a fount of lies if you didn't get our point yet. Aren't they the same people who have been claiming economic growth sufficient to propel Ethiopia into the middle income rank of countries in a generation? <br /><br />So one can safely conclude that inflation is far worse than is being admitted here - unless there is a percentage in exaggeration. Remember, that aside from a few keen & unpublicized IMF and World Bank reports trying to peer into a non-transparent system - there are no numbers available about Ethiopia but those the government makes up.<br /><br />Here is a glimpse of reality via <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi</a> on one point in "Property rights in a very poor country : tenure insecurity and investment in Ethiopia". The source is the World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. WPS 4363, November 2007. (pdf file)<blockquote>This paper provides evidence from one of the poorest countries of the world that the property rights matter for efficiency, investment, and growth. With all land state-owned, the threat of land redistribution never appears far off the agenda. <br /><br />Land rental and leasing have been made legal, but transfer rights remain restricted and the perception of continuing tenure insecurity remains quite strong. Using a unique panel data set, this study investigates whether transfer rights and tenure insecurity affect household investment decisions, focusing on trees and shrubs. <br /><br />The panel data estimates suggest that limited perceived transfer rights, and the threat of expropriation, negatively affect long-term investment in Ethiopian agriculture, contributing to the low returns from land and perpetuating low growth and poverty. </blockquote> Urban and rural life has become so progressively expensive and difficult that living standards have fallen drastically from what some might have imagined to be floor level. So what did Meles have to say about inflation at first?<br /><br />He blamed the whole thing on bad business people and other malicious economic criminal who were manipulating prices to their own benefit alone. This type of blame is a staple of dictators of all places and all times. Meles must have a Dictator's Almanac on his nightstand where he gets this kind of fluff. <br /><br />Here is what he <a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-18-voa53.cfm">had to say</a> <blockquote>Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has introduced tough measures to stabilize soaring prices, including a crackdown on what he called "economic criminals," but he says the African nation's economy is essentially sound. <br /><br />...<br /><br />Prime Minister Meles Tuesday declared war on what he referred to as greedy business people, blaming them for sharp price increases that boosted Ethiopia's inflation rate to 20 percent. In a speech to parliament, he lashed out at what he called "fraudsters" who recently caused a five to 10-fold increase in the price of salt in a single day.<br /><br />Mr. Meles announced establishment of a task force to prosecute businesses engaging in what he called "persistent illegal exploitative activities."<br /><br />"Such greedy and illegal business persons will only respond when each has been identified and punished," he said. "As a result, the government has decided to completely change its approach toward those committing economic crimes. A task force comprising members of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the federal police and the National Security and Intelligence service has been set up to permanently monitor illicit activities and take prompt legal measures as necessary." </blockquote> In other words "round up the usual suspects." What this all means is that someone dared to cheat Meles out of his cut or someone has to be blamed until the ferenji reporters discover another halo around the sun and forget about the whole business. <br /><br />(ethiopundit is proud to have gotten the PM [a loyal reader] out of the practice of using silly phrases such as 'rent seekers' and 'revolutionary democracy' [<strong>in English that is - things remain the same in Amharic etc.</strong>] but that is what he meant to talk about though.)<br /><br />Strangely, he did not mention how he was the biggest rent seeker / practicer of economic greed in Ethiopian history, or how any such hoarders or malicious economic actors actually worked for him directly or gave him a big cut of their profits. He did not mention how the Ethiopian economy serves as his own private bank account.<br /><br />Meles did not mention how entrepreneurship and agricultural productivity are discouraged by the use of hunger and land as weapons to intimidate or bribe. How improving one's land was punished by redistribution on political / personal / bribery grounds.<br /><br />He did not mention how every aspect of the economy and the fabled <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">commodities exchange</a> is under his personal control. That is from the blood, sweat, and tears of farmers onto truckers, grain boards, local commissars / revolutionary committees, and the 'global economy wired' shiny new offices of the <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">commodities exchange</a> in Addis paid for and taken seriously only by ferenjis.<br /><br />He did not mention how an increasingly amount of an already large percentage of food is donated. Depending on the news cycle he claims bumper harvests when convenient and is pretend angry about slow Western response to crises when that is convenient. His own foreign investment schedule in numbered Swiss accounts or shell game US real estate is the determining factor here - not the welfare of Ethiopians.<br /><br />Think that point is a bit harsh? Back in the 80s when the EPLF blockaded shipments of food to Tigray for a while - Meles made sure that anyone who spoke an unkind word about the EPLF in Tigray would be purged and shot. Today after so many lived through the engineered hunger of Mengistu's times, Western aid agencies work in the Ogaden under the condition that they not tell the truth about government atrocities.<br /><br />Indeed, Trotsky, one of Meles's ideological and practical mentors said that "where the state is the sole landlord - opposition means death by slow starvation." This is all a matter of policy. In Soviet Russia the few percentages of land farmed privately were several orders of magnitude more productive than any official forms of agriculture combined.<br /><br />Wherever state ownership is the norm - poverty and oppression follow necessarily. Compounded with that the challenge of a fake market economy of revolutionary feudal aristocracy owned businesses who also control the government and its monopolies - Ethiopians don't stand a chance.<br /><br />Meles prints money just as he feels like and spends it just as he feels. Much of the national budget is in the form of direct grants from the West and given the anemia of the rest of the economy the success of his national kleptocracy is based on forced monopolies and going at ferenji aid with two hands and an open mouth. His web of businesses and corruption suck up most of the available money into a very few hands. <br /><br />Meles did not mention how agricultural production is always falling and the distorting effect of reliance on food aid. Food aid is a bounty of harvests for Meles. There are literally billions in contracts for office construction, shipping, salaries (no-show ones and kickbacks), fees, taxes, etc to siphon off before the slightest amount that doesn't get misdirected into the domestic grain market actually reaches the starving.<br /><br />So for two decades Meles has been discouraging agricultural production and he has encouraged dependence on economy distorting foreign aid. Note that there is no inherent reason that Ethiopians should starve or that Ethiopian land is not productive. <br /><br />Policies are what matter. The major factor in a population starving beyond what they are allowed to do for themselves is how politically powerless they are. This all fits the preference of Meles for relying on ferenji partners rather than the Ethiopian people in a civil contract of any form. <br /><br />The ferenjis will use him as convenient and even will pay him extra not to cause harm to his people within sight of embassies or reporters. Ethiopians of every stripe just want him gone. Given his objective of staying in power for as long as possible and profiting from it as long as possible - Meles is making a rational decision here. He is looking out for #1.