A newspaper run by Columbia students, Columbia Spectator, writes about student reactions to the invitation to Ethiopia’s genocidal tyrant Meles Zenawi to give keynote address on September 22.
Initially, Columbia asked Meles to speak about Ethiopia and African leadership [see here]. That was changed to “The Current Global Economy and its Impact [see here].” The latest is “The Current Global Environment and its Impact in Africa [see here and here].”
Meles is not qualified to speak on none of the three subjects. His expertise is how to come to and stay in power through trickery, deceit, backstabbing, blackmailing, arrest, torture and murder of his opponents, innocent people and even his own colleagues.
Read the full text of Columbia Specator’s report here.
For the past 20 years, the Ethiopian people have suffered from repressive political governance and a socioeconomic architecture that has enabled a minority-ethnic based leftist political party, the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front, to dominate the national economy by merging ethnicity, party and state. The consequence of this merger is that, despite massive foreign aid estimated at $30 billion since 1991, and $3 billion per year, the latest Oxford University Multidimensional governance index showed that Ethiopia, along with Niger, is among the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ninety (90) percent of the population is poor; there are 5 million orphans; 70 percent of Ethiopian youth is unemployed; an estimated 7 million Ethiopians depend on international emergency food aid to survive.
The national economy is dominated by party owned and endowed enterprises. Corruption is rampant at the highest levels of the regime. Inequality is on the rise. Ethiopian economists estimate that growing inequality is a consequence of economic and other asset concentration into the hands of a few and at the exclusion of the majority. Land, the primary source of livelihood for the vast majority of the Ethiopian people, is owned by the state. The ruling party has used its power to lease millions of acres of farmlands to foreign investors to produce food and related products for rich markets. This phenomenon deprives local communities and the country from achieving food self-sufficiency and security. At the same time, prices of basic necessities, including food, continue to rise, and to overcome the food inflation the government has frequently emptied its weak reserves. In illustrating the magnitude of the problem, Ethiopian social scientists estimate that, in Addis Ababa where 5 million people live, only about 100,000 have the means to eat three meals a day. For most, a single meal has become a luxury.
Ethiopia continues to suffer from the absence of the rule of law, independent judiciary, free press, strong civil society and opposition, participation of civil society in policy and decision-making and vibrant private sector. The United States Department of State 2010 Country Report on Human Rights and Practices documented that Mr. Meles Zenawi’s government continued to carry out “Unlawful killings, torture, beating, abuse and mistreatment of detainees and opposition supporters by security forces, often acting with impunity; poor prison conditions ; arbitrary arrest and detention, particularly of sympathizers of members of opposition groups detention without charge and lengthy pretrial detention; use of excessive force by security services..” International Human Rights Watch groups including Human Rights Watch and Genocide Watch have repeatedly documented and condemned the gross violation of human rights, war crimes and even genocide perpetrated by the regime of Meles Zenawi. The recent draft Senate Bill sponsored by two prominent US Senators confirms these atrocities.
These gross human rights violations are an affront to humanity and we believe the American people will not remain silent about these abuses by the Ethiopian government. In the 2010 parliamentary elections, violation of human rights and the absence of a fair and free election process in Ethiopia allowed the ruling minority clique to claim that it won by 99.6%. In 2005, Mr. Meles Zenawi’s government made the election a total sham; imprisoned thousands of innocent Ethiopians and the entire leadership of the major opposition party; and killed more than 200 peaceful protestors. Today, the only women leader of a major opposition party, Ms. Birtukan Midekssa, is in jail with no end in sight for her release.
Under Mr. Meles Zenawi’s single party rule, Ethiopia continues to lose its educated human capital. He and his government are singularly responsible for the country’s massive brain drain. The educational system is totally ethnicized and politicized; more than 40 highly educated academics were expelled from Addis Ababa University; and thousands of others who remain in the country silenced. The Ethiopian Prime Minister is anemic to academic and intellectual freedom.
In light of the above, we members of Ethiopian American Civic groups, Advocacy for Ethiopia (AFE) and Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy Council, are stunned that Columbia University has invited Mr. Meles Zenawi, an individual that many foreign observers characterize as “authoritarian” and Ethiopians call “dictator” to speak at the University. While we appreciate the University’s reasoning of sponsoring and debating with controversial figures, we believe that inviting Mr. Meles Zenawi gives him and his repressive government legitimacy to continue repressive, ethnic-based and exclusive socioeconomic and political policies and programs. For these reason, we urge alumni, students, the board of trustees and management of the University not to honor a repressive Prime Minister and the government he leads legitimacy. Instead, we call on the university to stand on the side of the Ethiopian people.
