Tedros Adhanom’s most embarrassing moments during the podcast interview to choose Head of the World Health Organization (WHO)

by Getahun Assefa G/Yesus

November 5, 2016

*Watch one of the TPLF dummies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNQytI_ChaA

Berhane

“Ears that do not listen to advice; accompany the head when it is chopped off” 
African proverb, African wisdom

On November 1-2, 2016 the Executive Board of the World Health Organization held its first “public hearing” of its six candidates in Geneva, including Tedors Adhanom of Ethiopia. The disgraced minister of foreign affairs of Ethiopia came to the interview a few hours after his dismissal from his post in Addis Ababa for corruption, incompetence and dereliction of duty. Shaken from his foundation and engulfed by the stormy protests of Ethiopians residing in Europe, Tedors Adhanom was the worst performer of the six candidates interviewed by the Executive Board of the WHO over the two days. He was inarticulate and embarrassingly incoherent in his vision statement and in understanding series of questions posed to him by members of the Board. He made attempts to use more administrative and political jargons as opposed to professional or technical terminology.

The man who lied in his CV by indicating his language proficiency as English mother tongue could not properly pronounce terms he himself chose In his vision statement. He mispronounced time and again the term “candor” as {Kan-dor} instead of [ kan-der]. He could not properly pronounce “disease”. Furthermore, there were several instances where verbs and numbers were not in agreement or tenses were not used in their proper sense or usage.

These are elementary mistakes for anyone claiming English as mother tongue. The most embarrassing moments were during “question-answer” period. The most direct, clear and articulate questions from  the representative of Brazil had to be repeated twice and at  the third instance, the same question had to be interpreted by the chairman. Listening several times to the question myself who never claimed English as my mother tongue could not find anything that prevents or hampers anyone from understanding the question.  Adhanom broke a record by not understanding 50 % of the questions posed to him and by only partially understanding the remaining 50%. How come that our fluent minister of foreign affairs puts not only Ethiopia but the entire African continent on embarrassingly low scale? How come that his near mother tongue proficiency of the English language turned him to a complete def or dumbfounded? Was he expecting questions in Tigrigna?

Tedros Adhanom will remain in history by being the first manipulator, liar and incompetent to run on behalf of  the African continent to  run for  higher positions in global governance structures. Even his public records as minister of health of Ethiopia could have landed him in prison let alone in higher positions such as the WHO Director General.

The following public records and findings of research outputs by repudiated international organizations substantiate the dismal failures of the autocratic regime of Ethiopia spin-doctored by Tedros Adhanom:

• Despite the government’s repeated lies that Ethiopia has consistently registered double-digit economic growth for the last several years, the country is in pernicious environmental, political and socio-economic calamities. The most recent report (2015) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Ethiopia 174^th out of 188 countries for which data were available. The ranking which is based on composite indices of Human Development Indicators (HDI) in three basic dimension- a long and healthy life, knowledge and decent standard of leaving, placed Kenya (145^th), Djibouti (168^th), South Sudan (169^th), Sudan (167), Haiti (163^rd), Afghanistan (171). These are neibouring countries of Ethiopia and/or some of the poorest countries of the world that performed better than Ethiopia. Among the poorest nations those  ranked below Ethiopia are: (Niger:188^th), Central African Republic (187^th),  Chad (185^th), Guinea Conakry(178^th), Guinea Bissau (182), Sierra Leone (181^st), Mali (179^th), Burkina Faso (183^rd) and Burundi (184^th). All countries that scored as badly as Ethiopia are African countries mired by the combination of bad governance, despotism and civil strife or political conflict. For more details see

(http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2015_human_development_report.pdf)

• The 2015 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International (global coalition against corruption) ranked 164 countries of the world. During the same year Ethiopia ranked 103^rd. Any ranking (score) above 50 out of 100 reveals serious level of corruption. Thus Ethiopia is among the most corrupt nations in the world. The ranking is based on surveys of public opinion and experience with paying bribes or buying favours in the most “unfree” country of the world. Had the survey been carried out in conditions of free of fear from reprisal by the government, the results could have been much higher than currently recorded. http://www.transparency.org/country/#ETH

