On December 21, 1987, Time Magazine on its cover page featured a downcast and crestfallen young Ethiopian mother as a symbol of famine victims in that country. Time asked two timeless questions: “Why are Ethiopians starving again? What should the world do and not do?”
In its analysis, Time wrote something that should strikes us all as déjà vu today.
Three years ago [1984], a famine began to strike Ethiopia with apocalyptic force. Westerners watched in horror as the images of death filled their TV screens: the rows of fly-haunted corpses, the skeletal orphans crouched in pain… Today Ethiopia is in the midst of another drought… Ethiopia, which has earned the unhappy honor of being rated the globe’s poorest country by the World Bank (average annual per capita income: + $110; infant mortality rate: 16.8%), is on the brink of disaster again. At least 6 million of its 46 million people face starvation, and only a relief effort on the scale of the one launched three years ago will save them… As the cry [for aid] goes out once more for food and money, the sympathetic cannot be faulted for wondering why this is happening all over again. Is the latest famine wholly the result of cruel nature, or are other, man-made forces at work that worsen the catastrophe?…
In 2011, Ethiopia is the second poorest country in the world despite fanciful claims of 15 a percent annual economic growth and fantasies of building the largest hydroelectric dams in all of Africa by dictator Meles Zenawi. According to official statements of the Zenawi regime, 4.5 million of the estimated 90 million Ethiopians need 380 metric tons of food at a cost of USD$400 million. Jason Frasier, mission director of USAID in Ethiopia recently cautioned that Zenawi’s regime “may be underestimating the country’s needs in its drought crisis, even as the government announced that 4.5 million Ethiopians need food aid, 40 percent more than last year. We are concerned that we are underestimating the situation, especially in the southern provinces.” We are back to the future in 1984!
On August 17, 2011, Wolfgang Fengler, a lead economist for the World Bank, weighed in with a definitive answer to Time’s question: “The [famine] crisis is man made. Droughts have occurred over and again, but you need bad policymaking for that to lead to a famine.” In other words, it is bad governance that is at the core of the famine problem in Ethiopia, not drought. This is a rare and refreshing departure from the all-too-common bureaucratic mumbo jumbo about the causes of famine often spouted by international aid agencies and multilateral organizations.
TEN REASONS WHY ETHIOPIANS ARE STARVING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN…
Reason #1: Famine is not merely a humanitarian catastrophe in Ethiopia; it is a powerful political and military weapon.
There is a long and ignoble history of political and military weaponization of famine in Ethiopia. In the mid-1980s, the military junta government of Mengistu Hailemariam used famine to punish civilian populations perceived to support rebels in the northern part of the country. The junta prevented delivery of food aid in rebel-held areas (as did the rebels themselves) and implemented a cruel policy of forced migration of civilians in an effort to drain recruits and deny support to the rebels. Zenawi’s regime pursued the same policy to defeat alleged rebels in the Ogaden region and has further used humanitarian aid to consolidate power and starve out his opposition as documented recently in a BIA/BIJ report. Mao Zedong taught that “Guerrillas are like fish, and the people are the water in which fish swim.” Both Zenawi and Megistu understood that by militarily and politically weaponizing famine, they can poison and drain the water in the lake. No water! No fish! No problem!
Reason # 2: Famine is a recurrent fact in Ethiopia because that country has been in an endless cycle of dictatorship for decades.
Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen argues that “there has never been a famine in a functioning multi-party democracy.” In a competitive political process with a functioning free press, there is a much higher degree of political accountability. No freely elected government could afford to ignore famine or abstain from doing all it can to prevent it. Opposition politicians will make famine a major political issue to win elections. A free press will mobilize public opinion to hold those in power accountable for letting “famine occur on their watch.” In Ethiopia, opposition political parties are non-existent. In 2005, Zenawi jailed the entire leadership of the opposition for nearly two years. He even jailed the first woman political party leader in Ethiopian history, Birtukan Midekssa, and with sadistic indifference declared, “there will never be an agreement with anybody to release Birtukan. Ever. Full stop. That’s a dead issue.” No opposition, no multiparty democracy, no free press, no accountability equals recurrent famines.
Reason # 3: Famine in Ethiopia is an annual crisis because dictators do not give a damn if the people die one by one or by the millions.
The current rulers of Ethiopia, like their junta predecessor, continue to derive spiritual guidance from their patron saints: Stalin and Mao (Chinese financial support today is one of the cornerstones of Zenawi’s regime). Stalin was blasé and arrogantly dismissive of the Ukraine famine of the early 1930s. He said, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” In 1959 during China’s Great Famine, Mao was equally matter-of-fact: “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.” Mengistu said there was no famine when millions of Ethiopians dropped like flies from starvation in 1984-85. But Zenawi is more cunning and pretty slick when it comes to public relations. He said there are emergencies, but no famines. “Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so long, it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch – emergencies, but no famines.”
Reason #4. Famine is a structural part of the Ethiopian economy because the “government” owns all the land.
It is said of the golden rule that he who controls the gold makes the rules. The same can be said of land in Ethiopia. Those who own the land makes the rules for those who till the land. Article 40 (1) of the Ethiopian Constitution provides that “the right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia.” For all intents and purposes, that means the ruling regime and its supporters own the land. The regime controls who gets what plot of urban or farm land. The regime sells, leases or otherwise traffics in land without any accountability. Recently, the regime sold a large chunk of the country’s most fertile land to Indian companies for pennies: “For £150 a week (USD$245), you can lease more than 2,500 square kilometres of virgin, fertile [Ethiopian] land – an area the size of Dorset, England – for 50 years, plus generous tax breaks.” The bottom line is that those who own the land are more interested in meeting the needs of other people in other places than the Ethiopian people. Zenawi has condemned Ethiopian developers who were transferring their leaseholds in urban land in Addis Ababa as “land grabbers” and “speculators” who should be “locked up”. The old feudal landlords are today replaced by new landlords in designer suits.
Reason # 5: Famine persists in Ethiopia because massive human rights abuses persist.
The Zenawi regime is well-known for trashing the human and constitutional rights of Ethiopian citizens. Perhaps unknown to many is the regime’s flagrant violation of its affirmative legal duty to provide a “standard of living adequate for the health and well-being… including food for its citizens.” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights 25(1); The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Article 11(2) [“fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”]; Ethiopian Constitution, Article 90 of the Constitution, [“provide all Ethiopians with access to public health and education, clean water, housing, food and social insurance”]. Weaponizing hunger to decimate one’s opposition is a crime against humanity. But hunger is the new weapon of choice in human rights violations in Ethiopia. Those who oppose the regime are not only denied humanitarian food and relief aid, they are also victimized through a system of evictions, denial of land or reduction in plot size as well as denial of access to loans, fertilizers, seeds, etc. In the case of the people of Gambella, entire communities are forced off the land to make way for Indian investors in violation of conventions that protect the rights of indigenous peoples. Zenawi’s regime believes that the most effective way of crushing the hearts and minds of the people is by keeping their stomachs empty.
Reason #6: Famine persists in Ethiopia because Zenawi has succeeded in keeping the famine hidden.
Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 pretended there was no famine until the documentary “the Hidden Famine” by Jonathan Dimbleby was aired to a shocked and angry Ethiopian public. Former junta leader Mengistu was arrogantly dismissive during the 1984-85 famine. He asked, “What famine?” Zenawi is far more cunning. His solution is to clampdown on the press and shut the country down to all foreign journalists and media representatives. If any foreign journalists should somehow manage to get through, jail them. That is exactly what he did recently to two Swedish journalists, photojournalist Johan Persson and reporter Martin Schibbye, who were arrested in the Ogaden region where the regime has committed massive human rights violations for years. Regime representative Dina Mufti explained that the two journalists “will be tried according to the national law … for the terrorist activities they were planning to undertake.” Woubshet Taye, deputy editor of Awramba Times (a struggling weekly paper) and one of the few female journalists in the country, Reyot Alemu of Feteh (another struggling weekly paper) newspapers were recently jailed on bogus charges that they were “organizing a terrorist network.” Since there is no independent press in the country and those trying to offer an alternative voice are subject to intimidation, arrest and detention, the famine remains hidden not unlike the days of Emperor Haile Selassie.
