The Nirvana Fallacy of Meles Zenawi’s Separation of Democracy From Economic Development By Tecola W. Hagos,

“Man does not live by bread alone…” Matthew 4:4; [Deuteronomy 8:3] I. Introduction All over the world, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is promoting his dubious assertion that economic development is something that is separate from democracy and by extension from all forms of social interactions (political, ethical, and moral constraints). As a matter of fact, that is not a novel idea for Meles, for the idea was also reflected in the first question he asked over fifteen years ago at his first meeting with Prof Samuel Huntington in Addis Ababa, whether democracy was possible in “a peasant” based economic system. It is also a clear contradiction of the claim that the TPLF started out as a liberation struggle from an oppressive political system. In short, there are numerous negative ramifications that could be deduced from such dubious opinion of a leader. This form of statement delaminating democracy from economic development and the mind that conjures it up may be quite shallow. Meles Zenawi’s opinion on the separateness of democracy from economic development seems to be a naïve or elementary understanding of the interface between all forms of social activities and economics. To be generous, such view reminds me of Economics 101 text book by Samuelson where the preoccupation is to teach basic definitions and concepts in the field of economics, and of necessity such introductory text book is simplified and is devoid of social context in order to avoid complexity and provide simplistic explanations appropriate at such initiation stage. For example, in teaching children the alphabet, one does not go into the historical roots and evolution of the language and that of the individual alphabets. It seems to me to base ones opinion, at an international forum, on such elementary understanding of economics in our social reality is quite inappropriate and embarrassing too. It is not helpful to the struggle of the people of Ethiopia if our leaders keep on insisting on seeing political freedom and economic development separated. It is extremely worrisome to me because by implication Meles Zenawi’s argument seems supported by the rich and the powerful nations around the world, for they kept inviting this brutal dictator to their renowned conferences, the latest being the G8 (G20) at Camp David and Washington DC. It is this form of acceptance at international forums that is confusing the Ethiopian people in the Diaspora and back in our own homes, on how to deal with Meles Zenawi. The acceptance by such powerful Governments seems to endorse Meles Zenawi’s activities and seems to give legitimacy to his form of despotism and corruption. There was no need to invite Meles Zenawi to such Forums, while he is brutalizing a people through his draconian laws camouflaged as laws against terrorism. I know that Western Governments are no angels, but should they be also so stupid to be manipulated by the likes of Meles Zenawi? For a struggling people of Ethiopia, it is a difficult process to go against such powerful political current flowing from powerful Governments. II. Category Mistake It is obvious from his numerous speeches that Meles Zenawi is a highly skilled manipulator of words and ideas in manners that would seem to follow logical reasoning; but it is an inductive amalgamation of some limited factual matters with self-serving goals to build an exaggerated edifice. However hard one may try to read some rationality in Meles Zenawi’s views, even bend backward to accommodate such wayward polemic, it is simply impossible to see any rational in such opinion, and with some degree of scrutiny, one can see how porous and riddled Meles Zenawi’s opinion on economic/development is with fallacies and invalid conclusions. Thus, Meles Zenawi by basing his argument in disassociating or delaminating democracy from development or development from democracy, based on the alleged absence of historical evidence connecting the two, is simply confusing and a denial of reality. He even went further claiming that there is no theoretical connection between democracy and development. I am at a loss to account for such bizarre assertions by Meles Zenawi. I cannot fathom the possibility that he grew up into his adulthood without ever reading E. F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered, and ever tempering his wild and violent nature and saving himself from making such asinine remarks in public forums. I am more embarrassed than angry for such public display of idiotic ideas; after all, when the dust settles, Meles Zenawi not only is representing our Motherland, but also all peoples of color around the world. This form of delamination of economic development from democracy has several fallacious starting points and arguments. It has elements of Cartesian dualism, which had been a source of contentious debates among theologians, philosophers, political scientists et cetera for quite some time. Most importantly, it is a classic example of a category mistake of focusing on the identity of “the whole” entity as if it is a constituent part. Of course, Meles’s argument in support of such assertion is fallacious on an empirical assessment and examination of those successful nations also. What is even worse is that Meles presented his statements as categorical imperatives, with no room for discourse or reexaminations. The idea is also a recycled old and thoroughly exhausted Marxism-Leninism with a pinch of Stalinism. Maoism is a totally different economic and sociopolitical setup that should be discussed separately, especially away from Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism. What I see in the effort to delaminate democracy from economic development by Meles Zenawi and his supporters and admirers, including his detractors, is a mix up of concepts and