Following Meles Zenawi’s speech at Columbia University on September 22, Prof. William Easterly of New York University expressed his delight in seeing Ethiopians “participating in a debate about Ethiopia.” In his AID WATCH blog under the title “Lessons after the Meles Speech at Columbia: Let Ethiopians Debate Ethiopia”, Prof. Easterly noted[1]:
It sure was nice to see mainly Ethiopians vigorously participating in a debate about Ethiopia, in contrast to the usual Old White Men debating Africa. The Meles visit to Columbia had the unintentional effect of promoting this debate. We were very happy at Aid Watch to have had the privilege of turning over our little corner of the web to host some of this debate, and then just get out of the way.
Prof. Easterly is the author of the widely-read book, The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. He is one of the most informed and critically skeptical economist in the world today on the failures of foreign aid to produce sustainable growth in the so-called Third World. His views stand in clear contrast to Columbia professors Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs who are avid advocates of foreign aid as a vehicle for economic development in countries such as Ethiopia.
Prof. Easterly’s colorful intimation about “Old White Men debating Africa” masks two bold-faced and painful truths from which the Ethiopian “intelligentsia” cannot escape. The first is that Western-educated Ethiopian intellectuals in particular have curtsied and made way to the two “Knights of Columbia” who earned their fame and fortune thrusting lances in the heart of the International Monetary Fund and panhandling Western governments to keep Africa on the dole indefinitely. The second truth is that Ethiopian intellectuals have stood by idly as the “Gang of Two” have made it their mission to promote Zenawi internationally by spinning fairy tales of “economic growth” and “development” in Ethiopia.
For well over a decade, Profs. Stiglitz and Sachs have served as intellectual godfathers to Ethiopia’s dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi. The “objective” of these two “academic entrepreneurs” and “unacademic professors”, to use the recent words of Prof. Jagdish Bhagwati of Columbia, is to “ingratiate” themselves ” with influential African leaders regardless of their democratic and human-rights record, to get PR and ‘goodies’ for themselves at African summits, at the UN where these leaders have a vote…” Their style has been to rub elbows and hobnob with iron-fisted and human rights-trashing kleptocratic African dictators while preaching and pleading for more foreign aid and spinning fairy tales of “double-digit economic growth” in the international media and policy forums to promote the dictators.
According to the Stiglitz-Sachs theory, decisive and benevolent dictators powered by massive amounts of panhandled Western aid could pull Ethiopia and Africa out of the darkness of poverty into the sunshine of development. All of the human rights stuff is a frivolous distraction that should be ignored in the single-minded pursuit of the Holy Grail of foreign aid to solve the problem of poverty once and for all by 2015, if one is to believe, as does Sachs, in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Such fatuous nonsense has become the credo of the Western foreign aid world thanks to the likes of Stiglitz and Sachs. In 2010 alone, the U.S. has dropped nearly $1 billion in aid to Ethiopia.
The fact of the matter is that the much vaunted foreign aid provides a lifeline to dictators and stokes the furnace of corruption that incinerates the poor and the powerless on a daily basis in countries such as Ethiopia. Suffice it to say that expecting economic growth from foreign aid is like expecting a harvest from desert rains; only the succulent plants benefit from it.
Prof. Bhagwati, charitably, but grossly understates the relationship between Ethiopia’s dictator and Stiglitz-Sachs as ingratiation. Since 1997, Stiglitz-Sachs have been Zenawi’s unofficial hagiographers (biographers of saints). Stiglitz wrote: “These intellectual attributes [Zenawi’s ‘deeper and more subtle understanding of economic principles’] were matched by integrity: Meles was quick to investigate any accusations of corruption in his government. He was committed to decentralization–to ensuring that the center did not lose touch with the various regions.”[2] In 2010, Ethiopia ranked 138/159 (most corrupt) countries on the Corruption Index; 17th among the most failed states (Somalia is No. 1) on the Failed States Index; 136/179 countries (most repressive) on the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom; and 107/183 economies for ease of doing business (investment climate) by The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2010. But we have only seen the tip of the glacial iceberg of corruption in Ethiopia.[3]
In his 2003 book, Stiglitz wrote, “His [Zenawi’s] political opponents came mostly from the long-dominant groups around the capital who had lost political power with his accession, and they raised questions about his commitment to democratic principles.” In his Columbia speech on September 22, during the Q&A session, Zenawi said that the only people complaining about human rights violations and opposing him are “remnants” of Mengistu’s regime, the erstwhile military junta gone nearly 20 years, who lost their power nearly two decades ago. It seems they all read from the same tired 20 year-old script.