<br /><br />Again via <a href="http://www.geocities.com/~dagmawi/Zebenya/Zebenya.html">Dagmawi</a> this report is instructive and bears repeating in detail: Urban Labour Markets in Ethiopia: Challenges and Prospects World Bank, March 2007. <blockquote>The performance of urban labour markets in Ethiopia has been disappointing. ... Jobs growth has been slow and way below what is needed to productively employ urban residents looking for work; unemployment is thus high. Even for those who have income earning opportunities, these are typically in the informal sector and very low paid.<br /><br />...<br /><br />Many new leases(particularly outside Addis Ababa), are allotted at administrative prices that are several times lower than auction prices for similar land. There is no system of evaluating these indirect land-related subsidies obtained by receivers of these 'administrative-price' leases. Finally, the best lands are often allocated for negotiations rather than being placed on auction (e.g. around Lake Tana in Bahir Dar). Thus, resulting prices of land within the government land allocation system are substantially distorted and can be prone to corruption.<br /><br />...<br /><br />While ex-factory prices are kept below market prices, there is a thriving secondary market in cement that is fuelled by those who have the ability to purchase cement at the ex-factory price<br /><br />...<br /><br />In cement, for many years a party-owned firm and a State-Owned-Enterprise have been the only domestic suppliers, each enjoying rapid increases in demand. In the financial sector, a bank affiliated with an endowment currently has the highest return of equity among private banks, and the microfinance institution owned by an endowment has grown to one of the largest in Africa<br /><br />...</blockquote> and a comparison to the 'Tiger' economies (Taiwan and the ruling KMT in this case) of Asia that Meles Inc. likes to pretend it is on the same planet with <blockquote>A key difference is that the KMT has released detailed information on its business holdings, while Ethiopia's endowments are fully opaque</blockquote> Examples of corruption in the banking system are legion and natural. After all Meles runs them and he takes loans from them using managers beholden to him and businesses he profits from in a simple shell game that he wins every time.<br /><br />Given all of this the result that the Ethiopian economy is doing very poorly and suffering from growing levels of inflation is no surprise. The most important economic factor - grain is in short supply and the most harmful, factor corruption is present in abundance. <br /><br />The food aid that substitutes for production is subject to manipulation and corruption at unheard of levels and depending on political factors may never reach those for whom it is intended anyway. Meles knows there are too many other ways to make money from it.<br /><br />The money thus generated and that from the entire crooked economy ends up in a very few hands. The modern economy actually touches very few people in cities only. All of that money is sufficient to distort the urban economy with great inflationary pressure because unless it is shipped out it has no place to go.<br /><br />Ethiopia has no market economy that can handle any crisis with either rational management decisions or the independent decisions of millions of producers and consumers. Economic policy is at the whim of one man and the corrupt revolutionary feudal aristocracy he commands.<br /><br />.........................................<br /><br />One new factor in all of this is the global food crisis. Drought is blamed on the supply in Australia which has ceased important rice exports to Asia. Increased consumption in China and India is also blamed on the demand side. <br /><br />In our opinion, the global food crisis has nothing to do with what is going on in Ethiopia.<br /><br />Sure, Meles came across the global excuse as an excuse a week or so after blaming 'rent seekers' etc. and wished he had thought of it beforehand. After that the link was made to the world crisis with lip smacking delight.<br /><br />This leaves out the reality that inflation in Ethiopia was high long before this and was high back in the 90s as well. In addition, it leaves out the reality that Ethiopia is effectively insulated from the global food economy.<br /><br />Ethiopians produce a meager amount of food to begin with because they are not allowed to produce more. The remainder is imported as aid from foreign governments. Whatever residual deficit there is (after every one in higher up in the food chain than the 70 million regular Ethiopians have taken their cut) just doesn't matter and is chalked up as statistical ruined lives from starvation and malnutrition.<br /><br />One can safely assume that much of the needed domestic grain is exported and that much of the food grain is exported by Meles Inc. for profit regardless of need anywhere. After all we are talking about the Meles Inc. here.<br /><br />Of course, this may all be far reaching and far seeing opportunism on the part of Meles to profit from the coming food crisis by sending food out of Ethiopia. Hey, you think he got that MBA just to run Mega? Meles does make <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0094291/">Gordon Gekko</a> seem like Mother Theresa doesn't he? That makes about as much sense as blaming traders who may have just paid him less than his normal share.<br /><br />Regardless, the price of grain in Bombay or Cairo doesn't have much to do with that in Addis because the whole Ethiopian food economy is really a perverse isolated example of everything to do wrong in the world of economics.<br /><br />So no matter what Meles and his gang have to say about linking global food issues to Ethiopia - believe none of it. Why not wonder why things were already so bad in Ethiopia for years when food was plentiful everywhere else.<br /><br />You should also note in the coming weeks that even as prices rise worldwide and turmoil results in some places that most governments will actually look after their people - unlike Meles Inc.<br /><br />.............................................<br /><br />The mess that the Ethiopian economy is in knocks out one leg of justifications for Meles Inc. rule - namely that they are 'keeping the trains running on time'. They are doing no such thing and never have. Indeed, given the current setup the trains never will run on time. Everything regarding the personal economic portfolio of Meles (especially abroad) will, however, proceed on schedule.<br /><br />The next leg of the Melesian justification tripod is his utility to the West. Secondarily this is a matter of not hurting his people too much and too visibly for Western tastes. Primarily, it has more too do with low expectations for Ethiopians in general and Somalis in particular. No matter how evident it is that Western leaders find shaking the hand of Meles distasteful and actually repulsive - they still pay for his place in power.<br /><br />Apart from nonsense about halos around the sun (how does that fit in with a revolutionary democratic world view anyway?) absolutely no one on the planet is taking the latest round of elections seriously. The last and final leg of justification is Meles himself and his personal commitment to intimidate, kill, and harm as many Ethiopians as possible wherever they may be found. <br /><br />Ultimately, this is what it is all about.<br /><br />Meles has been lying and breaking fundamental rules of humanity (not to mention economics) for over three and a half decades now. The roll call of victims extends from thousands in his own revolutionary party and hundreds of thousands of innocents in rural Tigray starting in the 70s all the way to the peaceful opposition and tens of millions everywhere in Ethiopia today. <br /><br />But ... the fundamental rules still apply as time goes by. Whatever his personal issues and motivations may be - he is continuing to drive Ethiopia on an ever steeper road to hell ... and that is clear to every honest observer.<br /><br />Wonder if things can ever get worse in Ethiopa? Clearly they can and Meles will always be ready with a lie, however absurd it may be along with a willingness to kill to ensure he will be around until the very last moment. <br /><br />When Meles speaks of "persistent illegal exploitative activities" he is, of course, innocent by definition - because he writes the laws as he pleases and he enforces them as he pleases. <br /><br />He knows exactly what he is doing and so do the development partners who pay him.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-7520844054578408872008-03-09T15:13:00.000-07:002008-03-09T17:13:42.435-07:00something funny happened on the way to the kibaki coronationThe first instinct of the U.S. State Department when presented with the Kenyan government's election chicanery was familiar to Ethiopians - Foggy Bottom (somehow, strangely, that term seems more than just geographic, right?) decided to go with 'our s.o.b.' and to congratulate the 'victors' already in place.