Open Letter to Professor Stiglitz
Professor Joseph Stiglitz
Economics Department, Columbia University
814 Uris Hall, MC 3308, 420 West 118th Street
New York, NY 10027
Dear Professor Stiglitz,
First, we Ethiopian economists and scholars express our sincere admiration for and recognition of your distinguished work in advancing the frontiers of economic thinking and your world renowned contributions to the theory of information which earned you and your colleague (Professor Grossman) the highest esteem, the award of the Nobel Prize in economics.
In light of your stature, it will not come as a surprise to you that those of us who hail from developing countries follow what you say very closely. In this regard, we kept a keen eye and learned a great deal of your interest and involvement in matters of development in the Third World over the past few years. You will agree with us that all people—irrespective of race, religion, age or other attribute– aspire to be free of oppression, poverty and corruption. The monumental changes that are taking place in Tunisia and Egypt which are now raging in the rest of North Africa and the Middle East are illustrative of the human passion for freedom and dignity. Given this emerging trend, we were astonished by your recent interview with Bloomberg (2. February 2011, “Real Risk of Spillover from Egypt Unrest”), in which you discussed the situation in Egypt. When the journalist asked what advice you would provide to the Egyptian Government you said that, “at this point they have to open up and democratize; I think there’s just no choice; I think they’ve been very slow at doing this […] they ought to follow what’sgoing on in Tunisia”. We would like to inform you how elated we were to hear your unconditional support of the democratic aspirations of the Egyptian people. The first important step toward democratization took place on February 11 when a peoples’ led popular revolutionforced President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power after ruling Egypt with an iron fist for30 years.
What we find baffling is the contradictory signals you voice. Your appreciation of the importance of democratization in Egypt clashes with your long-held posture with regard to the application of the same principles in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular. On a closer look, your critical approach to repressive governance does not appear to be applicable to Africa. We say this with justification and with the hope that you will reconsider your stand. In the past two decades you lent incalculable support, through your words and your actions, to Ethiopia’s minority dictator, Meles Zenawi, who has ruled Ethiopia for 20 years. We would like to draw your attention to Peter Gill’s book Famine and Foreigners. This insightful analysis provides the world with a detailed account of how you developed a warm and intimate friendship with the ruler of Ethiopia, and how you and Mr. Meles became brothers-in-arms against the operations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the country. Our concern is not about personal friendship but about the policy implications the friendship implies. We are talking about the legitimacy that your warm friendship and endorsements gave to the head of one of the most repressive regimes in Africa today.
Video of Stiglitz Interview on Egypt Turmoil
The Ethiopian ruler to whom you lent your undivided attention and support is the same person who has inflicted untold brutality and pain on innocent civilians, communities and the country through acts of alleged genocide, crimes against humanity and human rights violations. Mr.Meles Zenawi has stolen elections repeatedly; massacred hundreds and mass-detained over 40,000 citizens in Addis Ababa and other cities in 2005/06. Genocide Watch, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the New York Times, the State Department’s annual human rights reports and many other media, public, and human rights agencies have given careful account of these and other atrocities. The independent Global Financial Integrity group has documented billions of dollars of illicit outflow of funds under his watch.
You will agree with us that there are real consequences when internationally known intellectuals with power and influence provide legitimacy to dictators such as Mr. Meles Zenawi. On the ground, the lives of ordinary Ethiopians who are denied livelihoods, suffer from unemployment, live with hunger and face the indignities of living under a repressive system each and every day tell the real story. These Ethiopians have been caught up between your policy/ideological preference on the one hand, and your delight in finding an African ruler who is happy to play the African anti-neoliberal Robin to your Batman. Don’t you think this is unfair and unjust? We regret to say that, in your ideological and intellectual battles with the IMF in collaboration with Mr. Meles, you gave a dictator the benefits of your global status as a leading economist. He has used this to polish his international image. The cost to the Ethiopian people has been high.