In 2004, Sachs wrote[4], “When I meet with Prime Minister Meles and President Museveni I feel like I am attending a development seminar. They are ingenious, deeply knowledgeable, and bold.” In 2005, at an award ceremony for Zenawi, Sachs spoke beatifically of Zenawi: “You have distinguished yourself as a one of our World’s most brilliant leaders. I have often said that our many hours of discussion together are among the most scintillating that I have spent on the topics of economic development. I invariably leave our meetings enriched, informed, and encouraged about Ethiopia’s prospects.”[5] Goethe said, “A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.” Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum!
The Echo Chamber of the “Gang of Three”
The “Gang of Three” have had their mutual admiration society going for quite a while. They have carefully orchestrated a subtle campaign of disinformation about stratospheric economic growth rates in Ethiopia using the reputable media; and through sheer volume of media references and repetition, many have now come to believe in the fairy tale that Ethiopia has finally become a utopia where economic growth gallops at a steady clip of 14.9 percent annually. As they buttered up each other for their intellectual insights, foresights, hindsights and angelic integrity and put in place their foreign-aid panhandling schemes to rid Ethiopia of poverty, Ethiopian intellectuals, particularly those in the Diaspora, have been standing on the sidelines in catatonic silence. We have heard the “Gang of Three” lying, but we have not testified against them. We have heard them misleading the people with “lies, damned lies and statistics”, and we have failed to lead the people with simple truths. We have stood deaf, mute and blind as our motherland is raped by land-grabbing raiders and marauders from the Middle East to India.
But others, including Prof. Easterly, have not been silent; in fact, they have been systematically demonstrating with data that shaking down the Western donor dollar tree for every last penny will produce neither economic growth nor development. Prof. Easterly has relentlessly exposed those officially pimping foreign aid as the silver bullet to end poverty in the Third World[6]:
The goal [of foreign aid] is simply to benefit some poor people some of the time… In virtually no other field of economics do economists and policymakers promise such large welfare benefits for modest policy interventions as ‘we’ do in aid and growth. The macroeconomic evidence does not support these claims. There is no Next Big Idea that will make the small amount of foreign aid the catalyst for economic growth of the world’s poor nations.
Ghanaian economist Prof. George Ayittey and international economist Dambissa Moyo have also exposed the scam of foreign aid-dependent development and offered alternative views on promoting economic growth and development in Africa ranging from the radical proposal of cutting off all aid to Africa over a period of time to finding money for development through financial markets, microfinance, improving governance, reducing corruption through rigorous accountability structures, focusing aid to meet the urgent needs of the poor in health care, education, clean water supply and by calling for innovative approaches to development. But in an echo chamber of a self-absorbed foreign aid community that resonates with “lies, damned lies and statistics”, Easterly, Ayittey and Moyo have been voices in the wilderness. But because of their persistence, the simple truth that foreign aid is not changing the lives of the most needy in recipient countries such as Ethiopia is coming out and taking hold, much to the chagrin of those pimping foreign aid.
As the “academic entrepreneurs” buy, sell and auction us off on the foreign aid market and the few voices in the wilderness struggle to call attention to the ineffectiveness of aid in spurring economic development, Ethiopian intellectuals in the main have resolved to stand deaf-mute and watch the debate from the sidelines. That’s what makes Prof. Easterly’s remark about “letting Ethiopians participate in the debate about Ethiopia” especially poignant and embarrassing. He is too much of a scholar and gentleman to call us out in the public square and say, “You Ethiopian intellectuals have not been part of the debate. You have been passive spectators as ‘White old men’ do the thinking and acting for you. You have not been engaged, but disengaged to the point of inexplicable indifference. You have not shown righteous intellectual outrage or courage to confront these foreign aid pimps, conjurers and enchanters. Get your shoulders to the grind wheel and ‘participate in the debate’ and come up with your own solutions to the problems your country is facing.” I catch the drift of Prof. Easterly’s delicate and finessed appreciation that they are “very happy at Aid Watch to have had the privilege of turning over [their] little corner of the web to host some of this debate.”