The above is a joint statement by Advocacy for Ethiopia (AFE) and Ethiopian American Civic Advocacy (EACA). Contact: [email protected]
…the leasing of farmland has increased dramatically in Ethiopia the past three years. In what has been called Ethiopia’s great “land lease project”—in an effort to introduce large-scale commercial farming to the country—the government is offering up vast chunks of fertile farmland to local and foreign investors at almost giveaway rates. By 2013, three million hectares of idle land is expected to have been allotted, equivalent to more than one fifth of the current land under cultivation in the country.
The report quotes a journalist describing his experience in Awassa, southern Ethiopia:
The farm manager shows us millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables being grown in 1,500 foot rows in computer controlled conditions. Spanish engineers are building the steel structure, Dutch technology minimizes water use from two bore-holes and 1,000 women pick and pack 50 tons of food a day. Within 24 hours, it has been driven 200 miles to Addis Ababa and flown 1,000 miles to the shops and restaurants of Dubai, Jeddah and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The 2,500 acres of land, which contains the Awassa greenhouses, are leased for 99 years to a Saudi billionaire businessman, Ethiopian-born Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, one of the 50 richest men in the world. His Saudi Star company plans to spend up to $2-billion acquiring and developing 1.25 million acres of land in Ethiopia in the next few years. So far, it has bought four farms and is already growing wheat, rice, vegetables and flowers for the Saudi market. It expects eventually to employ more than 10,000 people.”
In a press release recently, the Oakland Institute stated:
…leaked draft report from the World Bank, The Global Land Rush: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits, challenges the publicly held position of the World Bank on investments in agricultural lands in poor nations – a trend that has come to be popularly known as land grabbing. Although such investments have been hailed by the World Bank as a way to generate jobs and infrastructure, the report states, “investors are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap, and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments,” and in some cases inflict serious damage on the local resource base.
I have been getting a lot of email from Ethiopian-Americans who are very upset that Columbia University has invited Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to speak this coming Wednesday, like this one:
Most of the professors who come across him, in most cases are neutralized or transformed as his advocates. So far, you are the only one standing clear, so the Ethiopian people need one intellectual friend like you to make their case. Please don’t be afraid and help our people and speak up.
I am both moved and extremely uncomfortable. The Ethiopian diaspora critics of Meles are upset about the support for Meles coming from Professors Sachs and Stiglitz at Columbia (note: I hear from critics in the diaspora, because its nearly impossible to be a critic from inside Ethiopia). I have criticized the Meles regime here and here (2nd one joint with Laura). But it should not be up to the faranji to conduct the debate. None of us know enough or have enough at stake to get it right.
But I am happy to give the opposition a platform in this blog, without necessarily endorsing any one viewpoint, individual, or movement. Nor do I imply that any one I quote is necessarily representing a majority of Ethiopians. I have previously given space on the blog to a supporter of Meles.
So what are the issues? The Columbia student newspaper noted how Columbia’s original speech announcement had a laudatory bio of Meles (since removed), further outraging the Ethiopian opposition.
Under the seasoned governmental leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi … Ethiopia has made and continues to make progresses in many areas including in education, transportation, health and energy.
Electoral manipulations, harassment, intimidation,beatings, political imprisonments and the withholding of humanitarianaid for any who do not support Meles ‘ethnic-based EPRDF party, have effectively closed all political space to any opposing groups. The criminalization of dissent, advanced through new repressive laws regarding civil society and vague antiterrorism laws that could make nearly anyone guilty, have further silenced the people and the media.
Columbia University has the right to invite whomever they choose, but yet, such an invitation will only be misused to further elevate a dictator who is oppressing the people of Ethiopia.
Political science professor Alemayehu Mariam wrote an open letter to Columbia president Lee Bollinger on the Huffington Post:
There is widespread belief among Ethiopian Americans that Mr. Zenawi’s invitation to speak …necessarily implies the University’s endorsement and support of Mr. Zenawi’s views, policies and actions in Ethiopia. I am writing to request your office to issue an official statement clarifying your position concerning Mr. Zenawi as you so eloquently did when Mahmood Ahmadinejad of Iran spoke on your campus on September 24, 2007.
Professor Mariam cites some of the credentials of Meles Zenawi to get the Ahmadinejad treatment:
In 2005, security forces under the personal command and control of Mr. Zenawi massacred 193 unarmed protesters and inflicted severe gunshot wounds on 763 others…
In December 2008, Mr. Zenawi arrested and reinstated a life sentence on Birtukan Midekssa, the only woman political party leader in Ethiopian history. He kept her under extreme conditions in prison.
The government enacted harsh legislation that criminalized coverage of vaguely defined “terrorist” activities, and used administrative restrictions, criminal prosecutions, and imprisonments to induce self-censorship… The government has had a longstanding practice of bringing trumped-up criminal cases against critical journalists, leaving the charges unresolved for years as a means of intimidating the defendants… Ethiopia as the only country in sub-Saharan Africa with ‘consistent’ and ‘substantial’ filtering of web sites…
Even it’s not up to the faranji to debate Ethiopia’s politics, we can all certainly comment on what support is given to each side by our governments, our aid agencies, and our universities.