Reason #7: Famine persist in Ethiopia because there is a “conspiracy of silence” by Western aid agencies and timid NGOs.
Zenawi has made it clear that anyone who disputes his claim of 15 percent annual economic growth and rosy picture of the country will be thrown out of the country, vilified or not allowed to operate. Recently, when Ken Ohashi, the World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia said Zenawi’s economic plan (“Growth and Transformation Plan”) is unsustainable, Zenawi unleashed his legendary vitriol on him: “The World Bank [country] director is used to having other developing nations simply listen to his orders and is not used to nations refusing implement policy based on their wishes. He left here after we refused to let him tell us what to do and wrote this article to get back at us.” In other words, attack the man’s integrity savagely to divert attention from the man’s message.
But all NGOs and international aid agencies know never to use the “F” word, unless of course they use it to deny there is no famine. That is precisely what USAID Deputy Administrator Gregory Gottlieb did last week on a VOA broadcast. He said, “There is no famine in Ethiopia.” The strange thing is that it does not seem Gottlieb had spoken about the “situation” to Jason Fraser, mission director of USAID in Ethiopia, before making his glib declaration. Fraser said, “We are concerned that we are underestimating the situation, especially in the southern provinces [in Ethiopia].” So the conspiracy of silence goes on to keep the famine hidden by using euphemisms. It is not FAMINE, it is the “situation”, severe malnutrition, food insecurity, food crisis [when Zenawi recently visited China, Premier Wen Jiabao called the famine “crisis”], green drought and so on. The “crisis” is not the result of lack of preventive or long-range planning, official incompetence, corruption, criminal negligence, etc., but the effect of “erratic rains damaged or delayed crops, deforestation overgrazing” and other ecological, environmental, and climatic disasters.
The international poverty mongers are so slick that they have even invented a “scientific” classification system for famine: “Acute Food Insecurity, Stressed, Crisis, Emergency and Catastrophe.” They want us to believe that famine is some sort of neatly-staged transitional process. For a mother and child who have not eaten for days or scrimp on ten kilograms of grain a month, the famine taxanomy is meaningless. It would be interesting to hear what famine victims would say when they are told that they will not be in a famine state until they drop dead! The fact of the matter is that a famine by any other name is still famine and just as deadly!
On the other hand, the international agencies and NGOs have a manifest conflcit of interest because by revealing the truth aboout the famine, they are likely to run the risk of a severe tongue-lashing (See Ohashi above), exoposure that their programs are a waste, or if an NGO, deceritifcation and expedited removal from the country. They would rather turn a blind eye and remain silent than use the “F” word.
Reason # 8: Famine persist in Ethiopia because the regime in power for 20 years has failed to devise and implement an effective family planning policy.
In 1993, Zenawi’s “Transitional Government of Ethiopia” in its “National Population Policy of Ethiopia” (NPPE) declared that “its major goal [was] the harmonization of the rate of population growth and the capacity of the country for the development and rational utilization of natural resources thereby creating conditions conductive to the improvement of the level of welfare of the population.” It aimed to reduce “total fertility rate of 7.7 children per woman to approximately 4.0 by the year 2015 by mounting an effective country wide population information and education programme, expanding clinical and community based contraceptive distribution services, raising the minimum age at marriage for girls and removal of unnecessary restrictions pertaining to the advertisement, propagation and popularization of diverse conception control methods.” In 1993 Ethiopia’s population was estimated at 53 million. In 2011, the population is estimated at 91 million. The numbers speak for themselves!
Reason # 9: Famine in Ethiopia is good business.
There are many who profit from economic emergences created by famines. There is much money to be made from trafficking in famine relief aid. According to FAO’s Global Food Monitor for August 2011, in Ethiopia and other Horn countries “prices of cereals have reached record levels… well above their levels a year earlier, substantially reducing access to food by large numbers of population and aggravating the food insecurity in the subregion.” Who benefits from the high prices? Regime-allied middlemen buy massive amounts of grains from farmers at low prices (by offering what appears to be a generous price at the time) and eliminate legitimate small businesses that deal in grain. The same middlemen have an absolute monopoly on the acquisition, sale and distribution of agricultural commodities, and it is not hard to imagine how profitable famines could be. It makes perfect economic sense from the perspective of famine profiteering to place low policy priority on famine prevention and control. It’s the old supply and demand curve. High demand for food and less supply and a chokehold monopoly on the market, and complete control on the distribution of international food aid equals to “mo’ money, mo’ money, and mo’ money” for those in power. Grotesque as it may sound, famine is good for business.
Reason # 10: It is true “a hungry man/woman is an angry man/woman.” Is it not?
The great Bob Marley sang:
Them belly full, but we hungry;
A hungry mob is a angry mob.
…
Cost of livin’ gets so high,
Rich and poor they start to cry:
Now the weak must get strong;
…
Now the weak must get strong.
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
Americans fed up with uncontrolled deficit government spending are often heard invoking a familiar battle cry: “Starve the Beast!” In other words, no more taxpayer dollars for wasteful government spending.
I say we stand up to the to Western donors and loaners who continue to support the criminal regime of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia and declare: “Starve the Beast, Feed the People!” No more aid to a regime that clings to power by digging its fingers into the ribs of starving children. No more aid to torturers and human rights violators. No aid to election thieves. No aid to those who roll out a feast to feed their supporters and watch their opponents starve to death. Let’s shout in a collective voice to the West — America, England, Germany, the European Union, the IMF, World Bank and the rest of them–: “Starve the bloated beast feeding on the Ethiopian body politics, and help feed the starving people.”
The Nature, Care and Feeding of the Beast
For two decades, the West has been feeding Zenawi’s regime with billions of dollars of development and humanitarian aid while filling the stomachs of starving Ethiopians with empty words and emptier promises. Western donors continue to lay out an all-you-can-eat aid buffet for Zenawi’s regime while turning a blind eye, a deaf ear and muted lips to the misuse, abuse and disuse of their taxpayers’ dollars. Despite billions of dollars in Western aid and Zenawi’s nonstop hype of a 15 percent annual economic growth, the Oxford University Multidimensional Poverty Index last year ranked Ethiopia as the world’s second poorest country, after Niger. But Zenawi brazenly insists Ethiopia will fully ensure its food security and cut extreme poverty and hunger (“severe malnutrition”) by 50 percent in 2015.
The evidence is {www:incontrovertible} that the West has adopted a “hear, see, say no evil” policy towards the Zenawi regime. Recently leaked confidential emails of Timothy Clarke, the European Union’s (EU) former ambassador in Ethiopia, show that following the May 2005 Ethiopian elections Clarke made an urgent request to the European Union for some action to restrain Zenawi: “Basic human rights abuses are being committed by the [Ethiopian] government on a daily basis – the EU must respond firmly and resolutely.” The EU and other Western donors “responded firmly” by rewarding Zenawi with billions of dollars of new aid money.