problems of predicating what needs to be proven or verified for logical validity. My favorite story in the framing of the controversy is the story that Philosopher Gilbert Ryle used to tell his students at Oxford University, about his friend (some claim the visitor to be a “Tourist”) who visited him and wanted to see Oxford University. The story goes that dutifully Prof Ryle took his friend around pointing out “this is All Souls”, “this is Christ Church”, “this is Magdalen”, et cetera. At the end of the tour Ryle’s friend said, “Thank you for showing me all these beautiful Colleges, but you did not show me Oxford University.” The point is that parts constitute the “whole,” and that the “whole” is not a part or cannot be its own member [a set of one or the null set technically do not have constituents], which in this case is identified by Ryle as a ”category mistake,” and using Ryle’s favorite phrasing on a similar issue, there is no “ghost in the machine” called Oxford, for example. In the same way this artificial delamination between democracy and economic growth/development is a search for a “ghost” called “economic development.” Economic growth is a part of a democratic process; it cannot be separated from the democratic process. The argument in favor of such separation is usually based on selective examples of some Twentieth Century national economies around the world that had shown tremendous economic growth without having the ideal “democratic” form of governments. At any rate, those Asian Tigers had leaders and entrepreneurs who loved their respective countries and were not engaged in massive siphoning off the wealth of their respective countries. By contrast, Meles Zenawi and his associates are engaged in massive shameful looting of Ethiopia, where it was reported by an independent body that in the last few years alone there was capital flight and money transfer from Ethiopia worth between three to five billion dollars, without adding the gold that is looted for almost twenty years that turned a simple peddler of music cassettes into a multi billionaire. The fact is that there is some democratic element even in the den of thieves. If we use that type of approach or argument used by Meles to justify his assertion of separating economic growth from democracy, slavery can also be justified to produce the type of “economic” growth claimed by Meles. This form of argument easily deteriorate into the “chicken or the egg” type of dilemma, and ought to be rejected right away. It is an argument that has been repeatedly proven wrong with clear examples of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the East Block countries. Cuba the last holdout is tittering on its last leg. North Korea and China would go the same route as the Soviet Union in few years. Already China is not the China of Mao’s time and vision; it is recovering its “Imperial” self and reestablishing its ancient social structure under new banners and new names. III. The Nirvana Fallacy Meles Zenawi’s claim of the separateness of democracy from economic development defies much of the long standing theories about the connection between democracy and economic development, and also goes against empirical evidence accumulated over the last hundred fifty years affirming the correlation between democracy and economic development. Starting from Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations) down to Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs [twin fans of Meles Zenawi at Columbia University] the overwhelming majority of economists that I read have used the democratic form of government matrix as the basis of their illumination of economic growth or advancement, which in our modern parlance means economic development or modernization processes. Although I did not find a single Nobel Laureate in economics whose thesis is based on the delamination of democracy and economic development, on the other hand I have found several Nobel Prize Laureates in economics whose views are premised on the connection between economic development and democracy. Since 1969, there has been about seventy Nobel Laureates. Starting in 1971 with Prof Simon Kuznets of Harvard University, the Nobel Prize was awarded for over fifty world-class economists for works that involve “process of economic development” and sociopolitical structure. The following distinguished scholars and professors all wrote basing their analysis on the intimate and direct relationship between social and political structures and the economy of states: 1 – Prof Frederick Hayek – 1974 Nobel Laureate – capitalism and democracy 2- Prof Milton Friedman – 1976 Nobel Laureate – on monetary policy – on capitalism and democracy 3 – Prof Theodore Schultz – 1979 Nobel Laureate – on development economics 4 – Prof Gary Becker – 1992 Nobel Laureate – on economics and human behavior 5 – Prof Rober Fogol – 1993 Nobel Laureate – on economic history and institutional changes 6 – Prof Amartya Sen – 1998 Nobel Laureate- on welfare economics – development and freedom 7 – Prof Joseph Stiglitz – 2001 Nobel Laureate – on asymmetric information – development and free-market 8 – Prof Thomas J Sargent – 2011 Nobel Laureate – on cause and effect of national and global (macro) economy I have studied the works of the economists listed above and others, in some cases far more extensively, starting from my years in law school, such as the works of Schumacher, Kuznets, Hayek, Friedman, Galbraith, and in the last fifteen years those of Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen whom I greatly admire and had the privilege of meeting in person. The claim that democracy is not necessary for economic development misses the whole point in the understanding of economic growth in any society, in the first place. Is it possible to have a human goal or purpose without human beings? This may sound a foolish question, but the idea of economic development