<br /><br />Then something funny happened on the way to the Kibaki coronation. <br /><br />Even amidst tribal / ethnic bloodletting (much planned) that fed the "go with us or have chaos in East Africa" rap from the Kenyan Presidential Palace - the U.S. stood firm and along with the U.N., the E.U. (and no doubt gentle warnings from the World Bank & IMF) insisted that the will of the Kenyan people be respected to some degree at least.<br /><br />Eventually - ferenji pressure forced a political power sharing deal in Nairobi that is not perfect but that will serve the Kenyan people far better than ferenji sponsored and financed dictatorship. You know, we should be careful using the word 'dictatorship' in this context shouldn't we?<br /><br />The Kenyan elite, however corrupt it is and however it plays reflexively nasty tribal / ethnic games is not in the same category of dictatorship as Meles Inc. is. Sorry to put it this way - but the Kenyan political system, for all of its faults, is inherently more civilized than that in Ethiopia.<br /><br />Dealing with an opposition that never uttered an tribal insult and that never traded in ethnic hatred - Meles Inc. could not stop shouting about the Rwandan genocide and how that is what the opposition had in plan. No one believed it of course just as no one in Ethiopia believes anything that Meles has to say.<br /><br />The opposition won among every region, tribe, religion, and ethnicity where election observers were present. Everywhere. Where no observers were present (most of the country) - the vote was not counted and still not released. Meles knew he was despised but simply had no idea how much in enough time to properly fake even a fake election.<br /><br />More people were killed in tribal / ethnic fighting in Kenya than have ever been killed in Ethiopia. That is unless you count the Ethiopian government - which has a body count that machete wielding toughs could not dream of. The tribal / ethnic killers in Ethiopia were not only sponsored by the government - they are the government.<br /><br />The only group the minions of Meles Inc. believe in or are loyal to is a revolutionary feudal aristocracy that is not defined by anything but greed and the willingness to be brutal. They feel amazingly entitled to billions in aid from ferenji taxpayers and essentially hold their own people and the stability of the Horn of Africa hostage for that purpose.<br /><br />Meles has never felt an urgent threat to the gravy train the way Kibaki did. Kibaki made kind of nice in the end because he had no choice. The social contract in Kenya apparently has some place for actual Kenyans.<br /><br />Meles has always had a choice because the social contract in Ethiopia is between ferenjis and Meles himself. Ethiopians just don't matter. There is always a convenient excuse for why Ethiopian human rights and governmental decency can wait.<br /><br />We wonder sometimes if there is something different about Ethiopian DNA and that of the rest of the world. During the 1970s and 1980s Ethiopians under the control of Mengistu's Soviet sponsored Dergue and Meles's EPLF sponsored TPLF all had far less human rights and dignity than South African blacks under Apartheid.<br /><br />We are delighted that South African blacks are free today. We are delighted that in their hour of need the world, or at least much of it, would have no more of such a system. <br /><br />How many people out there know that Ethiopia's constitution, laws, and government are today based upon tribal / ethnic bantustans? That tribal / ethnic / regional / religious divide and rule is at the heart of all political discourse and participation in civil society?<br /><br />That Ethiopia has one of the most corrupt & brutal governments on earth? No worries - apparently the Boers were expected to now better but since Ethiopia's tormentors look just like all other Ethiopians - it all seems to be just O.K.<br /><br />After all - this is Africa and Africans we are talking about - and most particularly Ethiopians. Kenyans? Well maybe Kenyans have some rights but definitely not Ethiopians.<br /><br />Today, the world gets worked up about Darfur and Mugabe - Chad and Kibaki and the US is proud to be on the right side of history and human rights there. But ... Ethiopian suffering is like a tree falling in the forest ... screams and death beyond the diplomatic compounds of Addis simply are not an issue and are sounds that are embarrassing and actively avoided. <br /><br />This remains so no matter how many opposition figures not known to ferenji diplomats are dead, tortured, or in jail. This remains so no matter how many hundreds of thousands of other faceless and nameless Ethiopians are in mass graves or prison camps.<br /><br />So ferenjis do matter. <br /><br />They keep Africa's dictators in business and when ferenjis act like they have had enough things seem to happen and thugs seem to discover a warm and fuzzy side. Ferenjis pay the bills for Kibaki and Meles. It is just that when it comes to Meles absolutely no return is expected on the investment except that he not make things worse than usual.<br /><br />And then there is the Vicki Huddleston <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/opinion/15huddleston.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">Meles as Great Black Hope</a> vision <blockquote>By singling out Ethiopia for public embarrassment, the bill puts Congress unwittingly on the side of Islamic jihadists and insurgents.</blockquote> Nonsense. The embarrassment will be for Meles Inc. not Ethiopia - and Vicki knows it. Vicki is equating the interests of Meles with those of Ethiopia when they clearly are not the same thing. <br /><br />Her plea not to turn on Ethiopia is a plea to stick with Meles personally and should be understood just so. What should we expect to see next? Meles eating apple pie with the Stars and Stripes fluttering in the breeze? Even better would be Meles defending Western Civilization against hordes of orcs a la Lord of the Rings.<br /><br />Well Vicki ... to 70 million or so Ethiopians - Meles is Sauron himself and you keep him and his orc army going. For real - just say that it is in the interests of the USA as interpreted by policy makers who can't see past next weekend that Meles is the devil you know and you would rather have him around no matter what happens to all those Ethis.<br /><br />How about these lines from Vicki's opus? <blockquote>Sadly, Congress is poised to fuel the march toward war by passing a bill that threatens to cut off technical assistance to Ethiopia, one of our closest allies, if it does not, among other things, release political prisoners, ensure that the judiciary operates independently and permit the news media to operate freely. Ethiopia has already freed opposition leaders, reformed parliamentary rules to give opposition parties greater legislative responsibility and approved a new media law that meets international standards.</blockquote> Each of these statements is so demonstrably false or at the very best put forth with such an absolutely sincere disingenuous spin that even the least knowledgeable reader must amazed at the sheer daring of it all.<br /><br />The Human Rights Bill is in Senate Hearings now after unanimously getting through the House. Senator Inhofe, perfectly placed with 1) Ethiopian relatives 2) no Ethiopian-American constituents and most of all 3) with a secure seat not beholden to the press or anyone else, is carrying the water for the administration on this one.<br /><br />Along with an army of lobbyists and lawyers bought and paid for with siphoned aid money, Meles Inc. is going to fight hard to 'keep Ethiopia from embarrassment' in Vicki's words. What this really means is that Meles is terrified that his money may no longer be secure in American real estate and stocks if his inhumane policies finally catch up with him.<br /><br />Senator Russ Feingold seems to be having none of this <blockquote>Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the political situation in Ethiopia. The US-Ethiopian partnership is an incredibly important one – perhaps one of the more significant on the continent given not only our longstanding history but also the increasingly strategic nature of our cooperation in recent years. <br /><br />Ethiopia sits on the Horn of Africa – perhaps one of the roughest neighborhoods in the world, with Somalia a failed state and likely safe haven for terrorists, Eritrea an inaccessible authoritarian regime that exacerbates conflicts throughout the region, Sudan a genocidal regime, and now Kenya descending into crisis. <br /><br /><strong>By contrast, Ethiopia seems relatively stable with its growing economy and robust poverty reduction programs.