Let Ethiopians Lead the Debate on Ethiopia
So, what do we make of Prof. Easterly’s suggestion, “Let Ethiopians debate Ethiopia”? Do we ignore it or rise up to the challenge? I say, let us not only “debate Ethiopia”, but also challenge the dictators and their patron saints in all fields of intellectual endeavor. What is it that they got that we ain’t got? Aha! A Nobel Prize! But a Nobel laureate testifying for a dictator is like the devil quoting Scripture for his purpose, as Shakespeare might say: “An evil soul producing holy witness is like a villain with a smiling cheek.” The true measure of that Prize should not be in possessing it to shield dictatorships from scrutiny, but in using it to help free humanity from the yoke of oppression.
I would like Prof. Easterly to know that Ethiopians are not just coming forward to “debate Ethiopia”, they are actually ready, able and willing to lead the debate. In the past few months, they have stepped up to the plate and begun slugging it out with the false prophets of foreign aid. Dr. Aklog Birara, an international economist, in his new book on “Ethiopia’s endemic poverty” takes on the intellectual apologists of dictators head on:
A vicious cycle of poverty afflicts the vast majority of Ethiopians despite incredible good will manifested in billions of dollars of emergency and development assistance from wealthy countries… The ruling-party, its supporters and a few in the donor community argue that substantial growth has taken place. There is substantial physical evidence in the form of hydroelectric power dams, roads and bridges, buildings and housing, schools and other infrastructure to show this… There is no indication that substantial investments into the productive sectors such as industry, manufacturing and agriculture have been made. Lag in the productivity of the real sector is evidenced by recurring hunger, high unemployment and underemployment, especially an estimated 14 million unemployed youth in the country.
Prof. Seid Hassan has debunked the claims of those who underplay and rationalize endemic corruption in the Ethiopian economy:
The government has been either ineffective in collecting taxes or the economy is unable to generate taxable incomes. The economy’s inability to generate tax revenues is strongly tied with the many constraints that the government has imposed on the people of Ethiopia, the most important of them being state seizure and corruption manifested by the transfer of Ethiopian assets to party-owned conglomerates (the so-called “endowments” who now control the most productive sector and commanding heights of the Ethiopian economy) and the reprieve given to them from paying taxes.
Prof. Getachew Begashaw has demonstrated that those who have a chokehold on the economy also have a chokehold on the people’s throats:
In Ethiopia the one-party government of Meles Zenawi owns all the urban and rural land and completely controls the major economic activities, including manufacturing, construction, and finance. This monopoly of the economic activities of the country, coupled with the absence of democracy, has contributed in a major way to the widespread poverty in the country.[7]
We Must Be Masters of Our Destiny
Prof. Easterly’s subtle intimation that we must master the debate before we can master our destiny is an important lesson to be learned from the Columbia experience. To become masters of our destiny, we must challenge those who have become our intellectual masters by default. We must confront the “Knights of Columbia” and their squires in the scholarly journals, in the media, in the conferences, in blogosphere, in any marketplace of ideas and wherever else they are found selling their snake oil of foreign aid and preaching their false gospel of aid-dependent development to deliver Ethiopia and Africa from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. If we fail to do that, we will forever be victims of the formulaic thinking of “Old White men debating Africa” from afar and the policy triumphalism of their puppets at home. Bertrand Russell said, “The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution”. It is OUR job, first and foremost, to state the problem in OUR homeland in a way that allows for OUR solution. That is one of the major lessons we should learn from Columbia U.
FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.
Woyanne apartheid regime is busy getting U.S. universities carry out development projects in Tigray with funds received in the name of Ethiopia. The water capacity building project in Tigray by the University of Connecticut that is reported below is a good example. The University has received funds from USAID in the name of Ethiopia, but the project is being done only in Tigray — the Woyanne {www:apartheid} system in action.
(UConn Press Release) — In the drought-ravaged expanse of Ethiopia, a sign in front of the Ministry of Water Resources (Addis Ababa) states simply: “Water is Life!!”
In April, a large multi-institutional team of researchers from UConn and Ethiopian universities was awarded a prestigious USAID/Higher Education for Development (HED) planning grant to support sustainable development and management of water resources in Ethiopia. UConn is committed to advancing hydrology studies and to bringing much-needed practical aid to regions of the globe where clean, plentiful water is scarce.