delaminated from democracy or human freedom/rights is equally absurd. It is a comedy and a tragedy to read Meles Zenawi’s ersatz opinion in light of the learned writings of world-class economists whose life-time works affirm the fact that political processes and the economy of a country cannot be so easily and callously delaminated or be seen as having very little to do with each other. My concern in this short paper is whether Meles Zenawi’s delaminating of democracy from economic development is a serious threat to the State of Ethiopia and/or the development aspirations of people around the globe. What is the attraction of having plenty of food to eat and high employment, if one is living in a slave-plantation or a nation of dictatorial rule where individuals live in great fear and insecurity, with minimal freedoms. Human beings are not like donkeys, horses, or baboons with life not much beyond eating and mating. The human yearning for freedom, self expression, autonomy et cetera is as real as the craving for food, shelter, and security. In fact, it is quite disconcerting to raise such issue in the twenty first century where the Internet and other technological advances have continued to add and expand the value of human life. My interest here is not to create a hierarchy of human needs and aspirations, but to recognize the real needs of human beings whether it is spiritual, abstract, or material. I do not find any wisdom in arranging human needs in schemes that creates some arbitrary and artificial hierarchy. Of course, what Meles is saying is a lot more subtle than being simple crude polemic. What is confusing to people who read him is the fact that the “ideals” of democracy not being realizable in full at any given moment in human social and political life, may end up making it look reasonable to argue the position that since such democratic ideal is not possible, the delamination of economic development from such matrix does not seem that extreme. This form of argument is what logicians call the nirvana fallacy. Actually the term was coined by an economist, Harold Demsetz, in 1969. Another related fallacy is “the fallacy of perfection.” In either case the fallacy lies in the idea that unless every aspect of an ideal is achieved then the real life situation or effort toward that ideal is futile. Unless every aspect of the “ideal democracy” is in place in a community, anything less is a justification to throw out what is even achieved as a shortcoming. As I stated earlier, “democracy” is not a “ghost” in a political machine. It has constituent parts that add up to what is identified to be a democratic system of government. Such constituent parts of democracy, although in a process, includes such structures of rule of law, impartial judges, legislative bodies at different levels, elected and/or appointed executives, freedom of speech and expression, free market and healthy competition et cetera. When one speaks of “democracy” as if it is a distinct element from the many constituent parts of a system, one is committing a “category mistake” or talking of a “ghost” in the political entity. IV. The Reality on the Ground I wish this article as a form of criticism on Meles Zenawi’s views on the relationship of democracy and economic development was written by individuals whose primary discipline is economics; however, in the absence of that I am filling in with a kind of leaning or inclination toward logic and simple common sense and the philosophy of rights. I hope I did not mess-up or sacrifice economics completely for philosophy and logic. In case of this particular view of Meles Zenawi, I believe that his delamination of democracy from economic development is an unabashed and arrogant justification for his dictatorial rule that he claims to be that of developmental state. This separation of economic development from democracy and human rights is a straw-man argument to hide his mediocre ability in governance that has resulted in the total disfranchisement of the Ethiopian people from our political and human rights and our right to economic growth and development. The literature on the subject of the connection between democracy and economic development is enormous. As indicated above, there are several renowned economists who have won Nobel prizes and other recognitions for their contribution on the subject of democracy and economic development. The singular shortcoming of Meles Zenawi and his associates is their “winner-takes-it-all” or “leave-no-prisoners” type of operation in an area of human endeavor that necessarily requires great compromises, negotiations, and tolerance and accommodations of diverse people and multiple of interests. To borrow a phrase from my good friend Dr. Moges Gebremariam, no “political scrap” is left by Meles Zenawi and his associates whenever they go after a political goal contending with others for leadership. There is no “political scrap” for others to use to reconstitute and recover in order to keep the political life of Ethiopia survive in some form. Facts on the ground bear my assertion that everything that sprouts from Meles Zenawi’s brain is aimed to do one and only one thing: to earn or receive for any number of reasons as much hard currency (Dollar, Euro, Swiss Frank et cetera) that will be directed through all kinds of devices and conduits to the control of Meles Zenawi and his associates. This obsessive pursuit of hard currency was started even before the TPLF/EPRDF overrun the brutal military regime of Mengistu Hailemariam during the time of the great famines of the 1980s where millions of hard currency of aid money disappeared in the byzantine world of TPLF’s money stashing system. To this day there had never been a full accounting or auditing of such stash of money. Once the TPLF leaders were established as the Government of Ethiopia, the economy of Ethiopia has been totally dominated by corporations and