The evidence further shows that Western donors and loaners could not care less what Zenawi does with the humanitarian and development aid they give him. For instance, an audit report by the Office of the Inspector General of US AID in March 2010 came to the horrifyingly astounding and mind-bogglingly incredible conclusion that the US AID has no idea what is happening to its agricultural programs in Ethiopia. The Report stated (at p. 1):
The audit was unable to determine whether the results reported in USAID/Ethiopia’s Performance Plan and Report were valid because agricultural program staff could neither explain how the results were derived nor provide support for those results. Indeed, when the audit team attempted to {www:validate} the reported results by tracing from the summary amounts to the supporting detail, it was unable to do so at either the mission or its implementing partners… In the absence of a complete and current performance management plan, USAID/Ethiopia is lacking an important tool for monitoring and managing the implementation of its agricultural program.
In other words, the Inspector General has no confidence in the report of the program staff. Is somebody cooking the books and pulling out statistics out of their back pockets?
But lack of proper auditing to determine what has happened to the aid money is only part of the problem. Equally shocking is the fact that Western donors have ignored time and again credible evidence and warnings that their development and humanitarian aid is being misused, abused and disused to oppress and deny human rights to Ethiopians. In September 2008, Channel 4 News in Britain, the award-winning news program noted for its extensive coverage of international news, reported extensively on how Zenawi’s regime has been using famine as a weapon against civilians in suspected rebels areas.
In December 2010, Human Rights Watch called on the Development Assistance Group (DAG), a coordinating body of 26 foreign donor institutions for Ethiopia to “independently investigate allegations that the Ethiopian government is using development aid for state repression.” In July 2010, aDAG-commissioned study issued a whitewash which concluded that its Productive Safety Nets Programs (alleged to provide “basic services in education, health, agriculture, water supply, sanitation, and rural roads”) and Protection of Basic Services Programs (alleged to “protect and promote the delivery of basic services by sub-national governments while deepening transparency and local accountability in service delivery”) “are supported by relatively robust accountability systems.” In other words, none of the aid money was misused for political or other improper purposes.
In August 2011, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC reported the “Ethiopian government is using millions of pounds of international aid to punish their political opponents.” The report presented compelling evidence of how “aid is being used as a weapon of oppression propping up the government of Meles Zenawi.” Despite numerous documented reports of aid abuse and misuse, Western leaders continue to hide behind a policy of plausible deniability and do nothing pointing to the massaged and embellished reports of the faceless swarms of international bureaucratic poverty-mongers creeping invisibly in Ethiopia.
Starve the Beast!
The best way of preventing famine and massive human rights violations in Ethiopia is simply by denying all aid and loans to Zenawi’s regime. In March 2011, I discussed the grave moral hazard in U.S. policy in Ethiopia and Africa in general, but the logic of my argument applies to all Western donors:
By shifting the risk of economic mismanagement, incompetence and corruption to Western donors, and because these donors impose no penalty or disincentive for poor governance, inefficiency, corruption and repression, African regimes are able to cling to power for decades abusing the human rights of their citizens and stealing elections. Western donors continue to bail out failed African states for two reasons…. Recent Wikileaks cablegrams have documented that the most important objective for Western policy makers in Africa is to support a strongman who can guarantee them stability so that they can continue to do business as usual. Basically, they want a “guy they can do business with.” Second, Western donors believe that the few billions of aid dollars given every year to guarantee “stability” in African countries is more cost effective than helping to nurture genuinely democratic societies in Africa. The moral hazard in Western policy comes not just from the fact that they provide fail-safe insurance to repressive regimes but also from the rewards of increasing amounts of aid and loans to buffer them from a tsunami of democratic popular uprising.
As long as the U.S., U.K. and the rest of them continue to bankroll Zenawi’s regime, Ethiopia will be in a permanent state of famine and starvation of not only food but also democracy and human rights. But the West is not fooling Ethiopians, and they should not believe that because Ethiopians are poor they are also gullible . Ethiopians can clearly see the evidence of Western {www:hypocrisy} about democracy, human rights and accountability in their country.
The U.S. talks a good talk about accountability and prevention of corruptionbut will not walk the talk and put the brakes on aid-related corruption in Ethiopia. The height of U.S. hypocrisy in aid to African countries is evident in the recent rhetoric of the top U.S. aid official. This past May, Rajiv Shah, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) {www:harangue}d the leaders of the yet-to-be 54th African state of South Sudan that “President Barrack Obama is ready to invest millions in South Sudan” but “it remains the mandate of the government of South Sudan to ensure that all funds directed towards improving agricultural productivity are not diverted for other purposes. We need accountability.”
South Sudan was not even a formal sovereign state in May 2011 when Shah got on his high horse to scare the dickens out of the heroic leaders of that long-suffering nation. But South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit has anti-corruption on the top of his agenda: Last week, he told lawmakers at the opening session of the South Sudan’s new parliament that “The people of South Sudan will not sit idly and allow corruption and abuses of public resources to continue unabated. We need to abide with the principles of accountability.”
But accountability is not a word that will slip past Shah lips even accidentally when it comes to Zenawi. Despite the accumulated evidence of misuse and abuse of U.S. aid in Zenawi’s regime over the years, Shah’s lips remain zipped. What a hypocrite!
The U.S. needs to make a fundamental choice of policy in Ethiopia: continue to unreservedly support Zenawi and his repressive regime in the name of promoting American military and security policy in the Horn of Africa by providing him billions in aid and risk a sudden popular upheaval, or take measured steps to strike a balance between its security interests and support for the human rights and welfare of the Ethiopia people. Current U.S. policy is out of kilter and skewed towards blindly supporting Zenawi so long as he is seen to be a guarantor of “stability” and a proxy warfighter in the region. U.S. policy needs to change!
The U.S. should learn from recent events in North Africa and the Middle East. Ethiopians are no different from other oppressed peoples in their demands for dignity, respect for their human rights and insistence in having a voice in their governance. Like all oppressed people, they want to be free from persecution, brutality and dictatorship. They want to be free to elect their own representatives, to speak their minds and to hold their leaders accountable. They want what Jefferson and the founders of the American Republic wanted when they declared their independence 1776: “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends [life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness], it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”
Feed the People!
The current famine in Ethiopia requires use of new rules of engagement for the West. It should be no longer acceptable for the West to hand over billions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid to Zenawi and look the other way wishing no one will seek accountability on how the aid is used. Western donors and loaners must attach and stringently apply transparency requirements on Zenawi’s regime and insist on maintaining effective independent oversight in the storage, transportation, and distribution of humanitarian aid in the Ethiopia. Rigorous and sustained oversight is also needed for the administration of development aid. Ultimately, the West needs to come to terms with a larger moral issue. Ought they give aid to a regime which uses that aid to systematically engage in repression and persecution of its opponents and massive human rights abuses with impunity?
For well over four decades, U.S. humanitarian aid policy in Ethiopia has been driven by rescue or crisis intervention. Recently, describing the situation in Ethiopia and the Horn region as the “most severe humanitarian emergency” and the “worst that East Africa has seen in several decades”, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced $17 million in new U.S. aid. As of August 15, 2011, total Western humanitarian pledges, commitments and contributions to Ethiopia amount to USD$574 million. The U.N. estimates some 12 million people in Ethiopia and the region are in danger of starvation and at least USD$2.5 billion is needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe this year. Everyone knows a lot more money than $2.5 billion is needed to deal with the expanding famine.
The fact of the matter is that the famine in Ethiopia and the Horn region in 2011 is occurring under the least favorable international famine relief environment in history. There are clear signs of donor fatigue (people tired of giving to famine relief) in countries where relief has been forthcoming in the past. Americans are experiencing severe economic problems of their own with overstretched budgets, two wars, a rising debt problem and a possible “double-dip” recession. They are most likely give to their churches, favorite charities and organizations and local community groups before stretching a helping hand to famine victims in Africa.
