President Obama should acknowledge the role that independent news reporting plays in assessing agricultural challenges and facilitating the response to famine, the Committee to Protect Journalists stated in a letter to the White House. Ethiopia in particular downplays the extent of food crises and undermines the ability of donor nations and aid groups to help by denying journalists access to sensitive areas and censoring independent coverage. Read the full letter.
The khat-addicted dictator Meles Zenawi will be attending the 3rd International Food Security Symposium at the Washington DC Ronald Regan building on May 18, 2012, on the invitation of President Obama.
This is a great opportunity for all Ethiopians residing in and around Washington DC to protest and make the world know about the destruction and atrocities his regime is committing against the people of Ethiopia.
Place and date of protest:
Friday, May 18 2012, at Ronald Regan Building, 14th St and Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington DC at 7 AM.
Addis Dimts Radio will have a special live broadcast Thursday starting at 7 PM EST on the protest against dictator Meles. Listen live by calling 712 432 3920 then pressing the conference id 854226#. Or at AddisDimts.com
The khat-addicted dictator in Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, has been invited by President Barack Obama to a symposium on food security on Friday, May 18, in Washington DC at the Ronald Reagan Building & Int’l Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC, at 7:15 AM.
This is a good opportunity for Ethiopians in the Washington DC area to confront the genocidal tyrant Meles Zenawi, and also express our disappointment with President Obama’s decision to invite him.
Global Leaders to Launch G8 Food Security Agenda at May 18 Symposium Advancing Food and Nutrition Security at the 2012 G8 Summit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2012
Press Office: 202-712-4320
Public Information: 202-712-4810
Email: http://www.usaid.gov/
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On May 18, 2012, President Barack Obama, with G8 and African leaders, businesses, international organizations and civil society will convene to discuss new activities to advance global agricultural development, food and nutrition security in Africa.
The event, hosted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, will feature announcements of significant new business commitments for African agriculture and discussions on addressing hunger and poverty in the changing development landscape.
WHAT:
Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security Advancing Food and Nutrition Security at the 2012 G8 Summit
WHEN:
Friday, May 18th
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. *Press Check-in at 7:15 a.m.
WHERE:
Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004 *Symposium will be held in the Atrium Hall and the Press Filing Center will be in the Polaris Room.
WHO:
President Barack Obama His Excellency Dr. Yayi Boni , President of the Republic of Benin & Chairperson of the African Union His Excellency Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia His Excellency John Atta Mills, President of Ghana His Excellency Jakaya Kikwete, President of the United Republic of Tanzania The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary, United States Department of State The Honorable Rajiv Shah, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development Bono, Co-Founder of ONE and (RED) The Honorable Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, UN World Food Programme Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development Ms. Josette Sheeran, Vice Chairman, World Economic Forum
Accreditation and Press Filing Center
This event is open to credentialed members of the media and a press filing center will be available on the 18th. Media representatives who wish to cover the 2012 Symposium and/or enter the press center must apply to receive a media credential. Accreditation can only be made via email at: [email protected]. Applications for accreditation should be made no later than May 16, 2012.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, founded in 1922, is a prominent, independent and nonpartisan organization committed to influencing the discourse on global issues through contributions to opinion and policy formation, leadership dialogue, and public learning. Long known for its studies of American public opinion on foreign policy matters, the Council also contributes to discussions of critical global issues through studies, task force reports, and leadership dialogue. The Chicago Council’s Global Agricultural Development Initiative provides support, technical assistance and innovation towards the formulation and implementation of U.S. global agricultural development policies and offers external evaluation and accountability for U.S. progress on its policy commitment. Follow @globalagdev.
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a not-for-profit foundation in 1971 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the Forum is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.
For more information on the World Economic Forum, or to arrange interviews with Josette Sheeran, Vice Chairman, contact Oliver Cann: [email protected], mobile:+41 (0) 79 799 3405.
By Neamin Zeleke
Everyone dies, but not everyone lives. Mulugeta Hailu lived. He lived a life of principle. He lived a life of convictions. He lived it with moral courage, in accord to his dreams and ideals much higher than himself. A life of principles lived to the fullest, a lifelong journey, with steadfast endurance, with so much gloom and pain in the process. All that for the betterment of Ethiopians through his life long struggle for the past four decades in order for social justice and equality to prevail in our homeland. He lived it to the last gasp of air on that fateful night, around midnight of Tuesday, May 08, 2012.
