በትርታ ይጀምራል ትር ትር ይልና ይተረታል ወይንም ይተረተራል፤

ተረት ይሆናል

With the vibration IT begins…in the vibration IT sounds…in the narration or distortion,

IT ends…TO BE –or- as a Tale ...

.......The fishes get their prey, if only YOU "move, click and tick" (say... reflect) in the aquarium. If you "play & prey (even pray)" outside the aquarium...it is meaningless ...for the fishes............

A blog for documents and studies on the development of

Human "Consciousness", to help and

promote the process of rational reflection.

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The Highlight here will be, working towards the high objectives of harmony in the Ethiopian Social-Reality: PEACE, freedom of CULTURE, scientific PERFECTION and tolerant FAITH. Any knowledge, without the slightest touch of dogmatism; whose purpose is enlightening and freeing the human species to celebrate its full liberty and eventual perfection, is always welcome.



The Quintessence of Life

Thursday 8 September 2011

A Nice Paper on "Ethiopian Modernity and Modernism"

"The relation between the state and the citizen and the state's many interventions in the life of the citizen is especially important in the construction of the imagination of the nation where the tension between the state and an independent intelligentsia at times confronted each other in an open ended contest where overall control by both parties was not possible or desirable." (See below, bold and italics mine)
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A Nice Paper from an Ethiopian scholar on "Ethiopian Modernity and Modernism":

Charting Out Ethiopian Modernity and Modernism

by  Elizabeth Wolde Giorgis (1

This is a valuable reading  to contain the "obscurities" vulgarizing out of 

"Developmental Patrimonialism" -"the New Ideology designed for Africa"

Volume 33, Number 1, Winter 2010

E-ISSN: 1080-6512 Print ISSN: 0161-2492
DOI: 10.1353/cal.0.0627

Charting Out Ethiopian Modernity and Modernism

Background

Any meaningful discussion of modernity, modernism, and modernization in Ethiopia has yet to take place among Ethiopian intellectuals. Scholars have attempted to talk about the projects of Ethiopian modernity, in a narrow range of meaning that neglects to construct the processes of modernity within the discursive space of its multiplicity and cultural specificity. Not only does the discourse lack the focus of the metanarrative of modernity, that of the methodological, archival, and theoretical requirements particular to modernist studies, but the theoretical charters of many Ethiopian intellectuals also falls short of looking at the totality of the political, social, and cultural phenomena of Ethiopian modernity, within the paradox shared by all non-Western modernities. Conventional preconceptions by Ethiopian historians of modernity and modernism are often confused with processes of modernization complicit in projects of nation and Empire. Hence, the discourse of Ethiopian modernity has often been informed by the socioeconomic phenomena of modernization in the context of development and where modernity, modernization, and Westernization are considered identical.
For instance, in Bahru Zewde's Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century, a seminal book for being the first document of Ethiopian intellectual history, the author deliberates on concepts of modernization in different parts of the world and particularly in Japan. The book gives a historical account of Ethiopia's interaction with the Western world to come up with lists of early intellectuals that were acclimated to Western education. Without articulating the broad historical movement of modernity, the book freely interchanges notions of modernization theory with modernity, short of producing a coherent framework that situates Ethiopia and Ethiopian intellectuals in the scaffold of global modernity politics. Instead, it generates a narrative of modernization which expresses the vision, most successfully implanted in the mass consciousness of post-war Japan. This book, which is a primary document that details the contribution of modern Ethiopian intellectuals, therefore falls short in accounting the disciplinary identity and purpose of modernity as an inquiry of thought and experience in this period of the "modern" that is covered in the book, and as a form of historical consciousness. Modernity and modernism, therefore, have often been used in Ethiopian scholarship to signify Europeanization and Westernization. Modern or modernity is nevertheless a spatio-temporally-based concept which is not constituted by fixed sociohistorical traits. It is on the contrary shaped in a contested space of decisions and actions in which ideas are unremittingly critiqued and revised. [End Page 82]
 