UConn Provost Peter Nicholls hailed the award. “UConn is committed to the application of our expertise to global grand challenges. What is more basic, more pressing, than water? We are deeply proud that UConn {www:faculty} are involved in this project to address Ethiopia’s water crisis and contribute to a transformative educational model that will allow Ethiopian citizens to solve the nation’s problems. I applaud our USAID/HED team.”
The team, headed by Drs. Michael Accorsi, Mekonnen Gebremichael and Guiling Wang of the Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department, and Drs. Jeffrey Osleeb and Carol Atkinson-Palombo of the Department of Geography, aims to help Ethiopian universities increase their {www:capacity} to educate their students and conduct research and outreach that will contribute to solving the water management and distribution challenges that plague their country.
Dr. Accorsi commented, “Increasing the capacity of Ethiopian universities is critical to economic development in the country. The Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative is an innovative program in that it directly addresses this need. It has been a distinct pleasure to work with our Ethiopian partners. They are extremely motivated and dedicated to moving this project forward. There is a tremendous opportunity, here and now, to make a difference.”
Based on their preliminary work, the team was one of just 20 (out of over 300) selected by USAID to submit a detailed, long-term planning proposal that includes the overhaul of the technology curriculum at Ethiopia’s three largest universities. They are joined by a multidisciplinary team of researchers from UConn, Addis Ababa University, Mekelle University and Hawassa University; IBM — through their “smart” water management initiative; Bentley Systems – a leader in the development of water management software; and the U.S. Geological Survey. The project is ambitious and requires significant matching funds from private donors to trigger substantial government support.
Ethiopian Odyssey
In July, six UConn faculty and staff members traveled to Ethiopia to meet with colleagues at three partnering universities as well as officials from various Ethiopian water bureaus, ministries and government units that will be key to the project’s success. Their experiences — from their exchanges with colleagues, officials and citizens to a serious accident that temporarily interrupted their plans — strengthened their intention to seek substantial funding support from USAID to move ahead with the project.
Despite abundant water reserves fed by nine river basins — including the Nile River in the northwest — across Ethiopia: half of the Ethiopian population walks up to four kilometers every day to fetch water; over 70% of Ethiopia’s population does not have access to safe drinking water; agriculture is primarily rain-fed, causing food insecurity, while less than 5% of the nation’s potential irrigable land is under irrigation; only 2% of the nation’s potential hydropower is utilized; and water-related diseases, such as malaria and schistosomiasis, are major public health problems. Recognizing this, the Ethiopian government has placed water at the forefront of its National Poverty Reduction Strategy. Despite the challenges, Ethiopia recently ranked second on the African Rainbow Consulting’s Star of Africa index, out of all 53 African countries, for water resources and overall potential for successful investment.
After a week of successful meetings, presentations and agreements with officials, the UConn team was en route to various locales in the country when their journey took an unexpected turn. A car carrying three of the team members was involved in a serious auto accident that injured Drs. Accorsi, Osleeb and Atkinson-Palombo. Over the next 24 hours, their experiences seeking medical assistance underscored why the USAID partnership is so vital to Ethiopia’s future.
With the help of Drs. Gebremichael and Wang, along with Robert Weiner of Engineering Computing Services, the injured members were transported to a town hospital, where the lack of electricity made it impossible to X-ray Drs. Osleeb and Atkinson-Palombo, both of whom sustained serious injuries. They next traveled to a hospital in the major city of Mekelle. Dr. Osleeb recalled, “When we arrived at the beautiful, brand new hospital, which did have electricity, we were shocked to learn there was no running water — anywhere in the hospital. The lack of water was a problem, but there was also a profound lack of trained medical personnel, so although we were the only patients in the emergency room, we were there six hours before our examinations were completed.” They eventually found skilled medical attention and relief in the trauma unit at a hospital operated by a Korean organization in Addis Ababa, where a Norwegian physician tended to their injuries. The dire conditions they witnessed in Ethiopia strengthened the resolve of the UConn researchers to find a {www:sustainable} solution for water resource management in developing countries.