European countries are experiencing severe economic problems also. If the recent riots in poor communities in the U.K. are any indication, those residents may insist on getting the billions in aid earmarked to Ethiopia by Howard Taylor, head of the British aid program to Ethiopia. Most of the other Western donor countries are preoccupied with their own financial woes, high unemployment, debt crises and general economic downturn. There are no celebrities to raise money for Ethiopia. The great Michael Jackson has fallen silent and will not sing “We Are the World” to save Ethiopia’s famine victims. Bob Geldof is nowhere in sight to assemble another Band Aid; and he will not be singing “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” again after he was roundly criticized last year following revelations of misused relief aid in 1984 by Zenawi’s rebel group.
The famine of 2011 will be like no other and the toll it will take will be heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.
A Blast From the Past
Last week Mengistu Hailemariam, the junta leader and father of the infamous “Red Terror” campaign in Ethiopia in the late 1970s and the man who flat out denied there was any famine in 1984-85 when a million people died like flies from starvation, crawled from under his rock in Zimbabawe and gave an interview. He blasted the “woyane” regime waiving the flag of Ethiopian nationalism. In his “message” to the Ethiopian people Mengistu said, “Everyone knows the current situation in Ethiopia. All Ethiopians have a duty to free Ethiopia from woyane. If they fail to do that, generations to come will condemn them and we will all wear a blanket of shame.” The history books are full of anecdotes in which Stalin and Hitler condemned each other. Mengistu can wrap himself in the Ethiopian flag from head to toe but it will not blanket his monstrous crimes nor his long train of abuses while he was in power. He cannot conceal his blood-drenched hands by wrapping it in the Ethiopian flag. Remarkably, Mengistu’s memory has faded over the years. He should be reminded that the “woyane” he now wants the Ethiopian people to kick out are the same “woyane” he allowed to march into town unopposed 20 years ago as he sneaked out to his hideout in Zimbabwe in the dead of night. Mengistu should know the difference between himself and Meles to Ethiopians is the exact same difference between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
How To Save Ethiopia from a Famine of Food and Democracy
President Obama said, “This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.” The “moment” to “save” Ethiopia is now! But is there anything President Obama and the world can do to save Ethiopia?
Author’s Note: On June 16, 2008, I published a special commentary (reproduced below in its original form) explaining the sysetmatic use of disinformation by Meles Zenawi, the dictator in Ethiopia for two decades, to deny widespread famine in various parts of Ethiopia and insidiously manipulate famine as a political and military weapon to cling to power. I wrote: “Famine is not just about images of skeletal children gasping for their last breath of air as their mothers gaze into nothingness in the sun baked landscape. It is also a military and political weapon. Meles today is using denial of food aid to “rebel areas” in the south/southeast as did Mengistu to “rebel areas” in the north back in his day. That is the classic strategic lesson Meles learned from Mengistu. Famine can be used both as a tactical and strategic weapon against one’s opponents…” I offer that commentary which originally ran without a byline to my readers at this time in light of recent revelations by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the BBC showing that the U.S., Britain, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are still providing billions of dollars of aid to Zenawi’s regime despite evidence that it is used as a tool of political oppression in Ethiopia. Shame on them all!
Credit must be given where it’s due. And Meles Zenawi and his crew deserve full credit. For perfecting the art of denial (lying) just like the smooth career criminals who deny everything when caught: “Didn’t do it! Wasn’t there! Didn’t happen! Somebody else did it. Someone stole my fingerprints to make it look like I done it!” Deny, deny, deny!
Famine? What famine? That’s the response of Meles and his gang about the famine that is slowly enveloping Ethiopia, and swallowing its people region by region. A few days ago, the reptilian “Deputy Prime Minister” Addisu Legesse groused: “Institutions that exaggerate the food shortage in Ethiopia and report inflated figures of the needy are intent on belittling the economic growth of the country and calculating their interests.” According to Meles, Inc. Ministry of Disinformation, the whole famine thing is a figment of the overactive imagination of the foreign media and humanitarian organizations: “It is ridiculous and unethical that some media outlets are reporting as if food grain price hike is typical of Ethiopia, though it is known that the existing global price hike is a result of soaring price of oil and ever-increasing demand of food grain among the developing countries. The reporting of some media is very much exaggerated and far from the truth,” concluded the garbled statement of the Disinformation Ministry.
The bottom line from Meles Inc. is: There is no famine in Ethiopia. Just millions of Ethiopians who can’t afford to buy food because it is damn too expensive! But Meles runs a pretty slick disinformation campaign: Blame the international commodities markets for high food prices in Ethiopia, and demonize the foreign media and aid organizations for ruining Ethiopia’s image. Then dish out boldfaced lies to distract public attention from the raging famine, and promptly declare victory: “The country has registered during the last five consecutive years rapid double digit economic growth…”
The fact of the matter is that people in Ethiopia are starving to death, by the thousands every day. There is no question about that: “We’re overwhelmed,” said Margaret Aguirre recently, a spokeswoman for the International Medical Corps, a California-based aid agency. “There’s not enough food and everyone’s starving and that’s all there is to it.” Georgia Shaver, the World Food Programme’s director in Ethiopia, painted an equally bleak picture saying that while up to 14 million people needed food aid across six countries in southern Africa, “in Ethiopia we could have the same number in just one country.”
Now, why would Aguirre, Shaver, the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera… lie about famine in Ethiopia? What would they gain from “exaggerating” the famine?
Famine Facts
For over three decades, Ethiopia has been the international poster lady for famine and starvation. Images of throngs of skeletal children and their starving parents scratching the sun-baked earth are indelibly imprinted in the minds of people around the world. In 1974, mutinous soldiers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie after foreign reporters (“The Unknown Famine” by Jonathan Dimbleby) and some international humanitarian organizations revealed to the world that a famine of biblical proportion was taking place in the north of the country. Just like Meles today, Haile Selassie then denied reports of widespread famine and starvation, and tried to cover it up. When news of the famine shocked the world, Haile Selassie blamed the foreign media for exaggerating the scope of the disaster and for tarnishing Ethiopia’s image.
In 1985, after a decade of disastrous experiments in socialism, Mengistu presided over a famine that claimed the lives of nearly a million people. He also blamed drought and poor rainfall for the famine (but never his disastrous socialist policies) and set out to deal with the problem by putting into place a reckless policy of forced resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people from the north to the more fertile south. Like Meles today, Mengistu then, sat with his arms crossed waiting for massive international food aid to be delivered to his door. Meles today claims the problem of famine in Ethiopia, if it existed at all, is caused by drought and poor rainfall during successive seasons (but never his disastrous economic policies that give higher priority to growing roses than teff), and now expects delivery of massive emergency food aid from Western nations to rescue Ethiopia. Like Haile Selassie who blamed the famine, the high costs of imported goods, gasoline, and skyrocketing food prices, unemployment, etc., on the international oil crises of 1973, Meles today blames the oil crises of 2008 for exactly the same things.
Meles’ Fine Art of Denial (Lying)
Meles and his gang have perfected the art of denial (lying) and raised it to new heights. They have done it by:
Denial of fact: They deny undeniable facts with a straight face. Example: “Famine does not exist in Ethiopia. It is a story made up by the foreign media and aid organizations. It is all ‘exaggerated and far from the truth’.”
Denial of responsibility: They deny responsibility in the event such a thing as famine should be discovered. Example: “There is no famine, but if, in the unlikely event it exists, it is first and foremost the responsibility of God. He failed in his divine duty to send the rains. He did not. Therefore, there was no harvest, which means famine. God’s co-conspirators include the oil cartels and the greedy manipulators of global food prices. Last but not least of the culprits is the West. They also failed in their duty to supply food aid as they have dutifully done for the past three decades. We had nothing to do with it. We were just minding our own business growing roses and making sure of double digit economic growth.”