African intellectuals, academics and fair minded leaders find this kind of affinity with African dictators regrettable and unbecoming of leading economist like you. What saddens and amazes us is your endorsement of Mr. Meles Zenawi’s knowledge of economics and his intellectual acumen. This, we find utterly irresponsible and intellectually dishonest. Ethiopia has many intellectual leaders scattered around the globe. Mr. Meles Zenawi is not one of them. This disservice to the Ethiopian people and to the rest of Africans is contained in your book, Globalization and its Discontents, in which you state that Mr. Zenawi “demonstrated knowledge of economics—and indeed a creativity—that would have put him at the head of any of my university classes”. You speak highly of the way he rules the country, saying “Meles combined these intellectual attributes with personal integrity: no one doubted his honesty and there were few accusations of corruption within his government.”
How do we reconcile your assessments and conclusions with other experts and global institutions such Human Rights Watch, Transparency International, Global Financial Integrity, Mo Ibrahim, Oxford University and even the World Bank? . As far as we are concerned he has several times failed his economics tests miserably. His economic policies and programs have brought untold suffering to the Ethiopian people. In the event you are not aware of his many failures, we would like to identify a most recent one. Recently he imposed price caps on a dozen or so goods. When imposing his ill-fated price caps measure, Mr. Zenawi told us that he was doing it in order to curb the month-to-month double-digit inflation that the country was experiencing. As any student who has taken principles of economics course would have predicted, the colossal failure of the price cap measure has not only backfired on his regime; it has also brought untold suffering to the Ethiopian people. As we predicted, every negative and secondary effect of price caps that any economist would theorize has been realized in Ethiopia. Mr. Zenawi’s price caps measures qualify to be cited as lessons in how to mismanage an economy. As if this is not enough, Mr. Zenawi tried to shift the blame on the Ethiopian entrepreneurs and merchants. A few days before imposing the ill-fated price caps measure, he gathered about 584 businesspersons and accused them of price gauging, hoarding and engaging in unhealthy competition. He told them that he would “cut their fingers” unless they cooperate with him. For anyone who watched the entire taunting process (and the ones before it) and Mr. Zenawi’s rants and the stunned faces and silence of the 584 businessmen and women, it was clear that the attendees were scared and did not know what to say. He met with and freighted the business community despite the fact that he had been informed (see here, for example, ) that the root causes of the price hikes and runaway inflation were the supply rigidities brought about by the opaque system that he imposed on the country. These include the creation and support of party-owned conglomerates which have dominated the vital sectors of the country’s economy, expansionary monetary policy (accompanied by negative real interest rates) and government spending- both of which have played their part in injecting liquidity into the system; lack of productivity; continuous devaluation of the birr – the latest one being the 20% devaluation announced on September 1st, 2010. To make matters worse, the latest information we have indicates that Mr. Zenawi’s government is contemplating to expand the price caps. The piling of mistakes continues unabatedly despite the fact that some of us had illustrated the negative ramifications of price caps (see hereahead of time so that lessons could be learned.
The world knows Mr. Zenawi as articulate when speaking with foreigners. Ethiopians know him as sinister and cunning, brutal and repressive. For these reasons, we are puzzled by your unreserved praise of his economics. It is a disservice to the majority of Ethiopians for you to give legitimacy to a leader whose family, party and endowments control the economy with an iron fist. He runs a party owned and controlled business empire through his wife, decimates the private sector, and instills fear into farmers of losing their land, and access to inputs. Worse, if they complain about unfairness in rural service provision they will be punished. Like us, the Economist magazine strongly differs with your assessment about Mr. Zenawi’s economics acumen, stating that the Ethiopian Government is “one of the most economically illiterate in the modern world.” A Wikileaked cable from the US Embassy to Berlin also stated: “Germany reported addressing Ethiopia’s economic situation, namely hard currency and the poor investment climate, with Meles directly and being struck by what they described as Meles’ poor understanding of economics.”
In no small part to your contribution, Mr. Zenawi’s appearance at Columbia University on 22 September, 2010, shocked the Ethiopian community in the Diaspora and in the country. His speech, the essence of which was the condemnation of neo-liberalism, was preceded by your warm welcome and introduction. You invited Mr. Zenawi to speak at World Leaders Forum at Columbia despite the fact that you were amply informed of his regime’s atrocities by many people of Ethiopian origin. Letters were sent to your institution via Lee C Bollinger, President of Colombia University, the student paper at Columbia, Columbia Spectator, and through several faculty members at Columbia.