Mulugeta Hailu’s sudden death has been a source of much agony and shock to me as much as to countless others who knew and deeply appreciated and loved Mulugeta Hailu. Mule, as many call him affectionately, of course belongs to that generation, the gallant generation that rose up for social transformation of Ethiopia during the 70s. Such characterization alone, however, can’t possibly capture the essential qualities of Mule, the man, Mule, the Ethiopian. Such broad brush hides what kind of a human being he was, how he lived a worthy life as thousands of others like him that belong to that generation . Some have passed away, some have faded, and some have been killed in action during the revolutionary carnage of the late 70s and 80s. Some have continued the struggle to this very day; some others have become willful tools serving the more oppressive, corrupt, and anti-Ethiopia political order that has become a breeding ground for so much injustice and inequality in Ethiopia than the very political system the generation of Mulugeta Hailu rose up to challenge four decades ago.
Mulugeta Hailu, a great soul, faithful to his convictions, has stood his ground thru thick and thin, in a sharpest of contrast to the base, the banal, and the gluttonous that left from his side and that of others to become willful instruments of an ethnocentric tyranny. He has stood his ground indeed with rare endurance and stamina to the last minutes of his life. I know Mule would disagree with my use of such words in describing even his political enemies.
But there are certain qualities of him that one can dare assert that Mule is a rare breed even among that heroic generation. Always dreaming and desiring for a better and humane political order for his people, he never sold or surrounded his soul to the powers that be. Nor did he ever abandon his convictions to trade for the comforts and material gains which he could have acquired so easily with the kind of intellectual caliber, many facets of knowledge, as well as the practical wisdom he was imbued with regard to a the social and economic edifice upon which a post industrial society like the USA has been built. Mulugeta Hailu chose to live, however, a simple life, a modest life, with an unspoken contempt for the glitter that dominates this world that puts premium on gadgets, and all those outward signs and symbols of “success”.
He was an exemplar, a role model in many ways, above and beyond his political activism. Always respectful of all people, irrespective of what and who they are. Always tolerant of opposing views. An inherently humane man, he showed care and love to all who crossed his path, to all his countrymen and women of diverse social stature and age groups. He treated all Ethiopians equally, regardless of political, ethnic, and other differences. He always sought common ground even among contrary, logger head opposed political views and opinions. At other times, Mulu may display that streak of the melancholic idealist intellectual, one who appears deeply in contemplation due to the manifold problems and tragedies of this world and the ever present suffering of humanity all around us. But he was always with that ever present infectious smile on his face and an ever radiating optimism and hope about the future of Ethiopia and our people.
Mulugeta was there at every event, public meeting, and every demonstration calling for Ethiopian unity, for freedom, for justice, and for the rule of law to prevail in Ethiopia. He was there through the freezing cold of the winter , the scorching heat of the summer, and ever present during those countless acts of resistance , opposing and exposing the reigning ethnocentric tyranny that has ruled Ethiopia for the past two decades, as he was there struggling against the previous regimes of various hues. He was there in supporting and organizing so many causes that championed Ethiopian unity, equality, and justice in Ethiopia. He was there when Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces (COEDF) was formed; he was there when United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) was formed.
Mulu was there at the center, during critical junctures and the labyrinth of the political detours, victories and defeats, the multifaceted actions and activities, endless committee meetings and deliberations of the past two decades. He was there before we came nearer to scene of actions; he was there after many of the younger generation like me came to the fore. With rare stamina and endurance to tough out the ups and downs of our struggle, he has been in the struggle for the past 40 years as a member of All Ethiopian Socialist Movement (MEISON). But that was not his most shinning hallmark. Ethiopia and the people of Ethiopia were the drivers for his being. I am sure of that. He stood his ground to the last minute for social justice and equality. These were his primary ideals for his country, for his love for his people and his county stood hovering over and beyond his love and belonging to a single organization that he joined decades ago.