Denial of impact: There is really no famine as such in the country, just some pockets of grain deficits. Example: “With the exception of spot shortages in Oromiya and Somali regions, everything is hunky dory. There is plenty of food in the rest of the country, if people have the cash.”
Denial of awareness: We were so busy doing “double digit economic development” and tending to our rose gardens, we were not aware of any famine. Example: “It is impossible to have famine in a country that has been wallowing in ‘double digit economic growth for the past five years’. We’ve been so busy building office structures, luxury villas with swimming pools, world class hotels, exporting roses and importing French wines and champagne, we simply did not know famine was ravaging the countryside. Oops!! Sorry!”
Denial of recurrence: If there is famine, it just happened. Example: “We did not know this famine thing is recurrent. There were no early warning signs. No sentinel events to cause us concern that real famine was going to happen. Anyway, no big deal. We are in ‘double digit economic growth’ and this famine shall be over soon like all the rest. It is just once in a decade type of thing.”
Denial of denial: There is nothing that we must do to deal with the problem of famine, if it exists. Example: “The whole famine thing will take its own course. For decades, there has been famine in Ethiopia. It’s not like this is the first time. Nothing happened in the past from famine. There are a lot more people in Ethiopia today than were in 1974 or 1984. So, famine will have no real effect on the population. It is natural. We don’t need to do anything.”
Denial-by-admission: The whole famine thing is an overblown “exaggeration”. Example: “It is true that millions of people are at risk of food shortage. But what some describe as famine in Ethiopia is nothing more than food insecurity. Those skeletal children that are seen in the international media are just nutritionally-challenged, but they are, by no means, famine victims! Their parents are victims of critical food shortages for extended periods, not famine. At worst, the food situation in Ethiopia points to large-scale chronic food deprivation, which is not the same as famine.”
Why is Ethiopia Stalked by Recurrent Famine?
When Haile Selassie was deposed over the famine, the people asked: Why didn’t he do something to prevent it? When Mengistu celebrated the tenth anniversary of his socialist government and hundreds of thousands of people died in a catastrophic famine, the people asked: Why didn’t he do something to prevent it? Now, the same question must be put to Meles: Why didn’t he do something to prevent the current famine as he enjoyed his Millennium celebration in Pharaonic splendor? The answer to the question is very simple. Meles does not care! He doesn’t give a damn if famine wipes out half the population. (He might even shed a few crocodile tears!) He is concerned only with keeping himself and his gang in power, and making Ethiopia their playground. That is the absolute TRUTH!
We must go beyond the obvious to fully appreciate the severity of the current famine situation. The indisputable fact is that famine in Ethiopia is NOT a natural disaster. Certainly, it is aggravated by certain meteorological phenomena, but it is, and has always been, a preventable man-made disaster. So, we must ask some tough questions of those who have been feasting at the Table of Plenty for the last 17:
Has Meles learned any lessons at all from the Great Famines of 1973-74 and 1984-85 to prevent a famine in 2007-08?
Why isn’t famine prevention given the highest policy priority in the Meles regime?
Why is Meles so adamantly opposed to complete privatization of land, which by all expert accounts is the single most important factor in the food security of any nation?
Why is Meles spending millions upon millions of dollars in Somalia when millions upon millions of Ethiopians are starving?
Why does military spending consume nearly one-half of Ethiopia’s budget?
Why is exporting roses to Europe more important than raising teff and wheat to feed the starving people of Ethiopia?
Why hasn’t the Meles regime implemented a national family planning program in the same manner as those countries experiencing high birthrates?
Why is Meles addicted to international food aid and rescue?
Why is Ethiopia listed 138/179 countries on Corruption Index for 2007?
The Weaponization of Famine
Famine is not just about images of skeletal children gasping for their last breath of air as their mothers gaze into nothingness in the sun baked landscape. It is also a military and political weapon. Meles today is using denial of food aid to “rebel areas” in the south/southeast as did Mengistu to “rebel areas” in the north back in his day. That is the classic strategic lesson Meles learned from Mengistu. Famine can be used both as a tactical and strategic weapon against ones opponents. It could be used to depopulate troublesome regions by creating refugees and eliminating hostile guerilla forces. Like Mao Zedong said, “Guerrillas are like fish, and the people are the water in which fish swim.” When you weaponize famine, it is like draining the water out of the lake. No water! No fish! No problem!
Famine can also be used as a political weapon of control and elimination of any organized opposition. For instance, by controlling and manipulating the supply of grain to the urban markets, the regime can effectively punish and bring that population to its knees while eliminating any capacity for organized political opposition.
But famine is also very good for business (famine profiteering). Regime-allied middlemen buy massive amounts of grains from farmers at low prices (by offering what appears to be a generous price at the time) and eliminate legitimate small businesses that deal in grain. When these middlemen have an absolute monopoly on the acquisition, sale and distribution of agricultural commodities, particularly grains, it not hard to imagine how profitable famines could be. It makes perfect economic sense from the perspective of famine profiteering to place low policy priority on famine prevention and control. It’s the old supply and demand curve. High demand for food and less supply on the market, and complete control on the distribution of international food aid equals to “mo’ money, mo’ money, and mo’ money” for Meles and his gang.
The Real Reasons for Recurrent Famines in Ethiopia
The prime reason for the current famine in Ethiopia is the misguided economic policies of the Meles regime. That is the judgment of the most experienced development economists. As Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate and world renowned welfare (development) economist, observed, “There has never been a famine in a functioning multiparty democracy.”
In Ethiopia, drought and other meteorological phenomena are aggravating factors in the causation of famine, but their effects can be mitigated through effective policies, improved planning and better coordination in a functioning multiparty democracy. But there is no way famine could be effectively addressed in a one-party totalitarian police state that places a higher priority on the cultivation of rose bushes, coffee exports, tourism and construction of villas, resorts and unneeded office buildings than feeding its people. There is no way to overcome famine when artificially low prices are maintained for agricultural commodities (so that regime-allied middlemen could make obscene profits) and few incentives are provided to farmers for expanded food production. There is no way to rid famine from Ethiopia when fertilizer is used to blackmail farmers into voting for the regime. It is impossible to avoid recurrent famines when the regime relies on flawed policies promoted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which ignore the critical role of the private sector in food production. Famine will always rear its ugly head in Ethiopia so long as it is used as a military and political weapon. There will always be famine in Ethiopia so long as privatization of land is prohibited.
Stretching Her Hands Unto God
Let’s face the facts. For well over three decades, Ethiopia has been forced into recurrent famines by reckless, careless, heedless, feckless, aimless and worthless governments whose solution to the structural problem of food insecurity is to stretch out unbending begging hands to the Western countries. For well over three decades, the West has responded with kindness, goodwill, mercy, understanding, charity and compassion. Today, the limits of Western charity and generosity has reached its limits. For the first time, the West has come to the conclusion that it has no moral obligations to save Ethiopia when the Ethiopian “government” is sitting on its hands and doing nothing; or when it does do something, it is only to stretch out the hand that begs.
We must come to terms with the fact that the West is no longer willing to be blackmailed into accepting moral blame for Ethiopia’s famine. That is why it will be different this time. There will be no Bob Geldofs to save Ethiopia. No Live Aid. No Michael Jacksons singing “We are the World.” It will do us no good to stretch out begging hands to the Western Powers. This time Ethiopia must stretch her hands to a much Higher Power, the only Power that can save her. And Ethiopia will be saved — let there be no doubt about that — because we believe, as written in Psalm 68:31, “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” And He will hold and lift her tenderly by her hands and raise her from the depths of despair, privation and misery, and deliver her from the plague of oppression! This time Ethiopia’s children must not only stretch out their hands unto God, but they must also hold hands — extend helping hands — from across the globe and embrace their brothers and sisters who are dying simply because they have nothing to eat. No Ethiopian should die from starvation!