</strong></blockquote> Great right, but see the problem outlined in bold? Senator Feingold like Representatives Payne & Smith and so many others is a friend of Ethiopia and of human rights ... but he has taken the spin about the economy and poverty reduction a bit too far or perhaps he is just trying to soften the blow. <br /><br />This sounds to us, as we have said before, like a 'he made the trains run on time' justification for dictatorship.<br /><br />The truth of the matter is that neither Mussolini not Meles made the trains run on time anyway. Remember that all economic statistics about Ethiopia come from the Ethiopian government itself. Like pronouncements on laws, parliament, courts, elections, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">commodity exchanges</a> or anything else - it is all a tissue of lies supported by complicit ignorance.<br /><br />Senator Feingold is a man we admire and decidedly not in that category but those who should be providing he world with the truth certainly are. International and national aid bureaucracies simply have no interest in rocking the boat by not going along with the local dictator. Indeed, his interests in having no accountability for ever increasing amounts of aid fit the interests of the aid bureaucracies perfectly.<br /><br />Most journalists are too lazy to check statements such as the one a year or so ago that a fake 7% rate of economic growth would give Ethiopia the lifestyle of middle income countries in twenty years. Meles actually lets agencies and reporters into places such as the Ethipian Darfur in the Ogaden if they promise to remain silent on anything he wants. <br /><br />It seems to work too.<br /><br />Now the economic growth lie is now wrapped around a fake 10% or more economic growth rate that depends on the statistics of one of the most lying and corrupt governments in the world. A number of supposedly critical and analytical PDF articles have appeared in the last months on the subject.<br /><br />They are well written in a glib occasionally dazzling style. They are critical of the government for uneven economic growth but curiously the reader has to accept the notion that massive 10%+ economic growth is occurring to begin with.<br /><br />The slickness of the effort is what is really curious and goes along with the general theme of 'the trains are running on time'. They aren't and Ethiopia's poverty is deepening. Last November <a href="http://www.ethiomedia.com/ace/backward_under_zenawi.html">The Economist</a> had this to say <blockquote>The government claims that the economy has been growing at an impressive 10% a year since 2003-04, but the real figure is probably more like 5-6%, which is little more than the average for sub-Saharan Africa. And even that modestly improved rate, with a small building boom in Addis Ababa, for instance, has led to the overheating of the economy, with inflation moving up to 19% earlier this year before the government took remedial action.<br /><br />The reasons for this economic crawl are not hard to find. Beyond the government-directed state, funded substantially by foreign aid, there is—almost uniquely in Africa—virtually no private-sector business at all. The IMF estimates that in 2005-06 the share of private investment in the country was just 11%, nearly unchanged since Mr Zenawi took over in the early 1990s. That is partly a reflection of the fact that, despite some privatisation since the centralised Marxist days of the Derg, large areas of the economy remain government monopolies, closed off to private business. </blockquote> We don't buy the 5% figure either and given population growth and inflation it is far too less to keep pace. The building boom in Addis is based upon remittances from countries with economic and political freedom. It is also based on the corruption that siphons billions in aid to party businesses, cronies, and government monopolies.<br /><br />Most importantly - as the article says there is no private economy beyond that owned by Meles Inc. From peasant plots in a country with no private property rights to grain boards to banks to regulatory agencies to aid recipients at every level to the tourist business to foreign investments (in the US and Europe that is) Meles and his aristocracy control the whole Ethiopian economy as though it was their own private piggy bank.<br /><br />No country has ever grown and no country every will under those circumstances. And what is poverty reduction anyway. Isn't economic growth the ultimate form of poverty reduction? Letting a small fraction of ferenji aid actually build some things to and feed people to prime the aid pump instead of just stealing all of it is not a poverty reduction program.<br /><br />Given the corrupt outflows of money from Meles Inc. into foreign accounts and investments Ethiopia actually has a negative (we prefer the term subterranean) rate of foreign direct investment.<br /><br />A older Kenyan friend who lived in Ethiopia on and off from the 1970s always commented that however corrupt Kenya was at least somethings got done sometimes - and most importantly folks just didn't get killed right and left. <br /><br />The Ethiopia he knew as a young man in the early 70s was little different from Kenya economically but by the 80s the difference was obvious and by this millennium absolutely manifest. Politically, he was saddened that "Ethiopians were always afraid of their government while we were usually just disgusted with ours". <br /><br />Why? Let us face it - little things matter. However bad the Kenyan government it did in reality and was expected in reality by others to treat Kenyans with some measure of decency. For almost 33 now there have been no such expectations about Ethiopian government.<br /><br />The standards have been set so low that the notion that at least Ethiopians aren't eating each other seems to be enough to have the whole world ignoring the crimes of Meles or helping him along because no better can be expected.<br /><br />This blog is quite determined on the matter of the War Against Terror. Fighting it, however, should not mean that the likes of Meles Zenawi thinks that it is open season on Ethiopians. Senator Feingold continued <blockquote> Indeed, one look at the deteriorating situation on the Horn of Africa and it is clear just how essential our relationship with Ethiopia really is. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration’s approach to strengthening and building bilateral ties with Ethiopia has been short-sighted and narrow. As in other parts of the world, the Administration’s counter-terrorism agenda dominates the relationship, while poor governance and human rights concerns get a pass. </blockquote> The Senior State Department Official said to Human Rights Watch once with stunning honesty that <blockquote> Ethiopia's human rights record is 'not a factor' in the bilateral relationship.</blockquote>Whatever happened to the President's<blockquote> All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression, or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you.</blockquote> What happened on the way to the Kibaki coronation? Ferenji enablers decided to make him accept the essential humanity of Kenyans. The absurdity is not just a ferenji matter. Get this - election observers from the Ethiopian government are supposed to supervise the elections in Zimbabwe.<br /><br />It would all be funny if it wasn't.<br /><br />....................................................................<br /><br /><em><strong>ethiopundit's partial catalog of the economic lies and corruption of meles ... or why probably anything you here about economic growth is a lie</strong></em><br /><br />Ethiopians are not poor even by the standards of Biblical suffering and they are not oppressed even by the standards of familiar African dictatorship by accident or fate. It is all about government and policies that many of the posts below investigate in depth. <br /><br />The authors of these policies are the ones that aid donors and other development partners embraced and continue to value after a decade and a half of economic and social de-evolution masked by tens of billions of aid to one of the most corrupt, poorly governing and brutal governments on earth.<br /><br />The height of absurdity - a commodity exchange: <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/12/field-of-screams.html">Field Of Screams</a><br /><br />Some of the intellectual justifications for Meles Inc. rule:<br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/08/hypnotize.html">Hypnotize</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/09/intellectuals-and-their-discontents.html">Intellectuals and Their Discontents</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/09/jeffersonian-economics.html">Jeffersonian Economics</a>.