A rarity for one committed to the political and political ideals, Mulu was a self effacing man, never craving for undue limelight for himself or his organization. The ever tranquil, the content Mulugeta never raised his voice, nor did one ever see him lose his cool, even amid the fiercest of political arguments and disagreements. He may disagree with you from time to time, but without being disagreeable. He may debate with you, but without imputing motives for your political opinions, or worse, as most from our not so mature political culture are prone to do, holding grudges against you for expressing political differences. One mutual friend of said the following about Mulugeta “…his unique character as a political personality, was that he never liked to take the center stage due to humility and utmost modesty. I don’t know if his upbringing contributed to his formation. All of us have family members and participated in the struggle for justice in our country. His unique ability was to handle both simultaneously and keep the balance. He raised his brothers and sisters in the absence of a father figure and served as a bridge between family members who would have never met. He maintained and treasured every relationship and showed utmost respect to all human beings. That is what most of us in the left lacked. “Handling of contradictions in a plebian manner.” He is my childhood friend and a blood relative but beyond that came our struggle for a common cause. We chose different approaches as the means to tackle the challenge and followed separate venues. When we met after a long break, we started from where we stopped as if nothing had happened. This required a person like Mulugetta and of course age brought wisdom…”
One with a profound sense of self worth and self respect, yet he was a modest man, a humble man, always a man of the people, ever at home with the average person, with strangers and friends alike. For these qualities, young and old, old timers and new comers alike loved and respected Mulugeta Hailu. A rarity in this day and age. Always active in the life of the community, he was there during trials and tribulations of members of the community. Committed as he was to multitude of community and social causes, he was ever ready to give his helping hand for the needy and for countless causes. Many shall never forget Mulugeta’s acts of kindness and helpfulness. A great bard once wrote:’ I believe in Aristocracy … Not an Aristocracy of power, based on rank, and influence. But an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations, and all classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. They are sensitive to others, they are sensitive to themselves, and they are considerate without being fussy. Their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke”.
We can surely agree with that wise man. Mulu belongs to that class of “Aristocrats of the soul” who have endured so many trials, ups and downs, detours in the labyrinth of forty long years of struggle. Without losing their humanity, living their convictions, living their ideals, doing it with steadfastness, and endurance in order to defeat cruelty and chaos to the end of their lives, despite so many setbacks and disasters encountered in their quest for justice and equality to prevail in Ethiopia as in elsewhere. Sensitive too, with an ability to take a joke, Mulugeta Hailu had them all indeed. Compassionate, respectfull, broadminded and understanding, kind and helpful, a bridge among people, modest and humble, and a man of principles and convictions willing to endure to live up to ideals much much higher than him. Mulugeta was the embodiment of the loftiest and the best in humanity.
Ethiopia has lost one of her bright stars in the struggle for the materialization of the nobler and loftier ideals of humanity on her soil. We celebrate Mulugeta Hailu’s life, for what he lived and died for. We cherish the ideas and ideals he struggled for throughout his life.
Mulugeta Hailu, our brother, we love you, we respect you profoundly. The struggle for which you gave your entire life shall continue and prevail. So long our dear brother and friend.
In the tradition of Mulugeta’s political ideals, I end with the motto A Luta Continua!
White House spokesman Jay Carney announced last week that President Obama has invited the presidents of Ghana, Tanzania, Benin and Meles Zenawi to attend the G8 Summit (the forum for the governments of eight of the world’s largest economies) for a discussion of food security on May 19 at Camp David (Presidential retreat) in Maryland. The U.S. has been handing out food aid to the African continent for decades. Now President Obama says there is another looming “food crises” in Africa. Oxfam says, “All signs point to a drought becoming a catastrophe if nothing is done soon.” The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has issued appeals for an extra $70 million to aid some 800,000 households in the drought-hit Sahel region in West Africa. Ethiopia and Somalia are expected to be ground zero for the anticipated famine. According to the April 25, 2012 report of the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), southern Ethiopia will most likely experience famine: “The anticipated below-average rains will have significant negative impact on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources throughout the region, with the most severe and immediate impactin belg-dependent areas of southern Ethiopia.” Over the past couple or so years, I have written over one-half dozen commentaries on famine and food shortages in Ethiopia. (See links below.)
The Hunger Word Games in Ethiopia
Ethiopian governments over the past four decades have blamed food shortages and famines on everything except their own indifference, incompetence and negligence. Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974 pretended there was no famine until “The Hidden Famine” by Jonathan Dimbleby was aired to a shocked and angry Ethiopian public. Former socialist junta leader Mengistu was arrogantly dismissive of the 1984-85 famine in which an estimated one million people perished. Mengistu would contemptuously respond to reporters by challenging them, “What famine?”