Your University’s website initially carried the following scandalous statement about the visit. We presume that you were not unaware of the statement.
Under the seasoned governmental leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, now in hisfourth term, and vision of the Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Ethiopia has made and continues to make progresses in many areas including in education, transportation, health and energy.”
Mr. Meles Zenawi is hardly a “seasoned leader.” Ethiopians and most objective observers know him as a brutal dictator and his regime is one of the most repressive and corrupt regimes in the world today. We would like to draw your attention to the latest Freedom House report which downgraded Ethiopia’s position from “Partly Free” to “Not Free.” Using the newly installed “Anti-Terrorism Proclamation” and “Charities and Societies Proclamation” law (CSO law), the regime has muzzled freedom of expression and criminalized human rights activities. Yes, progress has been made in infrastructure projects but at the expense of quality and fairness. For example, some of our own research and the researches of others indicate that, thanks to the huge sums of donor funds, student enrolment ratios have improved but quality has deteriorated. This fact has been acknowledged on August 26, 2010, when the Ministry of Education issued a directive that categorically banned all public and private higher learning institutions from running distance education programs, and all private higher learning institutions from offering on-campus law and teachers’ education programs.
In light of the above and the ample reliable documentation of repression, gross human rights abuses, alleged genocide, single party and endowment command and control of the national economy, massive unemployment, land grab and mismanagement of the national economy, we urge you to no longer give legitimacy to the dictatorial regime led by Mr. Meles Zenawi. We believe that your past support and endorsement may have overlooked the real facts on the ground. As a Nobel Prize winner and a reputed leading economist you have provided Mr.
Most Embarrassing Allies”.) Your video of February 2, 2011 has shown that you are able to see the downfall of autocratic rulers who choke their country and economy.
We urge you to be part of a legacy of prominent voices around the globe who believe in human freedom and possibilities. At the end of the day, economic development is about people. You will agree with us that the nexus between economic development and good governance is so compelling that any form of dictatorship can’t be acceptable in North Africa, the Middle East or Sub-Saharan Africa.
We thank you in advance for your attention.
Sincerely,
On behalf of Ethiopian Development Policy Focus Group
- Getachew Begashaw, Ph.D. Professor of Economics, W.R. Harper College, Chicago, IL(Member).
14 thoughts on “Prof. Stiglitz, reconsider your support for Ethiopia’s tyrant”
Ewenetu
ladies and gentel men of my fellow ethiopians.I wanted to clear one point when it comes to Ethiopia .Ain’t no body lecture us about Ethiopia other than
Ethiopians. Just by virtue of being a noble price winner does not make him Dr. Know of Ethiopia to write the priscription for the remedy of the Ethiopian problem. An attempt should warrant the revoke of the Noble Prize.
Here is a novel Idea for Ethiopians to conceder, we no longer need an Indolent politician or a professor like him to lead us to the promise land. It is just a matter of time that the youth of Ethiopia to start fighting for his right like his counter part in Tunisia and Egypt.
I was delighted to see the young lead revolution exploded and toppled dictators in both countries, my joy was two fold, glad the dictators are gone and the peoples are free, glad also the spontaneous revolution were lead by the youth of the two countries . You see, professor stiglitz is already paid by the dictator for his service and the above forty politician will never take a risk. In case of Ethiopia most of the political leaders if they got that chance will not do better than the one we already have. Now a days every Ethiopian politician try to start his own small party in foreign land, unlike US where you become rich and powerful by owning your own business, In a country like poor Ethiopia most of these low lives believe that you can only achieve power and fame by controlling a piece of the high office in the government.
Talk is cheap these days and no one has the time to listen to the old and tired politics or this corrupt professor, when the time comes we will simply copy American system for now and apply it to Ethiopia, people will choose not only the president but also their governor etc..