partnerships controlled by Meles Zenawi and his associates since 1991 for over twenty years. This led to the accumulation of a mountain of Ethiopian currency, paper money called birr, which is worth nothing in the international currency market for it is not readily exchanged or can be converted into hard currency. The whole “economic renaissance” program initiated by Meles Zenawi, including the several mega hydroelectric generating dams, is a ruse and subterfuge, an elaborate scheme for the conversion of ill begotten Ethiopian currency into hard currency. Meles Zenawi does not give a hoot for Ethiopians or Ethiopia, he never had; he does not care a scintilla whether Ethiopians prosper, whether our national territorial integrity is respected, or whether our sovereign rights are enforced. As a matter of observed fact, he physically struggles to say “Ethiopia” in his oral presentations for the Word “Ethiopia” seems to choke him. This does not surprise me at all when I consider his family background and how he grew up in a community that shunned and insulted him and his family, just like Mengistu Hailemariam who vented his deeply seated anger against “Ethiopians” by committing massive horrendous murders. We, Ethiopians, must be careful in choosing our national leaders, in following political opposition leaders et cetera, the spur of the moment type emotional outbursts and hatred driven choices will not do. The background of a person, how well adjusted that person is in his or her Ethiopianness, whether he has faith et cetera matters most. My sincere advise to all my fellow Ethiopians is that we never ever follow anyone petty, small-minded, and/or with no religious conviction. Let us not support anyone just because he or she comes out from a disfranchised or poor family or minority ethnic group. I suggest that we look for individual qualities of generosity, compassion, courage, love and pride in ancient and current Ethiopia, and a person of magnanimity and vision for a great people and a nation. God Bless Ethiopia and Ethiopians. Amen. Tecola W. Hagos May 27, 2012 Washington DC

Opinion: The Coward EPRDF Meles Regime did not have a backbone By YohannesY

Ethiopia: The Bedtime Stories of Meles Zenawi ALEMAYEHU G MARIAM

At the “World Economic Forum Meeting” in Ethiopia last week, dictator Meles Zenawi lectured: …. My view is that there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy historically or theoretically. But my view is that democracy is a good thing in and of itself irrespective of its impact on economic growth. And my view is that in Africa most of our countries are extremely diverse, that may be the only possibility, the only option of keeping relationships within nations sane. Democracy may be the only viable option for keeping these diverse nations together. Sowe need to democratize but not in order to grow. We need to democratize in order to survive as united sane nations. That’s my view. But I don’t believe in this nighttime, you know, bedtime stories and contrived arguments linking economic growth with democracy. There is no basis for it in history and in my view no basis for it it in economics. And there is no need to have this contrived argument because the case for democracy and can stand and shine on its own… While visiting Ghana in 2009, President Obama told the following “contrived bedtime story linking economic growth with democracy” to Africans: 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…. My Favorite Bedtime Stories I enjoy bedtime stories as much as the next guy. My favorite is “Pinocchio in Africa”. The wooden puppet wanted to become a human boy but could not stop telling lies and tall tales. Whenever Pinocchio lied, his nose grew longer. I like the story of “Puff the Magic Dragon and the Land of Living Lies”. Puff took a little girl called Sandy, who lies a lot, to the Land of the Living Lies where honesty and truthfulness are prosecuted. She meets the famous fibbers Pinocchio and the boy who cried wolf; and saw the famous purple cow that no one has ever seen and a pink elephant. I also enjoy the morality tales of Aesop, the ancient Ethiopian storyteller. Once upon a time there was a wolf who schemed to snatch sheep grazing in the pasture, but could not because the shepherd was vigilant. One day the wolf found the shorn skin of a sheep and dressed himself in it and joined the flock. Soon he began dining on the sheep one by one until he was discovered by the shepherd. That was the end of the wolf; he could no longer steal, kill and eat the sheep. George Orwell’s allegorical stories of doubletalk and doublespeak told in “political language” are rather delightful because they “make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” So, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” George could have added, “dictatorship is democracy. Tyranny is liberty. Poverty is wealth. Famine is plenty. Censorship is press freedom. Brutality is civility. Mendacity is veracity. Opacity is clarity. Shadow is reality. Depravity is morality and greed is good.” Oh, Yes! I like children’s rhymes too: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…. Sane Nations, Insane Dictators and Democrazy Zenawi said “democracy is the only option of keeping relationships within nations sane”. Here are some true stories of democrazy from the Land of Living Lies: Freedom House/U.S. State Department (2010) In April 2008 local elections were held throughout Ethiopia. Freedom House and USDoS report that opposition candidates were subjected to intimidation and arrest by the government prior to the elections making it difficult for them to compete, leading to the opposition boycotting the elections and resulting in a massive victory for government supporters. The ruling party won 99% of the more than three million seats contested. World Bank (2012) The May 2010 parliamentary elections resulted in a 99.6 percent victory for the ruling EPRDF