• According to Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based research and advocacy think-thank, “corruption, kickbacks and bribery are on the rise in Ethiopia”. The recently published report of the GFI reveals that illicit financial flows out of Ethiopia ( one of the poorest African nations) nearly doubled to US$3.26 Billion in 2009 over the previous year with corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounting for the vast majority of that increase. The findings of the think- thank are more troubling that “Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365, lost US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009”.  http://www.gfintegrity.org/press-release/illicit-financial-outflows-ethiopia-nearly-doubled-2009-us3-26-bln-says-new-gfi-report/. The most recent report released by Global Financial Intelligence last January (2016) revealed that $26 billion left the country unlawfully in many forms between 2004 and 2013  “with Ethiopia continuing to bleed an average of $2 billion every year”. The main culprits and offenders are the ruling party (TPLF) owned parastatals that are run by unhinged dictators in Addis Ababa where Adhanom is spin-doctor and henchman.

• According to the World Bank’s Development Indicators (WBI), Ethiopia is among the the worst performers in literacy rate (with  only 29% literate out of 95 million population), life expectancy (52 for men and 56 for women) and 68% infant mortality rate out of 1000 live births. In a country riddled with massive corruption such a dismal social performance is inevitable.

• According to the WHO’S Africa office (WHO-AFRO), in 2011 when Adhanom was the minister of health (Minister of Death),  75% of the land and 60% of the population is exposed to malaria in Ethiopia, although malaria admissions and deaths  marginally fell in the recent years (afro.who.int/en/ethiopia/country-programmes/topics/480-ethiopia-malaria.html)

• The National Malaria Guideline (3rd Edition) prepared b the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia in 2012, before the departure of Adhanom to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, states that “52 million people (68%) live in Malaria-risk areas”. The document further reveals that “Ethiopia is one of the most malaria- prone countries in Africa, with rates of morbidity and mortality increasing dramatically (i.e. 3.5 fold) during epidemics” (page 15) (for details see malariaconsortium.org. The same document alleges serious policy failures of the Government of Adhanom who was the Minister of Health (Minster of Death) until 2013. It argues “Ethiopia faces many challenges related to human resources for healthcare, including the shortage of skilled health workers, high turnover and lack of retention of health professionals” (page 64). In addition to these challenges, the National Malaria Guideline stresses once again, “serious problems in coordinating health interventions and implementing partners” (page 65)

• Another document, assessing the country’s malaria epidemic, prepared by Aynalem Adugna accessible on EthioDemographyAndHealth.org reveals that “malaria is the number one health problem in Ethiopia with an average of 5 million cases a year and 9.5 million cases per year during 2001-2005 period”. The document further indicates that “the disease causes 70,000 deaths each year and accounts for 17% of outpatient visits, 15% of admissions and 29% of inpatient deaths” (page 3).

• Center for Disease Control (CDC) of the USA claims that the main infectious diseases that are top killers in Ethiopia are: lower respirator infection (10%), Diarrheal Diseases (8%), HIV/AIDS (7%), Tuberculosis (7%), Stroke (7%), Cancer (6%) , Ischemic Heart Disease (4%), and Preterm Birth Complications (3%)  (http://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/countries/ethiopia/. The remainder percentage of people are killed by  either by the regime or by injuries  and accidents including car accident where Ethiopia is ranked number one in the world.

From the above publicly recorded evidence and revelations by respected institutions, it is difficult to find out as to why Adhanom should be nominated to head the World Health Organizations? Where are the results which Mr Adhanom claims have been recorded in Ethiopia over the past 25 years? Why is he gambling to assume global offices at the cost of public health disasters in Ethiopia? Why is he using the suffering of the Ethiopian people as a springboard to assuming the post of Director-General of the World Health Body? When will the mockery and idiocy of such individuals stop?  The authoritarian government of Ethiopia and Africa’s arch dictators such as Robert Mugabe or Idris Deby should provide justifications why they think that Adhanom is the man to represent Ethiopia and Africa as head of the World Health Organizations.

Meanwhile, Ethiopians at home and aboard should brace-up to consistently campaign against the nomination of Tedors Adhanom to the post of Director-General of WHO. Their spilled blood, suffering, mass starvation, destitution and depravation should not be used as springboard to assume higher authorities in the global governance structure. Adhanom should be told in unambiguous terms that he should not be allowed to escape justices for the injustice and atrocities he and his government have been committing against the Ethiopian population for the last 25 years. The Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom whose nationals have been languishing in the Ethiopian prisons under the regime spin-doctored by Adhanom bear huge burden of ethical and moral responsibility in undoing Adhanom’s campaign to the top post in WHO.