Food for Thought: How many Ethiopians died today for lack of food?
Afterword: I have written about famine in Ethiopia on a number of occasions since June 2008. Here are some of my commentaries:
VOA is the Voice of America. It is emphatically not the VOZ (Voice of Zenawi) or anyone else. Thus spoke VOA Acting Director Steve Redisch responding to the firestorm of controversy surrounding revelations of a blacklist of critics drawn up by the über-dictator Meles Zenawi and presented to a delegation of the Governing Board of the VOA vitisitng Ethiopia:
We are the Voice of America and will continue to provide news and information that meet our highest standards… We’re not the voice of the opposition or the Diaspora or the government… Voice of America’s Horn of Africa service will not be shying away from reporting on Ethiopian politics… VOA will provide an array of voices and opinions to allow Ethiopians to make their own decisions about what to believe and who to trust. That is our job and the job of a free media….
This past June, Zenawi had secretly and stealthily attempted to both sweet-talk and arm-twist the VOA to do his dirty job of muzzling, silencing and censoring his critics by having them permanently banned from appearing on any VOA broadcasts. In a 41-page “complaint” (English translation) spanning the first five months of 2011, Zenawi catalogued a bizarre, incoherent and comical set of allegations which he believes represent a pattern and practice of VOA reporting that showed bias, distortions, lies, misrepresentation, intolerance, one-sidedness, unfairness, partiality, unethical and unprofessional journalism and whatever else. But Zenawi’s allegations, as demonstrated below, are wild, preposterous and unsupported by the very “evidence” he proffers. They could only be described as the figments of a paranoid imagination.
Examination of the “Evidence” in Zenawi’s “Complaint” to the VOA
Zenawi’s “complaint” is specifically directed at VOA’s Amharic program and clusters around three sets of issues.
The first set focuses on VOA interviews of various academics, human rights activists, opposition party leaders and other critics of Zenawi. Here is a sampling: Zenawi argues that former President and opposition leader Dr. Negasso Gidada should have been censored by the VOA for stating: “The method EPDRF is pursuing is the one used in the Soviet Union.” Opposition leader Dr. Hailu Araya should not have been interviewed because he said, “In an environment where political repression prevails, participating elections would be meaningless.” VOA should have banned opposition leader Dr. Berhanu Nega because he said, “So, what happened in North Africa would gradually but inevitably happen in other African countries because freedom is a basic need of all humans…” Opposition leader Seeye Abraha’s statement should not have been aired because he stated, “Regimes are being shaken through peaceful popular movements.” Opposition leader Dr. Merara Gudina’s interview should not have been broadcast because he said, “I made the point that clearing the parliament from oppositions is a step backward for democracy, which benefits no one.” Dr. Beyana Soba should not have been interviewed because he believes the “Oromo Liberation Front does not involve in any terrorist activity. We do not use this [terror] as a strategy in our struggle.”
Zenawi also wants a number of well-known Ethiopian academics blacklisted. Zenawi complains against professor Getachew Metaferia because he described the Egyptian uprising as a “manifestation of accumulated grievances” for “20 years of bad governance, absence of democracy, unemployment, high cost of living.” Prof. Getachew Haile should have been muzzled by the VOA because he believes “The driving force that motivates the people to seek change is the hunger prevailing in the country.” Prof. Ahmad Mowen should not have appeared on a VOA broadcast because he subscribes to the view that “All people are freedom lovers. Rulers must go in tune with peoples’ aspirations.”
Zenawi further wants the VOA to blackball certain Ethiopian journalists and human rights activities. The VOA should have avoided interviewing Eskinder Nega, the unapologetically patriotic and indomitable Ethiopian journalist, because Eskinder publicly stated that the “Deputy Federal Police Commissioner” had warned him: “We are tired of throwing you in prison; we won’t put you in jail any more. We will take our own measure.” Human rights activist Neamin Zeleke should have been banished from VOA microphones for saying: “The situation (Ethiopians are in) is even worse than the situation in which the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are in.” Juhar Mohammed Juhar should have been censored because he said: “In Ethiopia dictator survived for 20 years now. Even German lawmaker Thilo Hoppe was not spared Zenawi’s censorship-mania. Hoppe should have been denied air time because he said, “The situation is bad [in Ethiopia]. It is also shocking. There must be a new round of talks on development cooperation between German and Ethiopia.”
Zenawi’s second set of complaints focus on what are alleged to be biased editorial comments or questions used by VOA reporters in interviewing various guests. Zenawi proffers as evidence of VOA distortion and bias a statement in one broadcast in which a reporter allegedly questioned, “And today the people of Jordan took to the streets, like the people of Egypt and Tunisia, demanding a change in government… Could it possibly inspire similar situation against other authoritarian regimes in Africa?” Another reporter is cited for distortion for allegedly stating, “Medrek has condemned what is said ‘a conspiracy’ carried out against its member organization Arena Tigray for Democracy and Sovereign Party.” Another reporter should have been sanctioned for stating, “The [Egyptian] Army has done a good job with the people in minimizing casualties among the people, preventing vandalism, and in maintaining the legality of the protests.” Zenawi alleges bias in an editorial comment which purportedly stated: “The prime minister has severely accused the Eritrean government… The prime minister has called for the spirit of cooperation to exist between the governments of the two countries.” A VOA reporter is blamed for observing: “The meeting that the Ethiopian government held last Saturday with Ethiopians and foreign citizens of Ethiopian origin in several U.S. states and two Canadian cities cannot be said successful.”
The third set of complaints is directed at VOA’s airing of listener comments. Among the targets of Zenawi’s complaint is an opinion by listener “Dibabu” from Texas who said, “the incumbent government in Ethiopia is as brutal and murderer as the Derg…” A comment by a listener from Ethiopia should have been censored because it stated, “It has become common knowledge that whenever the Ethiopian government, whenever it fails to meet challenges of the internal crises, it strives to divert he peoples’ attention by engaging in undue war of words with its immediate neighbors.”
No reasonable person would find any of the statements in the “complaint” legitimate subject matter of government censorship. The statements are typical of opinions and views expressed by individuals opposed to a particular regime or government. But there are a number of things that should be pointed out in regards to the content of the 41-page “complaint”. First, none of the allegations challenge the accuracy, truthfulness or veracity of the statements. Second, the “complaint” is directed at suppressing certain viewpoints and dissenting voices, particularly those who are critical of Zenawi’s policies and actions. Third, all of the statements complained of are expressions of opinion on the lack of oficial accountability and transparency in Ethiopia, disregard for the rule of law and abuse of power, violations of human rights and denial democratic rights to Ethiopian citizens. Fourth, the “complaint” is a thinly-veiled attempt to pressure the VOA into muzzling and blacklisting Zenawi’s critics in the U.S. The “complaint” could be viewed as an illegal attempt at a quid pro quo arrangement in the nature of an extortion, that is in exchange for VOA blackballing Zenawi’s critics, Zenawi will unjam VOA broadcasts in Ethiopia. Is it an attempted shakedown of an American government agency? Subjected to legal scrutiny under American law, the issues in the “complaint” raise significant questions and issues of criminal law since they are manifestly intended to interfere with the constitutional rights of American citizens and inhabitants. Fifth, all of the statements cited in the complaint are fully protected speech under American law, international human rights conventions and even the Ethiopian Constitution. Sixth, the “complaint” on its face, or by any other rational means shows nor proves a pattern or practice by the VOA to engage in biased, distorted or otherwise improper reporting on Zenawi or his regime. Seventh, the “complaint” is inane, irrational and nonsensical.