Water: Complex Problem
The multidisciplinary nature of the team reflects the complexity of Ethiopia’s hydrology problems. The team of engineering faculty has significant expertise in rainfall and water resource prediction using satellite imaging, ground-based measurements and complex modeling. Dr. Gebremichael has long-term hydrology studies in place in Ethiopia, and since 2006, with National Science Foundation support, he has led student teams who installed weather stations and studied the hydrological processes in a key watershed of the Blue Nile basin region. His research in Ethiopian water resources is also supported by his NASA Young Investigator Award. Other team members, including Drs. Emmanouil Anagnostou, Amvrossios Bagtzoglou and Allison MacKay of Civil & Environmental Engineering, bring strong expertise in hydrology, climatology, meteorology, land surface modeling and groundwater analysis.
Dr. Osleeb, who is Head of the Department of Geography, is an expert in geographic information science (GISc), a discipline in which researchers “use computers in {www:conjunction} with digital maps to analyze aspects of the Earth. As a geographer, my role in this project will be to help our Ethiopian academic colleagues develop a spatial analysis curriculum. My interest is in economic geography, which means I’m interested in looking for the best location for facilities, in this case water facilities.”
Ethiopia’s water problems cannot be solved merely by drilling wells, building dams or other structures. The USAID project is aimed at “building capacity,” helping the nation nurture its own problem solvers who can address water distribution problems. Dr. Osleeb observed that “Although Ethiopia has excellent universities, the academic model there is different. Ethiopian professors are not rewarded for research, while in the U.S., we expect faculty to not only teach but also carry out original research, publish and mentor graduate students. This research focus helps us move from the textbook to solving the real world problems around us. We will help our Ethiopian colleagues adopt a new model for how faculty members are assessed.”
Dr. Atkinson-Palombo has similar interests in the project. She said “My overarching career goal is to engage in integrative research, teaching, and education about sustainable development, especially in cities. Geography has a tradition of encouraging thought about how place-specific factors influence the complex interactions between people, the natural environment, and the built environment.”
“The field trips, particularly those in the semi-arid regions, reinforced the importance of the spatial and temporal mismatch between people and water resources,” said Dr. Atkinson-Palombo. She continued “Water is plentiful, but it is not necessarily where people live and occurs in pulses in distinct “rainy” and “dry” seasons. So there is a dire need for mechanisms to store and manage rainwater in agricultural areas where people are predominantly subsistence farmers. In more urbanized settlements, visible water-related challenges are providing the necessary infrastructure to manage stormwater and sewage.”
Dr. Guiling Wang, an associate professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and director of the Environmental Engineering Program, reflected “The need for water is so great and pervasive in Ethiopia that we can have an immediate impact in helping the country address this problem. The focus of our work is on capacity building. We won’t actually be solving the water problem directly. We will be helping our Ethiopian partners develop a more relevant engineering curriculum and a vibrant applied research program. At the same time, UConn faculty will benefit from increased competency in addressing global water issues and new partnering opportunities for research. My experience is in hydrology, biosphere-atmosphere interactions, climatology and hydrological forecasting, so I am interested in helping the universities develop a context-relevant curriculum.”
She said, “Another important aspect of this USAID project is the opportunity for graduate exchange between UConn and its partnering universities in Ethiopia. By providing students an opportunity to study hydrology issues in Ethiopia or other developing countries, and for UConn to host graduate students from our partnering institutions, we can build greater understanding and awareness of global connections and challenges.”
Dr. Gebremichael reflected, “Ethiopia has one of the world’s largest climatic variability, resulting in a highly variable distribution of water in space and time. One major challenge to Ethiopian water resources planning and management has been the lack of reliable measurements. . .Here at UConn, we have developed a tool that uses readings from government satellites and computer models to measure how much water is “available” and “consumed” across a large region. This information is crucially needed in Ethiopia, and it is bound to change the face of Ethiopian water resources development and management.”
The team’s vision is “to radically transform the capacity in Ethiopian universities to better understand and plan for sustainable water resource management by establishing an institutional structure for long-term partnership.” According to Dr. Accorsi, the partners hope to deploy various strategies to achieve their aims, including the development of an interdisciplinary, integrated water resources {www:curriculum}; graduate student exchange programs between UConn and its partnering universities; optimization of resource efficiency; centralization of water resource facilities — including databases and libraries; support for research and the research community; and efforts to secure long-term funding that will sustain the project. A major focus will be on the development of an Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources to facilitate these goals.