To my amazement some of our ‘intellectuals’ even try to divide us based on our language. Let me give you one example, In a free country the government will no longer be in the news business. TV , radio and news paper will be owned by civilians , since you own the means of production the decision is only yours what language your station uses to broadcast. I heard Ethiopia have eighty different languages, that means you can have at the minimum eighty radio stations. Therefore, don’t listen again to these Idiots who repeatedly complain about Amharic language, instead the youth of Ethiopia organize under one flag and fight like the Egyptian!! again, In the future every corner of the country will have these radio or television stations and only the market will determine the success or failure of each station.
#1, I agree with you. Here is a lesson for all of us:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7346812n
Professor Joseph Stiglitz one of courrupted American politicians.Everything they do is from American and Israel interest.Professor Joseph Stiglitz knew he was in the wrong side but who cares ,as long as benefited Israel,America or his personal interest.Their interest is our misery,and our interest is their misery.Don’t blame him he is one of them,just ignore him and let us make history like Egyptians.We made him big by seeking his recognition.for me he is not existing.Even he talks looks like Bush the moron!
Intellectuals played a significant role in freedom of the people in many struggles using their influence. At the same time, we can not argue saying those in corrupt governments are not educated. So; intellectuals are not immune to lend hand or participate in corruption for the greater bid by selling out their conscious and ethic value. What defines Meles is not a support of West, or some Nobel prize winner or hate of Ethiopians; but Meles is judged & will be judged by what he did & doing against his own people. This truth is not hidden from any interested group or individual or nation. It is written history. Who knows what is getting in return by supporting or preaching the goodness of Meles…a hectar of farm land in Gambella ?
By being surprised what this intellectual is doing gives him more prize, as if he is an angel. He is a product of the society or other intellectual.
This is probably the clearest evidence what this so-called “Nobel Prize” is all about. We long ago know that it does not necessarily reward excellence. But rewarding dissimulation is aggravation.
This guy hails from the narrow minded section of the west who believe that Africans need to feed themselves first before they talk about democracy and human rights. well, twenty years of dictatorship has brought nothing but misery and deprivation to the people of Ethiopia. the authors of this article are economists and probably could have some kind of respect for this economist’s other work aside from endorsing meles and his economic theory. But i had enough of this guy when he suggested that the obama administration should follow meles zenawi’s economic policy as a model to get us out of the 2008 recession. In truth, this guy’s support to meles zenawi has a lot to do with the reception and the fake attention that he draws any time he visits Ethiopia. The ability to get an easy access to the little dictator has a lot to do with the ringing endorsement. it is unimaginable to think that such high esteemed professor in his field would knowingly allow to be manipulated by a lame dictator. one would think that this guy is probably sadistic and gets pleasure out of somebody’s misery when he supports an evil empire like the woyane regime in Ethiopia.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, do understand how Mr. Meles is a dictator and an illiterate to economics. His recognition of Mr. Meles as an example of best leaders in Africa is intentional, to keep dictators on power as long as possible for the purpose of undermining and destroying the economical empowerment of the third world Countries.
Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Americans do not appreciate blood money, money earned at the cost of peoples life in poor nations. The USA is to spread democracy through out the world, in that do not support and recognize dictators.
As an Ethiopian I erg you together with my fellow Ethiopians to divorce your attachment and support to the dictator in Ethiopia and around the world. I also erg you to reconsider your recognition of knowledge, the standard that you measure understanding a subject, must be inconsistent with the provision that governs the statue of education. Do not award PH.D to undergrad.
Thank you
I sent this letter to the Prof, on his personal email. I will share with you, if he responds.
Dear Prof;
Please share us your thoughts and your response to this plea from your academic counterparts. http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/31671 For so long, you have given deaf ears to such requests, and you have given blind eyes to the wrong doings of the Ethiopian dictator. Please seize this opportunity, to either reconsider your support for Meles, making independent research of your own, or to defend him with substantive and persuasive reasons. Please don’t just dismiss us or those people who wrote you this letter, just as remnants of the previous derg regime, or Amhara Chauvinists.Meles might have defended himself this way in response to whatever opposition he faced– just dismissing his critics as remnants of the previous regime and Amhara chauvinists. The truth is, most of us who oppose him, have not even been born by the time Dergue was established, and most of those others, like the ones who wrote the letter, have been outside spectators in that chaotic history of the country.