<br /><br />Mau-Mauing Ferenjis: <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/12/scavengers-of-horn.html">Scavengers of the Horn</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/12/leveraging-poverty.html">Leveraging Poverty</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/03/7-maskirovka.html">The 7% Maskirovka</a> details how claims of economic growth are lies carried out with the complicity of willingly gullible partners in the international media and aid organizations. <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/04/cargo-cult-economics-7-7-solution.html">The 7% Solution</a> looks into the particular origins of the claims to 7% growth - that is what is supposed to happen to get MDG money so by pretending it is not needed the flow of money is assured.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/10/economic-absurdities.html">Economic Absurdities</a> details how all accounts of Ethiopia's economic performance must not be considered at face value and that the economy is in fact a stagnant mess utterly dependent of foreign aid and remittances.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/lies-damn-lies-statistics.html">lies, damn lies & statistics</a> re-examines false claims of high Foreign Direct Investment that are part of the ongoing and defining propaganda campaign that the Ethiopian government runs instead of governing the country.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/06/tragedy-of-commons.html">The Tragedy of the Commons</a> discusses how common or far worse government ownership of land has always been a plan for disaster.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/01/cargo-cult-economics.html">Cargo Cult Economics</a> Pretense of freedom and a free market is alive and well in Ethiopia with absolutely no attention given to the institutions and accountability necessary for free and prosperous nations. The whole edifice of the massive money transfer to Swiss banks (aka MDGs) is like the Pacific Cargo Cults based on the idea that prosperity comes from rituals.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/02/cargo-cult-economics-2-all-about.html">Cargo Cult Economics 2 - All About the Benjamins?</a> Development is about more than cash - it is about institutions. In fact any money in the absence of reason and rationality will hurt more than help by breeding corruption and the destruction of needed institutions.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/02/cargo-cult-economics-3-structural.html">Cargo Cult Economics 3 - Structural Corruption</a> Corrupt and unaccountable party and government owned businesses and monopoly service providers in an effectively single party state do not provide a setting where you can expect freedom and prosperity or accountability.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/09/cargo-cult-economics-4-short-term.html">Cargo Cult Economics 4 - Short Term Memory</a> Recent African history from the era of independence in the late 50s and 60s on is full of the serial discovery of visionary rennaissance leaders that the world has fallen in love but whose policies have only bought tragedy for their people.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/09/cargo-cult-economics-5-cheerleaders.html">Cargo Cult Economics 5 - Cheerleaders</a> and <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/11/cargo-cult-economics-6-sachs-violence.html">Cargo Cult Economics 6 - Sachs & Violence</a> Intellectuals and academics who give cover and encouragement to third world despots and their bound to fail economic schemes imagine that it is OK for some to live under different rules than they would expect for themselves. That is an example of the vile sentiment of actual romance and purpose that is found by some in other people's suffering.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/world-is-yours.html">The World Is Yours</a> Is an introduction to anothers series from numerous sources detailing the essentially corrupt system that Ethiopians suffer under. A system that simultaneously wastes billions in aid dollars and euros while impoverishing millions:. Basically, the Ethiopian government at present is difficult to distinguish from an organized crime network. <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/world-is-yours-ii-syndicate.html">The World Is Yours II - The Syndicate</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/world-is-yours-iii-commission.html">The World Is Yours III - The Commission</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/world-is-yours-iv-offer-they-cant.html">The World Is Yours IV - "An Offer They Can't Refuse"</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/world-is-yours-v-capo-di-tutti-capi.html">The World Is Yours V - Capo di tutti Capi</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/04/world-is-yours-vi-our-thing.html">The World Is Yours VI - Our Thing</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2004/07/zenawinomics-and-aztec-gods.html">'Zenawinomics' and the Aztec gods</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/05/let-ferenjis-feed-em-again.html">let the ferenjis feed 'em again </a> and <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2004/07/let-ferenjis-feed-em.html">let the ferenjis feed 'em</a> take a look at the game of 'bumper crops' and 'looming famine' that is played out regularly with the result that taking care of Ethiopians or even allowing them to take care of themselves has been abandoned in preference for letting aid donors take care of it all.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/04/birth-of-plenty.html">The Birth of Plenty</a>, <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2004/12/do-right-thing.html">Do the Right Thing</a> and <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/04/luck-and-idea-trap.html">Luck and the Idea Trap</a> show exactly how other nations have escaped destitution and tyranny, why Ethiopia as currently governed never will and how such horrible decisions are purposefully made by governments.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/03/on-borrowed-time.html">On Borrowed Time</a> focuses on the agricultural economy and how all present trends given current policies point downwards. <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/01/malthus-hobbes-and-red-queen.html">Malthus, Hobbes and the Red Queen</a> looks to the future and further finds that without changes Ethiopia is heading for a horrible appointment with destiny so that a few can remain powerful and rich.<br /><br />The Politburo Knows Best series looked at the prospects for liberal democracy and found them poor indeed. Almost all of the same factors predict prosperity as well and they have all been abandoned in favor of eternal power for a few. The following provide clues to the ideological undperpinnings of Ethiopia's current suffering and the policies that define it. Basically, the controls provided for below explain why the trade-off was made for eternal beggar status vs actual development.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2004/11/politburo-knows-best-iii-revolutionary.html">Politburo Knows Best III - Revolutionary Democracy</a> The national guiding ideology is still Marxist-Leninist-Maoism - so you can assume there aren't great prospects for freedom and prosperity. Since about the time this seminal essay ;-) was posted the government has not mentioned Revolutionary Democracy aloud again but it still defines their world view exactly.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/04/politburo-knows-best-iv-revolutionary.html">Politburo Knows Best IV - Revolutionary Feudalism</a> There are no rights to own private property whose protection is essential to all prosperity and personal & political rights worldwide throughout any period of history.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/04/politburo-knows-best-iv-revolutionary.html">Politburo Knows Best V - The Wretched of the Earth</a> 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.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/05/politburo-knows-best-vi-defending.html">Politburo Knows Best VI - Defending the Revolution</a> 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.<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/06/bodyguard-of-lies.html">A Bodyguard of Lies</a> looks at the art of untruth and Ethiopian government in the bloody aftermath of the 'election'.