The “compliant” is itself evidence of Zenawi’s desperation and manifest exhaustion in the face of relentless and unremitting criticism by those who disagree with him. But cloistered in his bubble, he does not seem to understand why he is the object of sharp and universal criticism and condemnation. He has succeeded in totally decimating the independent press inside the country. Individual journalists who have the courage to speak their minds and tell the truth are nabbed in the street threatened, jailed and placed in solitary confinement. Just a couple of weeks ago, two young journalists, Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu were imprisoned in violation of their human and constitutional rights. Zenawi steals elections. He trashes human rights and tramples on the rule of law. Zenawi may believe he is criticized and condemned because his critics and opponents bear him personal ill-will. That would be a grossly mistaken view. Reasonable, responsible, ethical and patriotic Ethiopians subscribe to the principle that “one should hate the sin and not the sinner.”
If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen
There are many valuable lessons to be learned from this sordid “complaint” affair. The VOA should learn that removing online programs, suspending employees for telling the truth, directing reporters not to take notes during meetings, delaying response until issues become critical and taking other acts that appear to be heavy-handed and create a climate of self-censorship are things that should not be repeated because they cast considerable doubt over the integrity and professionalism of the institution. For the VOA to come out and assert its independence and professional and institutional integrity and declare that it will perform its duties according to its legal mandates and ethical standards and is not beholden to any external entity or group is a very good thing as it inspires public confidence and trust.
For Ethiopians in the U.S., the principal lesson is that they have the legal mechanisms to hold the VOA accountable. Abebe Gelaw, the young Ethiopian journalist, was instrumental in exposing a number of things in this controversy including revelation of the 41-page “complaint.” Abebe is an example of what young Ethiopian journalists in Ethiopia could do as government watchdogs if they had press freedoms. He deserves high commendations. We all must learn that the VOA operates within a strict legal and professional environment. It is accountable to its statutory obligations and journalistic standards. We can play a positive role by making sure the VOA performs its mission and duties by the book.
The most important lesson is left for Zenawi: One can muzzle those with ideas by throwing them in jail, but not their ideas. The people who spoke their minds on the VOA broadcasts are vendors in the global marketplace of ideas. If their ideas are bought by the people of Ethiopia, there is no power in the universe that can stop them. Victor Hugo said, “Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.” The time for democracy in Ethiopia is now. Dictatorship is an idea that has no time or place in Ethiopia, Africa or the the modern world.
In 21st Century democratic politics, criticism, skepticism, denunciation, condemnation, denigration, vilification and disapprobation of politicians and self-appointed leaders are accepted facts of political life. This reality is incomprehensible only to those unwilling to face the naked truth about their evil ways.
Perhaps Zenawi craves praise, appreciation and adulation. He can easily get it, but he must do the right thing: Abide by the rule of law. The fact of the matter is that politics is a thankless job and those engaged in it should reasonably expect to get a whole lot more criticism and precious little appreciation and gratitude. President Obama, the “leader of the free world” is the target of withering daily criticism by those opposed to his policies and even challenge his citizenship and place of birth. Should the leader of the unfree world expect any less? You can’t stop criticism by information blackouts or by blacklisitng and blackballing critics. Criticism comes with the territory. Deal with it! If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
Oxymorons (figures of speech that combine contradictory terms) can sometimes provide unique insights into the cognitive process. Consider, for instance, the phrase “honest politician”. Is there such a thing? It sounds so comical to talk about “efficient government”? How about an “emerging democracy”? That’s like saying a “little bit pregnant.” If there is such a thing as a “benevolent despot/dictator”, then there are hyenas that do not eat carrion. How about “dictator with conscience”?
Recently, dictator Meles Zenawi responding to an interviwer’s question made a public confession of shame and regret over the fact that the Oxford Dictionary uses Ethiopia as a prime example of famine.
Interviewer: In the mid-1960s something was revealed in our country. Many people were waging struggles. You were in the struggle. In the Oxford dictionary, for the word famine, the example given is Ethiopia. How does that make you feel as an Ethiopian?
Zenawi: It is a mixed up situation. On the one hand, like any citizen, I am very sad. I am ashamed. It is degrading. A society that built the Lalibela churches some thousand years ago is unable to cultivate the land and feed itself. A society that built the Axum obelisks some 2-3 thousand years ago is unable to cultivate the land and feed itself. That is very sad. It is very shameful. Of all the things, to go out begging for one’s daily bread, to be a beggar nation is dehumanizing. Therefore, I feel great shame. In the end though these things are not the mistakes of a single individual. They have their own long history, and cannot be eliminated through anger or regrets. In a similar way, it requires a long struggle and determination and defiance of not just one but 3 or 4 generations. I understand that is what it takes. Until that is removed and eliminated, until I finish playing my role in it, all I can do is say Amen and accept this shame and degradation. This is the kind of feeling it creates in me.
In 1995, Zenawi was self-effacing but cocky about his vision of a nation that is well-fed and -clothed in a decade or two with people dancing in the streets, at least living not too far from paved streets. Responding to a question from what appears to be an audience of friends and supporters, Zenawi envisioned:
Questioner: In 10 or 15 years from now, is there a vision that you see that would make you happy. Can you tell us two or three things about that?
Zenawi: Ten years from now (laughter). Let me start with ten years from now. One big thing I think will happen and dream about is that all Ethiopians will get three meals a day (applause). After that may be, if everything works out well, my hope is that Ethiopians will have two or three changes of clothes. If everything works out, all Ethiopians will live within two hours of a paved road. If we do this, we would have done a miracle (laughter). If we go to twenty years, we would have clinics, schools, access to roads of less than two hours, not just eat three times a day. We may even have a choice of foods and selection of clothes. I hope in twenty years, we will have good outcomes (applause).
Sixteen years later in 2011, the Black Horseman is standing at the gate. Zenawi stands alongside with folded arms feigning shame for the fact that Ethiopia is perceived to be synonymous with famine. Recently, the U.N. predicted the “worst drought in the last 60 years” for Ethiopia and neighboring countries. UNICEF warned “millions of children and women are at risk from death and disease unless a rapid and speedy response is put into action.”
The world dreads to see once again the haunting skeletal figures of Ethiopian famine victims splattered across the television screen reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. Blame history Zenawi bleated philosophically: “In the end though these things are not the mistakes of a single individual. They have their own long history….”
Shame Without Guilt
Zenawi’s declaration of shame and regret for famine and chronic food shortages in Ethiopia is reminiscent of those American televangelists who publicly confess their sins when caught in a shameful scandal but take no responsibility for their transgressions. The devil did it or made them do it. For Zenawi, the blame should be placed on history, drought, climate change, heartless donors and divine retribution. Famine is not something he could have anticipated or planned to prevent. Famine just happens. No one is responsible.
Shame and guilt are often trivialized in the modern world. After the fall of the Third Reich, few came forward to express shame for their callous indifference to the acts of inhumanity committed in their name, and even fewer felt or admitted guilt for their own criminal acts. They conveniently dissociated themselves from the inhuman acts by adopting a shockingly matter-of-fact attitude: “It was what it was.” Nothing more. Of course, they had their regrets. The super-state that was to last a thousand years lasted only twelve.
During the Truth and Reconciliation hearings in South Africa, many of the officials who perpetrated atrocities “felt” ashamed for torturing and mistreating black South Africans, but few openly admitted guilt and took full responsibility for their actions. They said they were acting in the name of the government or simply following official orders. They were not personally responsible.
The street criminal also feels shame for robbing or assaulting his victim, but rarely admits legal guilt, and even more rarely moral guilt and take responsibility. He too feels regrets, for getting caught.
