ETHIOPIA: LEGALLY CORRUPT
July 27, 2013
by Wondimu Mekonnen
Watch part of the speech:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wxHdqf-Es8
Introduction
The simplest definition of state corruption is the self-enrichment of
government officials through the use of the power bestowed on them and state
mechanism. In Ethiopia, the TPLF is a mafia type gang that is running its
own Mafiosi economic empire, not the country as a legitimate caring
government.
The country itself is up for sale, as long as there are buyers out there.
That is why people in Gambella were to evicted and their land sold to Indian
and Arab, Turkish, Pakistani Billionaires. Recently, the Ethiopian
Government refused to cooperate with the World Bank when it was asked to
investigate whether the World Bank violated its own policies by funding, in
which thousands of people were allegedly relocated to make way for
agricultural investors. The British Government actually knowingly or
unknowingly funded a programme that evicted the tribes of the Lower Omo
Valley in south west Ethiopia - chief among them the Mursi, the Nyangatom,
the Bodi and the Daasanach, who depend on a combination of flood retreat
cultivation on the banks of the Omo River, rain fed cultivation further back
from the river, and cattle on the grass plains, again to make way for
foreign agricultural investors. The land of the Amaras, Afars, Oromos and
all over the country is up for a grab. Even Egypt secured herself 20, 000
acres of farmland. To imagine this, one acre is about 1 football stadium
field. The money from the sale of land, in hard currency goes straight
either to the pockets of individuals of those in powers or to the coffers of
regime's private money making institutions, such as the "The Endowment Fund
for the Rehabilitation of Tigray", EFFORT.
Ethiopia is full of ironies. Before the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF)
became the "Government", it was separatist rebel force, just like that of
Eritrean Liberation Front with the aim of building the Future Republic of
Tigray (dream map shown below). After successfully overthrowing the
military regime of Lt Col. Mengistu Hailemariam, guerrilla leaders of TPLF
helped Eritrea gain its independence but delayed their own, to finish some
unfinished task of dismantling Ethiopia. Then they saw, the opportunity to
amass any wealth from the South and move up to the North, to prosper their
future Republic of Tigray, their ultimate goal. They never felt
belongingness to Ethiopia. The mother of all ironies is that they are ruling
the country and the people they hated so much at gun point. Therefore,
expecting respect for human right from such a bunch of separatists is like
expecting dove from a serpent's egg. What would the British feels, if IRA
end up being in charge of the Westminster to decide on the future of The
United Kingdom? I leave that to your imagination.
Then another irony follows. Throughout the history of mankind, governments
fought with neighbouring countries to expand their territories, but the
government of Ethiopia fights with its own people to give land away to
anybody outsider as long as the other party pays. The boarder land with the
Sudan, including the birth Place of Emperor Theodros, whose son Prince
Alemayehu Theodros's body is lying right here in Britain at Windsor Castle
has been given to the Sudanese after forcefully evicting the inhabitants,
under gunpoint. That was in return of the Sudanese assistance while they
were fighting the previous regime. A fertile farmland had to be taken away
from Ethiopian farmers and given to a neighbouring country. When the
Sudanese military came to take over the land, the farmers stood up to
protect their property, fighting back bravely. However, their own government
attacked them from behind in defence of the alien Sudanese military.
More than half of Ethiopia's economy belongs to EFFORT, the Private property
of Tigrian People's Liberation Front (TPLF). From the remaining 50%, about
25% belongs to the Sheik Al Amoudi, an Ethiopian born Saudi Billionaire, who
does business with them, probably stashing millions of dollars away for them
in foreign banks. Then about 12.5% belongs to its satellite parties, while
only 12:5% belongs to rest of 90 million people. When the regime declares
the fast growing economy of the country, one should understand that actually
it is meant the fast bulging pocket of the ruling officials, and not the
people at all. Our people are poorer than ever. The number of starving has
quadrupled. Millions live on the street. The regime itself estimates that
"150,000 children live on the streets in Ethiopia, around. 60,000 in Addis
Ababa, many arriving from rural areas looking for work".
Why are we so poor?