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-80435742987011807912008-02-25T17:49:00.000-08:002008-02-25T19:01:55.372-08:00Games Cadres PlayThe utterly fascinating articles below appeared in several forums in January 2008. Both seem just too silly to be true. Mind, we don't doubt that Meles Inc. is running the Somali government like a branch of Mega or one of his pet tribal parties. <br /><br />It is also clear that Ethiopia's dictator has a managerial style (with non-ferenjis of course) that relies more on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar">Pablo Escobar</a> than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People">Dale Carnegie</a>. However, these articles do seem a bit much ... but given the players though, one never knows does one? <br /><br /><a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200801290928.html">Here one goes</a>: <blockquote> Ethiopia's top military commanders serving in Somalia have dispatched a letter to the country's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, expressing their dissatisfaction with the policies of new Prime Minister [and the way that he] is running his new government <br /><br />...<br /><br />The letter was also sent to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, President Yusuf's main backer. The generals' central argument in the letter is that the Prime Minister makes decisions without consulting Ethiopian army commanders based in the capital Mogadishu<br /><br />Ethiopian Prime Minister Zenawi is largely believed to have personally hand-picked former Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, who resigned last October under Ethiopian pressure following a serious rift with President Yusuf.</blockquote> Please note that this is in a news environment that reports that an Ethiopian general had <a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=44222§ionid=351020501">slapped the Somali President</a>: <blockquote>The row between President Yusuf Ahmed and Gen. Heard started after the president accused the army general of disobeying the orders given by the Somali government<br /><br />...<br /><br />Irked by the Somali President's remarks, who accused the Ethiopian troops of firing artillery at the Presidential Palace and the government bases, the army general slapped the Somali president on the face.<br /><br />The angry general then swore that he would kill the president and left the room.</blockquote> First things first. Do the armed minions of Meles have a level of arrogance and ingrained habits of reliance on brute force that would see them feeling so entitled regarding Somalis? The answer is clearly yes.<br /><br />They feel more entitled than that regarding Ethiopians on a daily basis. It is hard to imagine Somalis would be treated any differently than Ethiopians. If they and Meles could get away with it they would be slapping down their ferenji 'development partner diplomats' regularly - just like Mafia goons after protection money.<br /><br />Instead Meles has to settle for threatening to harm Ethiopians and then being begged, bribed, and gently chided to treat his own people with at least a less embarrassing illusion of human decency. His instincts and those of his thugs at every level are, however, quite clear.<br /><br />The part of all of this news that does not ring true is the very idea that the generals in question would dare to even imagine questioning Meles himself. Like Chairman Mao's wife said in her own defense "Whoever Chairman Mao asked me to bite, I bit."<br /><br />Meles has played games like this before. <br /><br />Ferenjis are always being warned not to pressure him to hard on decent government because 'the real radicals' in the upper reaches of his party will take over at any moment. No doubt ferenjis are also cautioned from expecting humane behavior from Meles based on the illusory fear of 'angry generals' too.<br /><br />These news articles feed into that illusion and how Meles is really <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2007/01/our-man-in-africa.html">Our Man in Africa </a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/opinion/15huddleston.html">The Great Black Hope</a> of Vicki Huddleston's twisted spin.<br /><br />The stories maybe propaganda or reflect the deepest thoughts from either side depending on how you look at it. Somali nationalism was defined from the beginning by inciting hatred of Ethiopia and the desire to take over all or part of every neighboring country. Melesian government is based also on inciting hatred of Ethiopia and the desire to rule it at the same time.<br /><br />Notice how America's President made it through his entire African trip recently with no mention of Ethiopia (a visit would have been impossible)? Meles is certainly "an S.O.B. and our S.O.B." but he can be no part of photo ops - the loathsome odor of mendacity and the ripe smell of rotting flesh is a bit too fresh in everyone's nostrils for an American President to get too close to Meles in public.<br /><br />So - Ethiopia was just ignored while the U.S. attacks the Sudanese government over Darfur, denounces the Burmese government over street massacres, and places sanctions on the leaders of Belarus over general human rights issues. Ethiopians suffer under a regime at least as bad and certainly worse than all these targets of human rights politics here mentioned.<br /><br />The Ethiopian feudal revolutionary elite is certainly more murderous, oppressive, and corrupt than the regimes in Belarus and Burma. How about Sudan and Darfur?<br /><br />The war in the Ogaden today includes government forcing educated elements of the region's population to take up arms to fight rebels. That is an attempt to split the population, group punishment, and an attempt to simply weed out the regional educated / intelligentsia for the future when they may cause problems or speak out.<br /><br />Wells are poisoned, thousands killed and raped, and communities destroyed. Recently Meles, who has displayed a visceral sense of contempt for religion rooted in his primeval Stalinist instincts, referred to Ethiopia as an Orthodox Christian country.<br /><br />Well most Ethiopians are just that - but previously manipulating and threatening the Ethiopian clergy was his major interest in the subject. Bringing it up now is just part of his age old belief that his rule is based on divide and rule be it tribal, regional, or religious. <br /><br />Ethiopia's history of religious interaction may not be the stuff of a Disney movie but it has been remarkably peaceful and cooperative compared to the rest of Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Religion is now just a new frontier for Meles to extend his systematic destruction of all things Ethiopian for the sake of the next year, month, or even day in power.<br /><br />This also has nothing to do with fighting Al Quaeda. Meles has simply found the one thing that will get himself paid and 'respected' no matter how badly he treats Ethiopians or Somalis. For the right price and immunity for his crimes against humanity he would be making a video with Bin Laden tomorrow or kissing Kim Jong Il next week.<br /><br />......................<br /><br />Anyway, any idea that everyone controlling or leading any armed force in Ethiopia is not entirely a creature and absolutely obedient servant of Meles is simply stupid. The blog entry below is from February 2005 and has a similar theme.<br /><br />......................<br /><br /><a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2005/02/but-constitution-says-oh-nevermind.html">but the constitution says ... oh never mind</a><br /><br />This item <a href="http://www.ena.gov.et/print.asp?NewsId=158066">“National Army Expresses Support To New Peace Proposal”</a> just does not seem right. Ideally, it should not matter where the armed forces of any country stand on any political issue. Realistically, in a non-democratic system, the military may be the guarantors of government rule so military pronouncements on civilian policy are actually even more disturbing. This is crucial for a country like Ethiopia which for 17 years experienced a particularly vicious military junta. <br /><br />After the Eritrean invasion of 1998, Ethiopia became one of the few victims of aggression to ever gain an expensive victory on the battlefield who willingly submitted to binding arbitration. All members of the panel, including Ethiopia’s appointees, voted for Eritrea so a stalemate resulted. In late 2004, the Ethiopian government announced a Five Point Peace Proposal which either does or doesn‘t accept the arbitration - no one knows for sure. <br /><br />The Army Chief of Staff makes some statements that raise all manner of questions. Why must the military have “an in-depth discussion” before it supports their government? Are the soldiers going to <strong>VOTE</strong> on it? How can an army <strong>NOT</strong> be “at the disposal of a public agenda“? Finally, why must the army strive to serve “the interests of the people <strong>AND</strong> government of Ethiopia?” Are the people and the government being acknowledged to have separate interests?