It is common for dictators to acknowledge the fact of their wrongdoing without feeling shame or guilt. Stalin unapologetically declared, “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” In 1959 during China’s Great Famine Mao casually remarked in a speech: “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.” After the massacre of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators following the 2005 elections in Ethiopia, Zenawi feigned pangs of conscience: “I regret the deaths but these were not normal demonstrations. You don’t see hand grenades thrown at normal demonstrations.” When his own handpicked Inquiry Commission determined after a meticulous investigation that the demonstrators were unarmed and carried no weapons of any kind, Zenawi ignored the report and did nothing. Today, 237 killers still roam the streets free.
In the final analysis, when famine consumes hundreds of thousands of people or untold numbers of people die for simple lack of food, it is the responsibility of the man at the helm, the guy in the driver’s seat. But never in Ethiopia. Emperor Haile Selassie said he did not know about the famine in 1974 until it was too late. He was not responsible. Junta leader Mengistu Hailemariam said he was not responsible for the famine in 1984 because there was no famine. Over a million people died in that famine. Zenawi says the famine in Ethiopia today is not the responsibility of any one individual. No one in leadership position has ever taken responsibility for the recurrent famines in Ethiopia.
One must have a conscience to feel shame, admit guilt and take responsibility. To say dictators have conscience is like saying snakes have legs. Dictators are the quintessential narcissists who care about and love only themselves. They are incapable of feeling shame, guilt, compassion or appreciation. Their raison d’etre (reason for existence) is the pursuit of power at any cost to dominate and control others.
Our conscience is that “inner voice” or “inner light” that helps us distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, guilt from innocence, love from hate and virtue from vice. Guilt is the flip side of shame. The bifurcation of shame from guilt is the clearest manifestation of the lack of conscience. But if one feels shame and admits guilt (moral or legal) for the actions (or omissions) producing the shame, he experiences an inner transformation which compels him to make amends. The painful feeling of dishonor, disgrace, humiliation and self-criticism transforms the shameful act into an honorable act or at least produces genuine atonement. Real admission of guilt is always followed by moral self-redemption and salvation.
Eastern philosophy teaches that “when the mind is face to face with the Truth, a self-luminous spark of thought is revealed at the inner core of ourselves and, by analogy, all of reality.” When we come face to face with the truth of our shameful act and our conscience is awakened, we naturally and effortlessly make efforts to make amends.
Confession Time?
While we are on the subject of shame, regrets, guilt and all that, I have my own confession to make. I am ashamed Ethiopia is a country
that has become the butt of famine jokes (not just an entry in the Oxford Dictionary).
known primarily for its poverty.
where elections are stolen in broad daylight.
where the rule of law and human rights are trampled every day with impunity.
where 237 security thugs walk free after killing 193 unarmed demonstrators and wounding nearly 800.
with the worst prison system in the world.
classified as the world’s worst backslider on press freedom.
with lowest internet penetration in the world after Sierra Leone.
I am ashamed Ethiopia is classified together with the worst countries in the world on the
Corruption Index (most corrupt countries).
Failed States Index (most failed states).
Index of Economic Freedom (economically most repressive countries).
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Investment Climate Assessment (most unfriendly to business).
Ibrahim Index of African Governance (most poorly governed African countries).
Bertelsmann Political and Economic Transformation Index (most in need of reform).
Environmental Performance Index (poorest environmental and public health indicators).
But I am also proud, mighty proud. I am proud of the unity of the Ethiopian people despite the efforts of those who toil day and night to divide them by ethnicity, region, religion, language and whatever else. I am proud of Ethiopia’s culture of respect, compassion and tolerance. Most of all, I am super proud of Ethiopia’s young people. They are the only lifeline to the survival of that nation.
I wear a badge of shame on the left and a badge of pride on the right. But between my pride and shame lies my overwhelming sense of gnawing guilt. It is guilt that manifests itself in a moral quandary about what I could have done, can do now and in the future, particularly for the young people of Ethiopia to reclaim their destiny. The solutions to Ethiopia’s famine, poverty, disease, illiteracy and the rest of it will not come from self-adulating, forked-tongue dictators who cling to power like ticks on a milk cow, but from Ethiopia’s young men and women.
Zenawi says he is ashamed of the recurrent famine in Ethiopia and is resigned to accepting it with an “Amen.” The crocodile also sheds tears. But a dictator professing shame without admitting guilt is, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “an evil soul producing holy witness, a villain with a smiling cheek, a goodly apple rotten at the heart.”
But can you hear the silent screams of the starving Ethiopians? Can you see their quiet riots against tyranny? If you can’t, what a crying shame!
Previous commentaries by the author are available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ and http://open.salon.com/blog/almariam/
Now there are disturbing revelations that dictator Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia has been trying to secretly arm-twist and remote-control the VOA into blacklisting his critics in the U.S. and elsewhere and denying them access to the VOA. A 41-page document posted online shows a not-so-subtle attempt by Zenawi to identify and muzzle critics who gave interviews on the VOA. The document purports to be a complaint about the bias of certain VOA reporters, but the subliminal message is clear. If the VOA continues to give airtime to certain viewpoints and individuals, Zenawi’s regime will continue to jam VOA broadcasts. The implicit deal (quid pro quo) offered is that the electronic jamming will stop if Zenawi’s critics are banished from VOA microphones permanently.
Zenawi may try to conceal his blacklist as a complaint of bias. But we understand his message to the VOA loud and clear. But we should also send our own crystal clear message to the VOA:
I. We will hold the VOA accountable to its own journalistic standards (“Audiences ‘ Bill of Journalism Rights” ) as set forth in the Voice of America’s Journalist Standards & Practices (document 11-023 and 11-024). We remind the VOA to meet its solemn obligations to its audience and respect their
right to expect that(VOA) journalists will monitor power and give voice to the voiceless. The press should use its watchdog power to uncover things that are important and new and that change community thinking… The press should monitor all the key centers of power in the community-including but not limited to government.
II. We expect a thorough, complete and fair investigation of the allegations in the 41-page “complaint” and release of the findings within a reasonable time. We expect to review and comment on the outcome of the investigation and the specific findings.
III. We shall remain vigilant for any evidence of viewpoint censorship, editorial policy changes to exclude issues and individuals deemed critical of the ruling regime or leaders of the regime in Ethiopia, patterns and practices calculated to limit, prevent or otherwise systematically exclude pro-democracy voices from VOA broadcasts.
IV. We shall remain prepared to defend our constitutional rights of free expression against a foreign government acting on its own or jointly and severally with any other private or governmental entity.
V. Just as the VOA has a duty to become a voice for the voiceless, on July 24, 2011, the VOA has a duty to listen intently to the voices of the voiceless who will appear to register their concerns.
The vast majority of Ethiopians in the U.S. are fully supportive of the VOA and its mission. We have great respect and admiration for the professionalism and integrity of VOA journalists, reporters, editors and management. Above all, we fully support the VOA for being a beacon of not only information and knowledge for the people of Ethiopia, but also a voice of democracy, human rights, moderation and reconciliation.
I say we stand up to the to Western donors and loaners who continue to support the criminal regime of Meles Zenawi in Ethiopia and declare: “Starve the Beast, Feed the People!” No more aid to a regime that clings to power by digging its fingers into the ribs of starving children. No more aid to torturers and human rights violators. No aid to election thieves. No aid to those who roll out a feast to feed their supporters and watch their opponents starve to death. Let’s shout in a collective voice to the West — America, England, Germany, the European Union, the IMF, World Bank and the rest of them–: “Starve the bloated beast feeding on the Ethiopian body politics, and help feed the starving people.”