Rounding out the U.S. portion of the team are Dr. Anji Seth of the Department of Geography, Dr. Farhed Shah of Agricultural and Resources Economics, Dr. Jun Yan of Statistics, Dr. Eugene Salorio of Management, and Dr. Edward Rossomando of the Center for Waterborne Diseases.
First, Columbia University moved the speech venue from the grand Low Library to a campus {www:auditorium}. Then the university president avoided being seen with Ethiopian {www:despot} Meles Zenawi, and sent his deputy. Just to make sure there is no World Leaders Forum association with Meles, they put him on a stage with a blank dark background. Every leader who has appeared on the WLF has had the script of the forum in the background behind the {www:podium} except for Meles. See for yourself below and judge.
Meles Zenawi and other leaders at World Leaders Forum
Member of European Parliament Ana Gomes asks President Zuma of South Africa to help release Ethiopian Birtukan Mideksa
(Brussels) MEP Ana GOMES (S&D, PT) asked President Jacob Zuma of South Africa today, during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, to help liberate Birtukan Mideksa, a young woman leader of the main opposition party in her country, Ethiopia, who has been jailed for life and whom Amnesty International considers to be a “prisoner of conscience”.
The South African Head of State admitted to not knowing the case in particular, but assured the European Parliament that “if she was jailed unfairly, South Africa would certainly be willing to use its influence” and press for her release.
Ana Gomes asked President Zuma and South Africa to show solidarity towards Ms. Mideksa, who the people of Ethiopia consider the “Ethiopian Nelson Mandela”. The Portuguese Socialist MEP evoked Nelson Mandela and his inspiring fight for freedom, stating that “he is not just a hero of South Africans, he is a hero for Mankind”, and recalled how world solidarity was important to return Nelson Mandela to freedom. “Will South Africa now show solidarity to get the release of this brave, young African woman imprisoned for life in Ethiopia, the country that hosts the headquarters of the African Union?”, directed Ana Gomes to President Zuma.
Together with MEP Marita ULVSKOG (S&D, SE), Ana Gomes proposed Birtukan Mideksa for the Sakharov Prize 2010. During the last plenary session in Strasbourg, the nomination of the Ethiopian political prisoner won the endorsement of the Socialists & Democrats Group for the European Parliament’s prestigious Human Rights annual award.
OK, back to Ethiopia week. On leaving Addis, we head off to the Rift Valley on one of Ethiopia’s many excellent roads (shame about the driving…) to an enormous flower farm owned by a company called Sher, which rents them out to three large Dutch flower companies, including Herburg Roses Ethiopia plc, who we are meeting. And I mean {www:enormous} – rows of identical green plastic greenhouses, each one a kilometre in length, covering a total of 325 hectares so far, and aiming to reach 450. What follows is a classic flying NGO visit – a hurried conversation with the managers, a quick chat to some workers, and then we have to leave with a steadily accumulating series of unasked or unanswered questions, what the French call pensées d’escalier (‘thoughts on the stairs’).
So what is (more or less) certain? Roses have boomed in Ethiopia, overtaking Kenya this year. According to Alemayehu Geda, an {www:economist} from Addis Ababa University, about 100 firms are involved, 2/3 of them foreign-owned. Cut flower exports have risen tenfold over the last 3-4 years and now bring in an annual $170m in 2008 – that’s 11% of national exports. Peter van Heukelom and Jos Kliks, respectively Herburg’s Managing Director and Farm Manager, think Geda’s figure may even be too low. 90% of Ethiopia’s roses go to Holland.
Flowers create jobs: Herburg needs 26 people per hectare to grow its flowers, which is a lot more than can make a living from a hectare of any other crop I’ve come across. And Ethiopians want to work there, as the long lines outside the farm gates demonstrate.
Flowers bring in vital foreign exchange. The deal between the Ethiopian government and the foreign investors specifies a minimum of €0.08 must enter Ethiopia per flower. Herburg alone exports 80 million roses a year to Holland – that’s a guaranteed €6.4 million entering the country.
But only a tiny proportion of the sales price reaches Ethiopia: Peter says he would be happy to earn €0.13 a stem, (i.e. above the minimum set by the government), but a 12 rose bouquet on a UK supermarket website costs £40, or €3.91 per rose. That means 97% of the final value of the rose you buy in the shop never reaches Ethiopia!