and its allies,reducing the opposition from 174 to only two seats in the 547 member lower house… Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Sub-Saharan… At US$390, Ethiopia’s per capita income is much lower than the Sub-Saharan African average of US$1,165 in FY 2010, ranking it as the sixth poorest country in the world. Amnesty International (2009) The Ethiopian parliament has adopted a potentially repressive new law which could criminalise the human rights activities of both foreign and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Charities and Societies Proclamation law (2009) is designed to strictly control and monitor civil society in an atmosphere of intolerance of the work of human rights defenders and civil society organisations. The law’s repressive provisions are believed to be an attempt by the Ethiopian government to conceal human rights violations, stifle critics and prevent public protest of its actions ahead of expected elections in 2010. Human Rights Watch (2010) Ethiopia’s citizens are unable to speak freely, organize political activities, and challenge their government’s policies—through peaceful protest, voting, or publishing their views—without fear of reprisal. Democracy’s technical framework will remain a deceptive and hollow façade so long as Ethiopia’s institutions lack independence from the ruling party and there is no accountability for abuses by state officials. Global Financial Integrity/Wall Street Journal (2011) Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009. That’s a lot of money to lose to corruption for a country that has a per-capita GDP of just $365. In 2009, illicit money leaving the country totaled $3.26 billion, double the amount in each of the two previous years. The capital flight is also disturbing because the country received $829 million in development aid in 2008. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth as 38.9% of Ethiopians live in poverty, and life expectancy in 2009 was just 58 years. The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current of illicit capital leakage. Committee to Protect Journalist (2011) Ethiopia trails only Eritrea as the foremost jailer of journalists in Africa. Ethiopia’s repression of the independent press has also driven into exile the largest number of journalists in the world. Yet Zenawi told Aftenposten [Norwegian paper] that ‘We have reached a very advanced stage of rule of law and respect for human rights. Fundamentally, this is a country where democratic rights of people are respected.’ Human Rights Watch (2011) The Ethiopian government is exploiting its vaguely worded anti-terror law to crush peaceful dissent. The anti-terror law itself is a huge problem. The international community, especially the European Union, United States, and United Kingdom, should ask the Ethiopian government hard questions about why it is using this law to crack down on peaceful independent voices. Committee Statement of Congressman Donald Payne (2007) H.R. 2003 (Ethiopia Democracy and Accountability Act of 2007, sponsored by Cong. Payne passed the U.S. House of Representatives on October 2, 2007) requires the secretary of state to support human rights by establishing a mechanism to provide funds to local human rights organizations. The bill supports democratization by directing assistance to strengthen democratic processes, prohibits non-humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia if the ruling party obstructs United States efforts to provide human rights, fosters accountability for the actions the Ethiopian Government has taken that undermine rule of law and fundamental political freedoms…. and holds security forces accountable for human rights abuses related to the demonstrations of 2005… Statement of U.S. Senators Russ Feingold and Patrick Leahy on Senate Bill 3457 (2008) Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce the Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Ethiopia Act of 2008. Senator LEAHY joins me as an original cosponsor. The purpose of this bill is to reaffirm policy objectives towards Ethiopia and encourage greater commitment to the underpinnings of a true democracy–an independent judiciary and the rule of law, respect for human and political rights, and an end to restrictions on the media and non-governmental organizations…. As we turn a blind eye to the escalating political tensions, people are being thrown in jail without justification and non-government organizations are being restricted, while civilians are dying unnecessarily in the Ogaden region–just like so many before them in Oromiya, Amhara, and Gambella…. 2010 European Union Election Observer Commission Report on May 2010 Election The separation between the ruling party and the public administration was blurred at the local level in many parts of the country. The EU EOM directly observed cases of misuse of state resources in the ruling party’s campaign activities. The ruling party and its partner parties won 544 of the 547 seats to the House of Peoples Representatives and all but four of the 1,904 seats in the State Councils…. As a result, the electoral process fell short of international commitments for elections, notably regarding the transparency of the process and the lack of a level playing field for all contesting parties. Zenawi’s response to the 2010 European Union Election Observer Commission Report: The EU report is trash that deserves to be thrown in the garbage. The report is not about our election. It is just the view of some Western neo-liberals who are unhappy about the strength of the ruling party. Anybody who has paper and ink can scribble whatever they want. Such are the nightmarish bedtime stories of Meles Zenawi’s Democrazy in Ethiopia!

African Hunger Games at Camp David By ALEMAYEHU G MARIAM

May 14th, 2012 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 impact in 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!