<br /><br />The issue here is not the Chief of Staff, but a political system that would place such an able and professional soldier in the uncomfortable position of commenting on the byzantine world of politics. Has the subject of Eritrea stirred such passions that supporters of civilian rule must be comforted? Maybe opponents of current government are being warned that both military and civilian forces are independently arrayed against them.<br /><br />It is all too confusing and like the Kremlin and Kremlinologists of old, this too requires a dedicated Gibee-ologist to sort out. One clear point is that this whole business is <strong><a href="http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/et00000_.html">unconstitutional</a></strong> anyway. Article 74 of that document says that the Prime Minister is “the Commander-in-Chief of the national armed forces“. Article 87 adds that “[t]he armed forces ... shall carry out any responsibilities as may be assigned to them [by whom?] under any state of emergency declared in accordance with the Constitution.” and that they should “ obey and respect the Constitution” while “ free of any partisanship to any political organization(s)”.<br /><br />Not one word is written there about the armed forces making up their own minds unless the bit about who assigns them in an emergency is some kind of a loophole. Civilians all over the world may respect their own country's military (in a free society only if they choose to) but the military has the absolute duty to serve civilian authority. Even rhetoric to the contrary is dangerous.<br /><br />It seems that the parts of the constitution that deny Ethiopians the right to private property and that divide them by ethnicity are meant to be taken seriously while other parts are disposable. The constitution promises all manner of human rights that aren’t respected. It also promises an absolute right to secession on demand ... but any of the 'nations, nationalities and peoples' who count on that are likely to be unpleasantly surprised. <br /><br />It is clear that the rule of law is not to be taken seriously by any serious observer. If anyone out there really thinks for a second that the army is not totally and utterly under party control - there's this bridge for sale in Brooklyn you might want to take a look at. We can get you a great price too.<br /><br />UPDATE: A reader alerted us to this April 5, 2003 Economist article (no link available) on the Ethio-Eritrean conflict and the utility of the myth of armed forces independence as a political factor. <blockquote> To diplomats from aid-giving countries, [the Ethiopian Prime Minister] argues that his generals will not accept the loss [of Badme - one of the towns given to Eritrea by arbitration]. If Badme goes to Eritrea, his government may fall, he claims, causing chaos, Ethiopia is large and volatile, and its region, the Horn of Africa, has some strategic importance, so foreigners do not dismiss this plea out of hand,</blockquote> Essentially then, the principal consumers of Ethiopian policy are aid-giving countries - who may at times have the wool pulled over their eyes quite willingly. That is why defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory in accepting arbitration and why the Five Point Peace Plan even exists.<br /><br />Any single member of the armed forces who could possibly be a threat to the already united political / military center of the ruling party would long ago have 'disappeared' or be in prison. Revolutionary parties don't win wars and stay in power tolerating any internal dissent at all. If an observer can't seperate the party from government, the military definitely can not be separated from the party.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-53506844560825588242008-02-15T03:22:00.000-08:002008-02-25T17:49:01.761-08:00Fight The Power<strong>"Our freedom of speech is freedom or death<br />We got to fight the powers that be<br />Lemme hear you say<br />Fight the power"</strong> <br /><br />Chuck D.<br /><br />................................<br /><br />There are some things that even Ethiopia's dictatorship is beyond telling sincere lies about any more. For example, on the subject of any semblance of human rights or participatory government, the accent now is on convincing ferenji donors, ferenji reporters, and the Ethiopian diaspora that everyone is better off with the resident dictators than any other options.<br /><br />The government hates having to convince anybody of anything. After all as has been made explicitly clear, they will "never give up for the sake of 'counting Ethiopian noses' what was taken by force from Mengistu". At this point readers should note the pretense of democracy is only put forth in terms that the writers themselves clearly do not take seriously even as propaganda.<br /><br />Does it matter though?<br /><br />As ever the government's principal constituency remains ferenjis who pay the bills and hold their noses and make nice with the resident dictator - hoping all the while that he doesn't embarrass them by letting some new outrage against the lives and dignity of his own people reaching the outside world.<br /><br />The Ethiopian diaspora has as a rule rather particularly refused to get with the program. Unlike tens of millions in Ethiopia itself, the only folks of Ethiopian ancestry on earth who are free to speak as they wish without their lives being in danger have stubbornly stuck by the idea that Ethiopians everywhere should have the same rights of every other variety of human being.<br /><br />The newest and oldest variety of spin to deal with these issues is simply supposed to be a mature knowing wise acceptance of reality. The recycled Meles message is <blockquote> sure, I'm a dictator, yeah I'm corrupt - but you're stuck with me forever. Just deal with it or I will hurt even more countless millions of these Ethiopians you seem so concerned with. So give me what I want and maybe you can get in on things instead of being locked out. </blockquote> A recent conversation with a cadre (more subtle than most) that one of us had spelled out the terms of this sub-Faustian bargain. <br /><br />It goes a little something like this:<br />GIVEN:<br />Meles Inc. will never leave power and never stop squeezing Ethiopians for cash<br />THEREFORE:<br />Opponents of any kind should "work within the system" in the "space provided".<br />AFTER ALL:<br />Why antagonize those who have the power to make things better or to make mistakes when there are deals to be made back home and trouble to be avoided.<br /><br />This logic should have been appreciated by the opposition who chose to react to a stolen election by not joining the Parliament "where legitimate opponents speak out against Meles everyday". They should have seen that the only way forward was to give up on big dreams and accept the reality of the present and future.<br /><br />Well ... we thank God that so many disagree with this bit of convincing, however, well it may work in some circles. <br /><br />Ferenjis in large measure have accepted it because it is not their home to begin with and their interests are career or wealth personal ones or national or institutional power or profit ones. The many ferenjis who don't play the game have to do so at considerable inconvenience to themselves compared with the usual game of 'just getting along with the native thug'.<br /><br />Tens of millions of Ethiopians have no say in this arrangement or bargain or any other one. Their signatures where signed for them in their own blood, sweat, and tears at the point of a gun.<br /><br />Ethiopians who still defy the dictatorship and those abroad though, still have obligations that can't be traded away so easily. Traded usually with nothing but a promise of returned land or homes, assurances of international bureaucrat gravy train job, or fat business deals scooping up Meles Inc. crumbs as ferenji aid money is cut up.<br /><br />In all too many cases the pot is sweetened with the sweet promise (threat of course) that they or their people will be left alone or at least suffer not too much more for the political errors of their relatives. The ugly hand of this sort of racketeering stretches its hands forth to North America and Europe as well.