The companies spend a fair amount on social responsibility, including a gleaming hospital, free to all employees, and a nursery and primary school. Herburg is regularly audited and certified on both its environmental and social {www:performance} by MPS, a quality assurance company.
Herburg pays no corporation tax, because of a five year tax holiday that runs out next year. But even after that, as long as Ethiopia prevents companies from repatriating profits, they will probably make sure their pricing policy ensures that profits accrue in Holland, so little corporation tax will be paid in Ethiopia.
Beyond that, a one hour visit leaves a large cloud of uncertainty. Wages are low (about $28 a month for a packing worker, $50 for her supervisor), but that is reportedly a good deal more than the minimum wage and the few workers we speak to see it as a good, secure job.
On the environmental questions that always surround flower farms, Peter and Jos point to their MPS certification and say that the firm uses only organic chemicals, and takes great pains to clean up its effluents. A local environmentalist claims the fish are dying in the lake, but the lake looked luxuriant and was full of birdlife (including fish eaters), so who knows? Certainly not me. And I have no way of knowing the health impacts on the workers, if any, of chemical use, although Peter stresses that they are required to wear safety gear and fined if they fail to do so. And I have no information on the views of the small farmers evicted (with compensation) by the government to make way for the farms.
So on the basis of this sketchy information, do I think we should continue to buy Ethiopian roses? Yes. Does Ethiopia earn a fair proportion of the final price for its roses? No. Should we keep up pressure on the companies involved to improve wages, conditions and environmental management? Definitely. I suspect not all readers will agree, though. . .
It was a beautiful weekend in Oakland. It was sunny, warm and clear blue skies. We celebrated Meskel like never before. Every year you see more young ones scurrying around between your legs and all over the place. It is a population explosion with the new arrivals and the newly born. As usual it was both serene and lavish. The folks of Medhanealem cathedral know how to give a feast fit for Ethiopians.
We are both proud and happy to have a caring church that knows its responsibility to people and country. To watch so many Ethiopians having fun and rejoicing in celebrating their heritage is heart warming. You can take the Ethiopian out of Ethiopia but you cannot take being Ethiopian out of him/her. The fact we were treated to such a holiday spirit is not an accident. Here in Oakland we have a little advantage. We are blessed to have a caring and humble father that has managed to keep has flock together and avoid the bad and terrible things that are happening all around us. Our church is under constant attack and church leaders like Abatachen have shown us how to be to be resilient. We might bend but we will never snap and break.
I am sure it took a lot of planning to organize such an event. Since there is the issue of setting fire (Demera) both the City and the fire department have to be notified. There were tents to be pitched, table and chairs to be set. There was food and water to be brought and special playing pen for the young ones to be set. Traffic control is always an issue and setting up the sound system takes knowledge. It all went well due to excellent planning by the Church Board and their helpers. A lot of Ethiopians went home happy.
It is such a joy to see Ethiopians coming together. United and working for the same purpose and goal. Priceless!
Another important event took place on the other side of this continent. The location was Uptown Manhattan and the name of the place is Columbia University. Here on Wednesday September 22nd. another set of Ethiopians defended our honor and hoisted our flag sky high for all to see with the lettering ‘Do not thread on me!’ embossed on good old green yellow and red. Our people chartered buses, drove in their private cars, took the train and flew to be present at this important event. They came as far away as Carolina, as close as Boston as next door as New Jersey or a tad far as Connecticut. They came to speak for the voiceless. They were a few hundred in real numbers but they were hundreds of thousands in spirit. They were not alone. All Ethiopia was with them. They showed the tyrant ferenji respect is not a substitute to our love and respect.
Columbia University got more than what it bargained for. The hired TPLF lobbyists and the Professors for ‘sale’ were exposed for what they are, tyrant coddlers! Columbia heard the cry of the Ethiopian people loud and clear. They were seen going around like a chicken with is head cut off. First they removed the crappy flattering autobiography, then their Professors rebelled and called foul, and were forced to move the venue to a lower setting and crowned their debacle by canceling President Bollinger’s appearance.
Ethiopians in the Diaspora worked together and waged a successful campaign to turn this unjust invitation into a teachable moment. Students and faculty of Columbia University were made aware of the plight of our people. We emailed, faxed, called and made a lot of noise. Our independent websites were relentless and our airwaves were filled with somber discussions. We were at our best. We did it not out of hate but out of love for our homeland.