We find it very much troubling to see double standard on your part, when it comes to the question of freedom and democracy in Africa vis-a-vis other parts of the world. You even don’t show respect to the views of pro-democracy activists from this part of the world, who urge you to withdraw your support for the dictator, and to support our struggle fro freedom, or at-least, to not contribute to making the struggle so hard. Being aware of your academic work and most of your views in different forums, including the one in the above link, I really don’t consider you one of those eugenicist pundits who have no shame declaring and propagating that the people of Africa “are not ready for democracy.” I really don’t believe that you share the view which says: unlike other human beings, Africans and Arabs are naturally inclined to waive their freedom and human dignity for the sake of economic prosperity. I would be very happy to see your public response to the open letter that those scholars have written for you, and I am sure that you would prove me right by at-least responding to the open letter: http://www.ethiopianreview.com/content/31671
Kind regards,
Wube
If Meles Zenawi is to be considered at the “head” of Prof. Stiglitz’s economic classes … I kindly ask the professor to recommend him for a Nobel Prize too. I am sure there will not be any surprize if he gets it! This professor’s attitude to that scar in the history of Ethiopia demonstrates, among the numerous imaginations, at least two indelible facts: (1) He is insulting the intelligence and knowledge of the Ethiopian economists, wherever they are;he thinks the voiceless is always powerless, (2) What kind of classes he conducts in that university, if this guy is one of the smartest? By the way, this area of study[Economics], like other hazy social sciences, appears to me a convenient hiding place for the quasi-intellectual ruble and for the meanest politicians.
He probably saw something different in Meles. Look all leaders do what ever the World Bank says and they sale their Banks,Telecoms,Airlines …to big US or EU companies but in Ethiopia that is not the case. Look again how he is daring and is busting the inflation before it bubbles too much. While others react, Meles acts in advance even before the problem swells. He has even written a nice book on economics- developmental state. I am not aware of our PHDs writing any major book other than a kind of columns on Ethiomedia. Admit it the guy is genius as the same time ruthless dictator. Professor Stiglitz had made the write observation when it comes to Meles’ knowledge of economics but regarding democracy and human right that is not the professor’s specialty.
Lema,
Which Lema is this? You are becoming fast, by bits and bound ,a refined Weyane cadre. In a single paragraph you cited much unsubstantiated garbage about your pay master ‘s accomplishment. He is not all that what you want us to believe. He might posses average intelligence, with an exadurated tone of pretentiousness.
Tunisia,Egypt,Yemen,Bahrain,Algeria & more to come are supported by west for so many years,unfortunately. The west never complain they are dictators until the popular revolution proved it so. This man who is anointed by Nobel group to get legitimacy & audience to preach the gospel of Western policy by ‘supporting’ dictators is doing his job. When you listen talking about Egypt. he is not serious supporting Meles. He is doing exactly what the western governments doing. Give support as far as you get what you want for the benefit of western backfiring policy. Do not be surprised if this same person give an interview about Meles when the inevitable Ethiopian popular revolt sweep away the ethnic-based brutal government, one day.
We Ethiopians are genuine,straight forward and expect everyone to be like us. It doesn’t work that way in politics. Every institution works for the same goal in the west, the media, education, law firms, lobby group, military & police. in some cases ‘churches’ on & on. This person is doing what he is trained for as Economist. It is normal for him. He will switch his tone towards a new leader as any western government does! That is why he ‘won’ Nobel prize…surprise!
This fact of foreign swindlers nurturing African dictatoship for their own purposes is not new. What is new is that they can no longer escape the glare of mass media, thanks to consciencious journalists and the Internet. Even governmental consipiracy can no longer hide under “classified” information.
Prof. Stiglitz and other similar racists assume that they can use ignorance and sycophancy for their own purposes. [what is more regretable is when it comes from the academia!] I think this case is not getting enough publicity. The open letter those Ethiopian scholars humbly and politely wrote to him needs to be published as widely as possible, including translations into numerous Ethiopian languages. If he responds to the request, that also needs to be published. If he ignores it, as could be expected from such hypocrites and racists, that also needs to be published.