What do you think of Columbia’s invitation to Meles? Should President Bollinger issue the “Ahmadinejad” disclaimer requested by the critics?
In an email message sent to Columbia Economics faculty, world-renowned economist, Jagdish Bhagwati, vehemently denounces the ill-advised tribute earlier accorded to Ethiopia’s dictator, Meles Zenawi.
Characterizing the Columbia faculty who were behind the invitation of Zenawi as “entrepreneurs,” Professor Bhagwati writes:
… as soon as you dilute these objectives [i.e., teaching and high-quality research, the twin pillars of universities’ functioning] by giving unaccountable power and funds to “entrepreneurs” whose objective is to use the University to advance their own agendas, you get into situations like the one you object to. It seems probable that the President’s office was merely reproducing uncritically the rubbish that was supplied by one of these Columbia entrepreneurs whose objective is to ingratiate himself 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, etc.”
He went on to affirm:
In short, the rot begins with these people, NOT with President Bollinger who is merely a victim of these “unacademic” Professors on campus who have gotten close to him, I am afraid.”
Jagdish Bhagwati is a University Professor at Columbia University and a Senior Fellow in International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been Economic Policy Adviser to Arthur Dunkel, Director General of GATT (1991-93), Special Adviser to the UN on Globalization, and External Adviser to the WTO. He has served on the Expert Group appointed by the Director General of the WTO on the Future of the WTO and the Advisory Committee to Secretary General Kofi Annan on the NEPAD process in Africa, and was also a member of the Eminent Persons Group under the chairmanship of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso on the future of UNCTAD. Five volumes of his scientific writings and two of his public policy essays have been published by MIT press. The recipient of six festschrifts in his honor, he has also received several prizes and honorary degrees, including awards from the governments of India (Padma Vibhushan) and Japan (Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star). Professor Bhagwati’s latest book, In Defense of Globalization, was published by Oxford University Press in 2004 to worldwide acclaim.
The full text of Professor Bhagwati’s message is cut and pasted below.
Sent: Sat 9/18/2010 6:11 AM
From: Professor Jagdish Bhagwati
University Professor, Economics and Law
Columbia University
I understand the anguish of Professor Nagash over the Columbia University invitation to PM Zenawi of Ethiopia who is allegedly a man deserving of condemnation, especially as regards academic freedom and independence in his country (especially since Columbia is a university).
I understand also that the objection is not to the invitation per se but particularly regarding the encomiums extended to this PM on the Presidential website (without President Bollinger even knowing about its contents, I am sure).
Columbia has correctly decided to be a global university, like some others, like Yale. But this must mean bringing foreign universities and faculties and students, and our own, into mutually rewarding contact: i.e. through teaching and high-quality research, the twin pillars of universities’ functioning through centuries.
But as soon as you dilute these objectives by giving unaccountable power and funds to “entrepreneurs” whose objective is to use the University to advance their own agendas, you get into situations like the one you object to. It seems probable that the President’s office was merely reproducing uncritically the rubbish that was supplied by one of these Columbia entrepreneurs whose objective is to ingratiate himself 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, etc.
In short, the rot begins with these people, NOT with President Bollinger who is merely a victim of these “unacademic” Professors on campus who have gotten close to him, I am afraid.
In short, the real issues are different from what you worry about. We need a dialogue on how Universities are being “captured” by such entrepreneurs who should NOT be in universities, or at least in prominent positions at Universities. And we need full transparency on their activities and University funding (which is often diverted in effect to them at the expense of scholarly research and teaching.
Columbia president Lee Bollinger tries to portray the university as an oasis of free speech that is tolerant of even dictators such as Meles Zenawi who repress their people.
However, a speech freedom group named Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has recently issued a red alert (see here) against Columbia University for a number free speech violations. In one case, the university suspended the hockey team for distributing “offensive” flyer:
After intense public criticism, Columbia University revoked its semester-long suspension of the Men’s Ice Hockey Club. Columbia suspended the club for the semester—effectively canceling the club’s entire season—for posting recruiting flyers containing language that some found offensive. FIRE, along with other groups and individuals both within and outside the university, vociferously opposed Columbia’s attack on free expression. Columbia’s Office of Athletics Communications issued a statement announcing a reduction in the club’s punishment. The club was allowed to engage in league play, but it remained suspended from its preseason and nonleague games. The club was also required to apologize for the flyer, attend “leadership training,” and remains on probation for one year. [read]
A tyrant such as Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia who jails, tortures and murders innocent people has more right in the eyes of President Bollinger than his own students when it comes to free speech!!
Washington Times associate editor J.P. Freire writes:
It’s all well and good that he [Meles] is an ally for the United States, but why should Columbia honor him with a speaking engagement?