I wrote an article regarding the individual’s visit. I gave the examples of Fascist Italy’s aggression of 1935 and Jimmy Carters blunder in the aftermath of the 2005 elections to lament on Ferenjis disrespect for our sensibilities. I mis-spoke. I apologize. Both examples are off target. When Italy invaded our motherland our people did not fold their hands and sit around waiting for the bombs to fall. No they marched north to confront the enemy. The fact that Italy possessed airplanes loaded with poison gas and heavy guns capable of doing great damage was not a deterrent to the sons and daughters of Tewodros, Menelik, Tona, Abajifar and Yohanes.
When our honorable guest lost the election in 2005 and decided to win by any means necessary our people did not throw their hands in the air and went back home. They rose up to confront a highly trained and lethal Agazi force of the Prime Minster and engaged the enemy in Merkato and around the nation. Merkato is our sacred ground. Our ‘ground zero.’ Let us just say we lacked the resolve to take the game to its natural conclusion. (Our Kenyan neighbors took note and called Mr. Kibabki’s bluff. Today, Kenya with a democratically drawn constitution will surpass our country in a short time and take the leadership position in African Affairs.) We lost over two hundred sons and daughters of Ethiopia. I did not mean to dishonor the memory of our brave people that stood up against all odds.
My rant against Columbia University is a misplaced anger and a feeble attempt to shift responsibility to others. The confrontation should have been against myself. Don’t you think it is about time we as a nation do some deep agonizing introspection? Self-examination is long over due. Columbia University, for whatever reason have decided to bestow such honor on an abuser of human right and that is their prerogative. It makes us sad and loose respect to an institution that is supposed to be a center of advanced learning and higher moral expectations. After everything has been said and done the problem is ours to solve or live with.
So the question that is keeping me awake at night is how come the people that go out of their way to keep our heritage intact even in exile are the same people that enable Woyane’s atrocity on our people. How come these sons and daughters of Ethiopia are helping a single ethnic based Junta that exiled them out of their homeland by investing their hard earned money in his ponzi scheme? How could you claim to love Ethiopia and give money to those that are destroying Ethiopia?
My question to my brethren and myself is how did we get here? At what point did our character get devalued like our useless currency the Bir? Despite the on going attempt to rewrite our history Ethiopia has existed for centuries as a Nation State. Believe me there aren’t that many countries that can claim that. Today in 2010 how come we have become the poster country for an example of a failed state? Is there a historian, a sociologist or political scientist that can pin point the date of our collective rush to disintegrate?
It has been forty years now since we started this down ward spiral. We have managed to pick a few nasty habits in this difficult journey we embarked upon. The sons and daughter of those proud and brave souls that defined Ethiopia have been bullied to submission at home or reduced to a bunch of destitute nomads roaming the planet in search of a peaceful corner to lie down and die in peace.
There are two psychological terms that come to mind when we think of the predicament we find our selves in. I am speaking about the concepts of ‘intervention’ and a term known as ‘the Stockholm syndrome.’ In part two this search for explanation I will put my two cents worth to elaborate our dysfunctional behavior that is feeding the monster we have created. In the mean time we thank both groups in Oakland and New York for keeping hope alive. Melkam Meskel sons and daughters of brave Abeshas.
In April, a large multi-institutional team of researchers from UConn and Ethiopian universities was awarded a prestigious USAID/Higher Education for Development (HED) planning grant to support sustainable development and management of water resources in Ethiopia. UConn is committed to advancing hydrology studies and to bringing much-needed practical aid to regions of the globe where clean, plentiful water is scarce.
Dr. Accorsi commented, “Increasing the capacity of Ethiopian universities is critical to economic development in the country. The Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative is an innovative program in that it directly addresses this need. It has been a distinct pleasure to work with our Ethiopian partners. They are extremely motivated and dedicated to moving this project forward. There is a tremendous opportunity, here and now, to make a difference.”
She said, “Another important aspect of this USAID project is the opportunity for graduate exchange between UConn and its partnering universities in Ethiopia. By providing students an opportunity to study hydrology issues in Ethiopia or other developing countries, and for UConn to host graduate students from our partnering institutions, we can build greater understanding and awareness of global connections and challenges.”
So what is (more or less) certain? Roses have boomed in Ethiopia, overtaking Kenya this year. According to 