Zenawi is more clever than his predecessors. He plays public relations and semantic games with famine in the country. He will use any word, except the “F” word, to describe the chronic and massive food shortages in the country. For Zenawi there is “no famine in Ethiopia”, only “spot shortages,” “severe malnutrition”, “food insecurity”, “food crisis”, “serious drought” and so on. “Food shortages” are not the result of poor agricultural planning and practices, official incompetence, massive corruption, criminal negligence, etc., but are caused by “drought conditions,” “erratic rains” “damaged or delayed crops”, “deforestation”, “soil erosion,” “overgrazing” and other ecological factors. In January 2012, Zenawi once again denied famine in Ethiopia in a CNN interview: “Ethiopia is facing a major famine. How can you justify spending on a military operation in another country when your own people are starving?” Zenawi responded, “There is no famine in Ethiopia as all humanitarian organizations will tell you. There is a serious drought, but we are able to keep our people fed….”
The international poverty mongers/pimps (PMPs) have invented a “scientific” classification system for “food shortages” behind which Zenawi has been able to hide the true magnitude and severity of the problem in the country. The euphemisms of the PMPs avoid the “F” word altogether regardless of the extremity of the food shortage. For the PMPs the conditions fall into one of the following categories: “Acute Food Insecurity, Stressed, Crisis, Emergency and Catastrophe.” It is “scientifically” impossible to have famine in Africa! So the conspiracy of silence goes on to keep famine in Ethiopia hidden by clever use of masking euphemisms.
Zenawi and his top lieutenants have been promising to end “food shortages caused by drought” in a very short time. In 2009, Simon Mechale, head of the country’s “Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency”, proudly declared: “Ethiopia will soon fully ensure its food security.” For several years now, Zenawi has been advertising his “Productive Safety Net Programme” as the mechanism to end the “cycle of dependence on food aid” by bridging “production deficits and protecting household and community assets”. In October 2011 Zenawi told his party faithful: “We have devised a plan which will enable us to produce surplus and be able to feed ourselves by 2015 without the need for food aid.” Zenawi’s “plan to produce surplus” is by “leasing” out millions of hectares of the country’s prime agricultural land to so-called international investors (land grabbers) whose only aim is to raise crops for export. Ethiopia will produce food to feed other nations while Ethiopians starve. Zenawi has adamantly opposed private ownership of land, which by all expert accounts is the single most important factor in ensuring food security in any nation. Yet last year, food inflation in Ethiopia remained at 47.4 percent.
Food has been used as a political weapon in Ethiopia. Hunger has been the new weapon of choice to generate support for Zenawi’s regime and to decimate his political rivals. Zenawi has been pretty successful in crushing the hearts, minds and spirits of the people by keeping their stomachs empty. Those who oppose Zenawi’s 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 in western Ethiopia, entire communities have been forced off the land to make way for Indian “investors” in violation of international conventions that protect the rights of indigenous peoples. Human Rights Watch, among other organizations, has raised serious concerns over the misuse of humanitarian food aid: “The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent. If you don’t play the ruling party’s game, you get shut out. Without effective, independent monitoring, international aid will continue to be abused to consolidate a repressive single-party state.” In 2009, U.S. State Department promised to investigate allegations that “$850 million in food and anti-poverty aid from the U.S. is being distributed on the basis of political favoritism by the current prime minister’s party.” No report has been issued.
In 2011, U.S. Census Bureau made the frightening prediction that Ethiopia’s population by 2050 will more than triple to 278 million. Ethiopia’s chronic “food insecurity” is expected to get increasingly worse culminating in a “Malthusian catastrophe” (where disease, starvation, war, etc. will reduce the population to the level of food production) in the foreseeable future. Zenawi’s regime has failed to implement a national family planning program which will avert such a catastrophe.
Famine in Ethiopia is Ninety Percent Man-Made
In 2011, Wolfgang Fengler, a lead economist for the World Bank, in a refreshingly honest moment for an international banker said, “The famine in the Horn of Africa is a result of artificially high prices for food and civil conflict than natural and environmental causes. This crisis is manmade. Droughts have occurred over and again, but you need bad policymaking for that to lead to a famine.” In other words, it is bad and poor governance that is at the core of the famine problem in Ethiopia, not drought or other environmental causes. Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, after visiting Ethiopia observed: “Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution. If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can survive despite what the elements throw at them.” Martin Plaut, BBC World Service News Africa editor explains that the “current [Ethiopian food] crisis is in part the result of policies designed to keep farmers on the land, which belongs to the state and cannot be sold.” So the obvious questions are: Why does a regime that has rejected socialism and is presumably committed to a free market economy insist on complete state ownership of land? Why is there not an adequate system of irrigation for crops, grain storages and wells to harvest rains throughout the country? Does Zenawi really have a food security policy for the country?