<br /><br />If we even momentarily accept this kind of logic then why doesn't getting along with power and seeking change within a system absolutely resistant to change apply to the following:<br />-Perhaps Nelson Mandela should have sought to change with apartheid from within and refrained from offending Botha & Co.<br />-Should the refuseniks have left Brezhnev and his cronies alone and worked on changing the gulag from within?<br />-Should the abolitionist movement have worked on slavery in a partnership with slave owners whom it was careful not to offend by saying anything bad about the 'peculiar institution'?<br />-Maybe Ghandi should have made it clear from the jump that eternal colonialism was perfectly acceptable to him as long as he got to talk in front of a few reporters whenever the Colonial Governor scheduled it.<br />-Civil Rights workers in the U.S. of the 1960's should have offered to keep segregated facilities in good public relations fettle with the courts instead of raising a fuss and making racists even angrier.<br />-The TPLF should have worked with Mengistu to change scientific socialism to revolutionary democracy from within no matter what horrors he caused because, after all, he was the author of a constitution and the dully accepted legal authority whom all were bound to accept.<br /><br />Sorry Charlie, but we and countless thousands in the diaspora and countless millions in Ethiopia aren't having any of your Melesian logic. An important corollary that sustains appeals to this logic is the neo-Mussolinian logic that Meles is at least making the economic 'trains run on time'. We will take a look at that later on.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7607535.post-86761146678028964502008-01-13T15:45:00.000-08:002008-01-26T17:45:11.066-08:00Do the Right Thing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCC4X8sNULzOkCXSJ_KlXEif7YWdYDzKPDEqxP2PVo75Mm7Dd8rqzuSO-PM56_vtxtpu03rlSEwoMfHlZjcKiw4sqEp3P9oumdPMP4Uu-bXocaZv1tRzDpKzwrgusK63i_sW-wQ/s1600-h/dtrt.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFCC4X8sNULzOkCXSJ_KlXEif7YWdYDzKPDEqxP2PVo75Mm7Dd8rqzuSO-PM56_vtxtpu03rlSEwoMfHlZjcKiw4sqEp3P9oumdPMP4Uu-bXocaZv1tRzDpKzwrgusK63i_sW-wQ/s320/dtrt.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5152513968641879858" /></a> <a href="http://www.tendernesstour.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/do_the_right_thing.jpg">image 1</a> & <a href="http://www.schalkenbach.org/images/products/427_large_image.jpg">image 2</a> <br /><br />...........................................<br /><br /><strong> "All happy families resemble each other. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."<blockquote><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina">Leo Tolstoy</a></blockquote></strong><br />Leo Tolstoy wrote the above passage at the beginning of Anna Karenina, “All happy families resemble each other. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”<br /><br />This is also true of nations - look at a map of the world and it is not difficult to pick out the prosperous, peaceful and democratic countries on every continent. Or - for that matter notice those on the way to becoming so today who scant decades before where mired in every form of lethal revolutionary stupidity. <br /><br />All of that ‘happy’ group display a basic commitment to some combination of capitalism, rational governance and respect for their citizen’s rights that absolutely predicts their reality. <br /><br />The ‘unhappy’ group reveals many different brands of oppressive ideology, religion or any other possible justifications to serve their ruling classes. As though determined to prove that Hobbes and Malthus were right those varied dictatorships worldwide make human life "poor, nasty, brutish and short" for uncountable millions while squandering resources, time and lives.<br /><br />The world has no more lessons to offer on how to move from one group to the other - reforms not revolutions work and there is no 'third way'. History may not be over but there still is only one direction to progress. <br /><br /><strong>Nations are poor and unjust exactly in proportion to the lessons their rulers quite purposefully choose to ignore in the service of their own power and at the expense of everyone else.</strong> For such rulers, ‘happiness’ is achieved with each successive day they survive in power. <br /><br />All other factors are secondary.<br /><br />......................................<br /><br /><strong> "Do the right thing."<blockquote> <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097216/">Da Mayor</a></blockquote> </strong><br />What are the 'happy' governments doing right and how should any willing government ‘do the right thing’? <br /><br />1) <strong>A Rational World View</strong> - Recognize once and for all that ideology and mantras nor bureaucratic, academic, economic, journalistic hype of any flavor will not change human nature or create wealth. The most cursory glance at a globe will show what basic policies work and which don’t. Essentially, create conditions favorable to good old fashioned capitalism - not some convenient special version of it.<br /><br />2) <strong>The Rule of Law</strong> - Enshrine a constitution and laws that leaves people alone to their own devices as much as is possible by protecting them from the necessary evil of government and the occasional evil of each other. Government and its associated political parties should have little place in the economy besides the regulation of commerce and the collection of the lowest possible tax burden.<br /><br />3) <strong>Civil Society</strong> - From the free flow of information all the way to independent civil institutions such as universities and even sports clubs, power and influence should devolve away from government. Basic rights such as private ownership of property can ensure that citizens have a government in their service and not the reverse.<br /><br />4) <strong>Limited Government</strong> - This deserves repeated emphasis. Excepting an initial dominance of basic infrastructure projects, education and public health, government should command an ever shrinking portion of national resources. Indeed, government should, within the limits of providing for law and order, be eternally suspected of wrong. <br /><br />5) <strong>Trust and Democracy</strong> - Emphasize what citizens have in common and respect tradition. While the executive should run government, she should be subject to constant criticism and fear of recall. She should have no ability to govern without the consent of popularly elected representatives and should have to obey the law as determined by an independent judiciary.<br /><br />All of the above won’t happen overnight or even necessarily concurrently, but development and improvement will be obvious from day one of a decision to accept them in principal. And no ... these things are not easy to do but even a miss in any regard is better than going in entirely the wrong direction.<br /><br />There is plenty of room in the above prescription to fit in everything from classical liberalism to Keynes and from social democracy to globalization ... As long as at some point a society is given the chance to develop and generate wealth and as long as some measure of that opportunity is sustained.\<br /><br />......................................<br /><br />This post is a companion piece to <a href="http://ethiopundit.blogspot.com/2006/12/birth-of-plenty.html">The Birth of Plenty</a>. Nothing that made donor countries wealthy and free and nothing that put so many other countries on a path to either wealth or freedom is being practiced by Ethiopian government.<br /><br />Karl Marx during a singular lucid episode wrote in the Manifesto of the Communist Party, that <blockquote>The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.</blockquote> The reality of Ethiopian government reflect none of these basics because it is not in the government's interest to do so nor is it in the interest of some of the government's core constituency, ferengis, to see it so. Indeed, the Ethiopian government is paying attention to NONE of the above goals - except for lying about them.<br /><br />From an assumption that "Africans need a strong hand" to "Meles is an S.O.B. but he his our S.O.B." onto purely monetary and career motivations - it is clear that the convergent interests that serve to make Ethiopia a nation where suffering is a tradition are legion.<br /><br />Meles Zenawi is an intelligent man but his rule is evidence that intelligence and service are not necessarily found in each other's company any more than intelligence and morality are associated. <br /><br />Ethiopians don't matter to their own government but ferengis do. What is served by the policies of Meles are his own glory and power at any cost to his subjects.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com