Furthermore, epistemological insight to bear on the notion of the "modern" and the meaning of modernity in African societies particularly requires the investigation of European modernity within the climate of Europe's colonialist aggressions. The agency of Africans in fashioning their own modernity shapes itself in a continuous space of contestation that critically engages European projects of modernity, its history, and its intellectual tradition. The question then is how to frame the discourse of Ethiopian modernity and modernism in an intellectual history that has neglected the evaluation of these important issues in the making of modernity. Although Ethiopia has never been colonized, I argue that the interrogation of Ethiopian modernity has in the main manifested itself in the dichotomy of "Other" and "Otherness." The question of "Otherness" as a central moral and political issue is one that cannot be ignored and its predicament extends itself to self-questioning that was usually attended by a sense of acknowledgement of alterity. This alterity was at once highly local in its engagement with the urgent political and social problems of Ethiopia and widely pertinent in its confrontation of the ethical demands of "Otherness."
Whether Ethiopia was colonized or not, the belief of "Otherness" prevailed because just like any other non-Western society, Ethiopia was posited by the West in a Eurocentric archetype that has historically excluded discourse of alterity and that perceived subordinated groups from the point of view of a dominant "first world" culture. I will further elaborate this in the works of the writers of the newspaper Berhanena Selam and in Gebre Hiwot Baykedagn's work Atse Menelik and Ethiopia (Emperor Menelik and Ethiopia) to investigate the relation of "Otherness" to culture and knowledge in the beginning dialogue of Ethiopian modernity.
How did the modernist intellectuals of Ethiopia fashion their own distinctive response to the larger paradigm of European modernity? Despite their history of not being colonized, how did they apprehend an alterity that made demands on them not by entering into dialogue with them, but by the very intensity of its un-ignorable being that had excluded them from its discourse, but had simultaneously imposed itself upon the prevailing discourse? How did the discourse of modernity that estranged as it enticed, that fore-grounded the symbolic as it exploited the imaginary pronounce itself in the writings of these intellectuals? How did the scanty changes in technology impact the form and reception of early intellectual thought? More importantly, how was the nation imagined and articulated by these intellectuals, which I believe informed the discourse of modernity that translated state and its citizen in the configuration of Ethiopian modernity.
The relation between the state and the citizen and the state's many interventions in the life of the citizen is especially important in the construction of the imagination of the nation where the tension between the state and an independent intelligentsia at times confronted each other in an open ended contest where overall control by both parties was not possible or desirable. One especially sees this contestation in Gebre Hiwot Baykedagn's Atse Menelik and Ethiopia. I believe that this work, although mentioned by many intellectuals including Bahru Zewde as an important document of its time, has not been decoded effectively in its instrumentality and direct referentiality to the discussion of Ethiopian modernity. I especially consider this work to have opened a space for the apprehension of "Otherness" despite the exceptionalist performative text of the nation in the larger narrative of Ethiopian history. Although not as critical as Gebre Hiwot Baykedgan, the writers of Berhanena Selam also depict the complex ways in which the interplay between modernity and the construction of the nation was played. [End Page 83]
 
The discursive performance of nationhood by the state through the conspicuous representations of an all encompassing affinity to national value and myth, constructed and imagined through shared experiential spaces, is therefore an unexamined premise that I attempt to explore in this paper. I believe that looking at the discursive parameters of the concept of the "nation," in addition to the intellectuals' deliberation of alterity, is critical to map the intellectual and ideological framework of the foundational narrative of Ethiopian modernity and modernism.

To Read More :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/v033/33.1.giorgis.html
.....
"Conclusion