Looking at United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index, we
find Ethiopia at 174 out 187, just ahead of 13 countries from the bottom of
the table. Examining World Economic Forum's Global competitive report, we
find Ethiopia at 118 out of 133. Transparency International gives 33 points
at Corruption Perception Index. The highest is awarded to New Zealand,
Finland and Denmark, which is at 90. United Kingdom scores 74, along with
Japan, ahead of United States. The lowest score 8, awarded to Somalia, North
Korea and Afghanistan. Awarding Ethiopia 33 points out of 90 is totally
wrong. I would have put the figure at 2, and that is I if I am too generous
in marking. "The country has also lost close to 12 billion dollars since
2000 to illicit financial outflows, according to
<
http://www.gfintegrity.org/> Global Financial Integrity (GFI), whose
statistics are based on official data provided by the Ethiopian government,
the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)". The State
Corruption index of Ethiopia could have been lower than that of the level of
Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan, but the corruption is concealed,
because one would never know where the "government" official activities ends
and their business activities start. EFFORT is a business as well as the
"Government".
When it comes to Natural resources, Ethiopia is not poor at all. We have
ample water resources, for example. 8/7th of the Water that passes through
the Nile Delta of Egypt comes from Ethiopian Highlands. We have mighty
rivers everywhere. Baro, Tekeze, Wabi Shebele, Gibe, Awash, . you name it,
are some, not to mention lakes everywhere. Truly speaking, Ethiopia is the
water bed of Africa. But we suffer from draught and lack of clean drinking
waters.
We have Gold, Precious stones but they all belong either to EFFORT or Al
Amoudi. We have unexploited oil reserves, that could turn Ethiopia into the
economic power of Sub-Saharan Africa, but we don't have a responsible
government that cares for the people. We have so many fertile lands which
would have been able not just feed Ethiopia, but the entire Africa. Given
her potential agricultural resources, Ethiopia could easily become the
bread-basket of the continent of Africa. If you had followed a BBC
Television Programme "From Pole To Pole" by Michael Palin, you would truly
find why he called Ethiopia the Garden of Eden. From Egypt to the Sudan, it
is all desert land. He found life in Ethiopia.
Then what went wrong? To begin with, we have had wars and battles throughout
our history. Most of our productive times have been wasted fighting to ward
off invaders. Our history tells us that we fought for more than 100 years
against the invading Turks, not to mention Italians and other colonialists
from Europe. When we are not fighting the invaders then we find ourselves
fighting each other as if war was a kind of our national sport. That is all
to control power, unlike the incumbent ones, to break up the country. This
one is the worst government Ethiopia had ever had. They stand to serve the
interest of other countries, rather than their own. One way or another, wars
do cost too much and I am not the one to tell you how much it does. You know
it firsthand. War on terrorism is mother of all ironies of Ethiopia. The
TPLF itself is a terrorist organisation. It is currently bent on terrorising
its own people.
To add insult on injury, then there is this occasional draught that used to
come every 10 years. We heavily depend on rain water, rather than using the
irrigation technology. Have we had peace in the country, even without
touching the River Nile, we could have taken out as much water as we wanted
for agriculture from the rest of the rivers for irrigation purpose, without
igniting the fury of the powerful neighbours and use it to cultivate more
than enough crops. The Nile is a controversial river. Whether we like it or
not, it may ignite war anytime between Ethiopia and Egypt, if not The Sudan.
All the Egyptian Military Might exists, not for anything else, but only one
purpose. That is the safeguarding of the free flow of The Nile River. We
know that. They know we know that too. That is why Egypt works day and night
so that there would be no peace time in Ethiopia.
Then, there is this third element. Everyone that may aspire to come to power
is not always just for the sake of seizing power but for the sake of
enriching oneself. Yes, we had all corrupt regimes in the past history, but
none of them come anywhere near the incumbent regime. Here we are not
talking about individual official corruptions, but institutional
corruptions, with the mighty force of the government power behind it.
Corruptions seems to be legal, it is rather uncorrupted people that are
branded as criminals. Ethiopia is full of paradox. Read more
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Received on Sun Jul 28 2013 - 00:02:15 EDT