The Hunger Games at Camp David
After four decades at the humanitarian food aid trough, it is unlikely that Ethiopia will achieve food security even in the distant future. President Obama is rightly concerned over the “food shortages” in the Horn and the Sahel in the coming year. Last month, the United States pledged to provide nearly $200 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Horn in anticipation of “poor rains and drought”. In 2011, the U.S. provided over $1.1 billion in humanitarian aid to Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
On May 19, President Obama and the G8 leaders will have to face some tough questions: What is the moral hazard of endlessly supplying food relief to the Horn countries? Why should the world continue to help a country that leases millions of hectares of the most fertile land in the country and become the breadbasket for India and the Middle East while its people are starving? Why should the world provide food aid to a country when the ruling regime weaponizes the aid to decimate opposition, crush the democratic aspirations of the people and flagrantly violate human rights? Does aiding dictators who use food aid for political purposes end famine and food shortages in Africa?
The G8 leaders can talk about “food shortages” until the cows come home, but the answer to famine in Ethiopia and in the Horn is not never ending handouts to starving populations and free lunches to panhandling dictators. Handouts create a moral hazard of negative dependency by recipients which incapacitates them from fending for themselves. Zenawi and the other African dictators have no incentive to address the “food shortage” issue because they are absolutely and positively sure that the U.S. and other G8 countries will ALWAYS deliver humanitarian food aid to their starving populations year after year. As a world leader, the U.S. has a moral obligation to provide humanitarian food aid to famine victims; but it also has the moral responsibility of leveraging the billions in handouts (development aid, loans from the multilateral institutions and budget support payments) to dictators to promote democracy, human rights and rule of law in Africa.
In May 2010, Zenawi’s party won 99.6 percent of the seats in parliament. Despite two decades of one-party domination, Zenawi has not been able to do much to address the structural problem of food insecurity in the country. But he has been blowing his horn about bogus stratospheric economic growth. Ethiopians suffer from chronic food shortages and famine because they lack a political framework that can deal effectively with the problem. The Indian economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen argued that the best way to avert famines is by institutionalizing democracy and strengthening human rights: “No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy” because democratic governments “have to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentive to undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophes.” Famines are kept hidden from public view by jailing opposition leaders, journalists and civic society advocates who could sound the alarm over an impending famine.
What Should the U.S. Do for Ethiopia?
All the U.S. needs to do for Ethiopia is practice what it preaches. In 2009 in Accra, Ghana President Obama preached:
Development depends on good governance. History offers a clear verdict: Governments that respect the will of their own people, that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous, they are more stable, and more successful than governments that do not. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny. And now is the time for that style of governance to end…. In the 21st century, capable, reliable, and transparent institutions are the key to success — strong parliaments; honest police forces; independent judges; an independent press; a vibrant private sector; a civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in people’s everyday lives…. History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions. With better governance, I have no doubt that Africa holds the promise of a broader base of prosperity….
Listening to Zenawi plead for more aid before the G8 to deal with the looming “food crises” (but “no famine”) is like listening to the man who killed his parents and asked for leniency from the court because he is an orphan. Now that’s chutzpah!
Amharic translations of recent commentaries by the author may be found at:
White House spokesman Jay Carney announced last week that President Obama has invited the presidents of Ghana, Tanzania, Benin and Meles Zenawi to attend the G8 Summit (the forum for the governments of eight of the world’s largest economies) for a discussion of food security on May 19 at Camp David (Presidential retreat) in Maryland. The U.S. has been handing out food aid to the African continent for decades. Now President Obama says there is another looming “food crises” in Africa. Oxfam says, “All signs point to a drought becoming a catastrophe if nothing is done soon.” The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has issued appeals for an extra $70 million to aid some 800,000 households in the drought-hit Sahel region in West Africa. Ethiopia and Somalia are expected to be ground zero for the anticipated famine. According to the April 25, 2012 report of the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), southern Ethiopia will most likely experience famine: “The anticipated below-average rains will have significant negative impact on crop production, pasture regeneration, and the replenishment of water resources throughout the region, with the most severe and immediate impactin belg-dependent areas of southern Ethiopia.” Over the past couple or so years, I have written over one-half dozen commentaries on famine and food shortages in Ethiopia. (See links below.)