What underlies the possibility of our talking about the “modern” can never be understood
without its early history. Early narratives are bridging texts that establish connections
between present spaces of discourse and the past. Furthermore, present Ethiopian
modernity discourses are a product of different discourses where present discourses have
shaped the interpretation of past ones. I consider that the ideas of the intellectuals of Berhanena
Selam and Gebre Hiwot Baykedagn root the source of the discourse of Ethiopian
modernity. It is critical to note that contemporary understanding of Ethiopian modernity
and modernism widely derives from the space of modernity in Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia.
It is also critical to note that it is the perspective that predicates itself on a significant
examination of past and present discourses that comes up with the genesis and temporality
of the meaning of modernity, in this space of Haile Selassie’s reign that is widely
thought to have foregrounded the space of modernity and modernism. The connections
and contrasts between earlier thoughts and the present suggest several ways in which
the examination of discourse might be constituted. I want to emphasize that attending to
the discursive and ontological processes of modernity through the critical look of Gebre
Hiwot Baykedagn and the intellectuals of Berhanena Selam on basic themes of the Ethiopian
imaginary is more a starting point than a store of conclusions. The need to begin this type
of discourse that is completely lacking from our academic institutions is paramount if we
are to place modern Ethiopian history in proper perspective."
(http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/v033/33.1.giorgis.html#back)
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1) Elizabeth Wolde Giorgis  
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/callaloo/v033/33.1.giorgis.html#back
Elizabeth Wolde Giorgis, who is completing the PhD degree in art history at Cornell University, is the Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University. She has curated a number of visual art exhibitions in Addis Ababa and has also given talks on art in Germany, the United States, and Sweden, as well as in Ethiopia. Her publications have appeared in such periodicals as Africa Today, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and Journal of Ethiopian Studies. She has edited a number of texts, such as Contemporary Ethiopian Art in a Changing World (London, 2007), Gebre Kritos Desta: The Painter Poet (Germany, 2006), and (with Salah Hassan and Dagmawi Woubshet) Modernity, Pedagogy and Art Education (Amsterdam, 2008).

Khalid Medani, "Strife and Secession in Sudan"

Khalid Medani, "Strife and Secession in Sudan"

Abstract:
In January 2011, South Sudan voted to declare the independence. This article argues that the impending emergence of two new nation-states has been influenced by two developments: the rise of political Islam and the failure of democratization, and flaws with the implementation of the 2005 peace agreement. Drawing on the literature on secession and conflict resolution, the article focuses on the probability of renewed civil war following the secession of South Sudan. It outlines a framework for identifying the potential for future civil conflict, and offers an analysis of potential scenarios following the partition of the country in July 2011.

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_democracy/summary/v022/22.3.medani.html

Wikileaks Update(13) -Ethiocables

Viewing cable 06 ADDISABABA2708, 

ETHIOPIA: RECENT BOMBINGS BLAMED ON OROMOS






06ADDISABABA2708 2006-10-06 08:53 2011-08-30 01:44 SECRET Embassy Addis Ababa

VZCZCXRO1900
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHDS #2708 2790853
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
P 060853Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2771
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA PRIORITY
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

S E C R E T ADDIS ABABA 002708 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E 
LONDON, PARIS, ROME FOR AFRICA WATCHER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/23/2016 
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV ET ER
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIA: RECENT BOMBINGS BLAMED ON OROMOS 
POSSIBLY THE WORK OF GOE 
 
 
Classified By: CHARGE VICKI HUDDLESTON FOR REASONS 1.4(b)AND(d). 
 
1. (S) SUMMARY  A series of explosions were reported in Addis 
Ababa on September 16, killing three individuals.  The GoE 
announced that the bombs went off while being assembled, and 
that the three dead were terrorists from the outlawed Oromo 
Liberation Front (OLF) with links to the Oromo National 
Congress (ONC).  An embassy source, as well as clandestine 
reporting, suggests that the bombing may have in fact been 
the work of GoE security forces.  END SUMMARY 
 
2. (U) On September 16, three bomb explosions were reported 
in the Kara Kore area of Addis Ababa.  The explosions were 
heard at 4:45 a.m., 7:00 a.m., and 10:00 a.m.  The National 
Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), together with the 
Federal Police Anti-terror Task Force later reported that the 
bombs were "part of a coordinated terror attack by the OLF 
and Sha'abiya (Eritrea) aimed at disrupting democratic 
development."  The NISS said that the intended terror plot 
had failed and the bombs had mistakenly gone off while the 
suspects were preparing them while hiding out at an illegally 
built house.  Two of the suspects died immediately, while 
another died on the way to the hospital.  One other is in 
critical condition.  The police task force reported having 
others in custody related to the plot and that evidence shows 
the terrorists had ties to Oromo groups - the Mecha and 
Tulema Association (MTA) and the ONC.  They also said that 
the bombs used contained parts sourced from Eritrea and were 
consistent with bombs used in previous terrorist attacks. 
 
3. (S) On September 20, Dr. Merera Gudina (strictly protect), 
the former leader of the ONC (and a typically reliable 
information source), contacted Post to report that the 
deceased had not died not while constructing a bomb, but 
rather at the hands of GoE cadres.  Dr. Merera said that the 
men had been picked up by police a week prior, kept in 
detention and tortured.  He said police then left the men in 
a house and detonated explosives nearby, killing 3 of them. 
He did not indicate whether the men were ONC or OLF 
affiliated. 
 
4. (S) Clandestine reporting indicates that the bombs did not 
explode inside the structure, but rather appear to have been 
placed outside and detonated. 
HUDDLESTON

Wikileaks Update(12) -Ethiocables


WikiLeaks - Attempted coup or opposition round-up?
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/04/09ADDISABABA975.html
The Ethiopian Government (GoE) announced on April 25 that it had arrested 35 individuals affiliated with the overseas-based opposition movement "Ginbot 7" who were planning a "terrorist attack" in Addis Ababa. The Government was quick to clarify that it disrupted a "terrorist attack" not a "coup" as had been reported by some media outlets. Without any specific information or evidence substantiating the allegations, we -- and many diplomatic colleagues with whom we have spoken -- assess the move as another crackdown by the GoE on pro-opposition individuals within the military and civil service consistent with other such acts in recent years. While the GoE's claims may ultimately prove true, in the absence of specific and credible information, this latest round of arrests strikes us and many Ethiopia watchers in Addis as another move by the GoE to justify the arrest of political dissenters. The GoE has a robust record since December 2006 of doing so within the military. Ref. A offers insights into GoE moves to purge the civil service of those who support the opposition, and even those who do not explicitly support the ruling party, and Ref. B details a late-October 2008 series of arrests of ethnic Oromos allegedly for being involved in plans by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) to conduct terrorist attacks in Ethiopia. Apart from his fiery rhetoric, we have no reason to believe that the asserted links between Berhanu Nega and the alleged plans for attacks are credible. Pol/Econ Chief spoke with Berhanu's AmCit wife, Dr. Nardos Minassie, who claimed to be completely unaware of the allegations or media reports surrounding her husband and reported being fine, staying at home, and unaffected by the incident.
(C) As have many within the Embassy, our counterparts at the British Embassy also assess that this current round of arrests are likely a variation on the theme established with the arrests reported in Ref. B. Despite the GoE's claim of having disrupted such a large alleged plot to terrorize the capital city, we have not observed any overt increase in the security presence around the capital. While we will continue to track this case as it develops, we expect that the current case will prove to be more one of political retaliation to further entrench the stifling of political opposition as Ethiopian eyes shift toward the 2010 national elections rather than one of a legitimate effort by the opposition to disrupt life in the capital or target the regime. Wikileaks - US calls Meles's development "mythic economic growth"
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/04/09ADDISABABA797.html
After a brief meeting with Senator Inhofe and his delegation on April 7 (septel), Prime Minister Meles took Ambassador to the side and privately raised three issues: 1) the need to "improve" the State Department Human Rights Report (HRR), which he felt was filled with errors; 2) allegations that the U.S. Embassy leaked Ethiopia's draft counterterrorism law to Human Rights Watch (HRW); and 3) the need for senior-level bilateral meetings to resolve misunderstandings and enhance U.S.-Ethiopia relations.Meles' increasingly aggressive responses to pro forma USG actions (such as the HRR, language in the 2007 appropriations bill, etc.) in recent months almost certainly stems from GoE anxiety over how the Obama Administration may engage Ethiopia. At the same time, the Prime Minister's obstinacy on cases like Birtukan's, the CSO law, mythic economic growth, and Ethiopia's human rights practices -- to name but a few -- genuinely reflect the GoE's entrenchment in the country's current trajectory which is increasingly at odds with U.S. interests and values in both the political and economic realms. As such, we continue to advocate for senior level bilateral meetings as soon as the AF Assistant Secretary is in place. They make sense and would help ease Ethiopia's anxieties and underscore our concerns as well as reinforce our support for the relationship.
WikiLeaks - Torture inside Ethiopia's jails
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09ADDISABABA737.html
Recent interviews with individuals who have been held in non-traditional detention facilities have shed anecdotal light on beatings and abuse by Ethiopian security officials against civilians in country. While we cannot confirm the scope or persistence of such mistreatment, these first-hand reports do offer a unique insight into abuse of detainees and dynamics regarding Ethiopia's non-traditional detention facilities. A handful of released political and other prisoners in Ethiopia have recently reported to PolOff that they and other detainees have been tortured in police station jails in attempts by security officials to elicit confessions before cases go to trial. Depending on the detainee, abuses reported include being blindfolded and hung by the wrists for several hours, bound by chains and beaten, held in solitary confinement for several days to weeks or months, subjected to mental torture such as harassment and humiliation, forced to stand for over 16 hours, and having heavy objects hung from one's genitalia (males). Based on what our sources have reported, torture seems to be more common at police station detention centers (most notably Ma-ekelawi police station in Addis Ababa), while less is reported at Kaliti prison. Released prisoners have also reported to PolOff cases of prisoners being detained for several years without being charged and without trial, prisoners held in jails despite having been released by the courts, and police interference with court proceedings.
WikiLeaks - Analysis of Meles's Behavior
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09ADDISABABA729.html
Finally, Meles desperately wants recognition and public accolades for his achievements, consistently focusing us on his accomplishments while being relatively more willing to forego appreciation while efforts remain in process. We hope that this analysis provides useful insights for USG interlocutors who will engage the Prime Minister. Meles's ISTJ type suggests very clearly that the most persuasive arguments to make with the Prime Minister to sway his decisions will be those that are delivered privately, focused on an end objective that he supports or values, highly specific and detailed, and delivered in a clear, linear fashion. Further, if our message is one that he is likely to oppose, our arguments will be much more effective if delivered in a way that emphasize the objective -- Meles particularly understands and appreciates arguments that clearly reflect the explicit pursuit of national interests. Further, USG interlocutors must be thoroughly prepared with details to retort Meles's detailed responses to initial USG points.
WikiLeaks - US wouldn't consider Ethiopia an important ally
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09ADDISABABA1599.html
While we have corrected Prime Minister Meles's misperceptions on night vision goggles and informed him of our efforts to discuss and correct problems noted in our human rights report, the continued raising of these issues underscore the anxiety by the Prime Minister and his government that the U.S. posture toward Ethiopia would become tougher or worse, and that the U.S. would not consider Ethiopia an important ally in the region. It is also clear that while Meles desires improved relations, he also wants to establish bilateral relations on his own terms in which the U.S. would give Ethiopia space as it advances human rights and democracy as well as economic development according to its own policy objectives.
WikiLeaks: Meles tries to influence US policy change
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09ADDISABABA578.html
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi called in Ambassador February 25 to discuss Ethiopia's perception that the U.S. has taken a tougher policy shift towards Ethiopia, stressing human rights concerns over shared objectives on regional stability, counterterrorism and development. The meeting reinforced Foreign Minister Seyoum's February 20 demarche to the Ambassador (reftel), protesting Congress's listing of Ethiopia among 20 countries, including Sudan, Zimbabwe and Iran, requiring congressional notification before development and other types of assistance can be disbursed. The Prime Minister said Ethiopia wants predictability in the bilateral relationship and clarity on where Ethiopia stands with the U.S. The Prime Minister went so far as to say that the head of the military, General Samora, and Intelligence Service chief, Getachew Assefa -- two hawkish, yet significantly influential, ruling party members on foreign policy -- lack the confidence that the U.S. shares Ethiopia's security concerns.
WikiLeaks: Recalibrating our relationship with Ethiopia
The Ethiopian Government's (GoE) growing authoritarianism (Ref. A), intolerance of dissent, and ideological dominance over the economy since 2005 pose a serious threat to domestic stability and U.S. interests. The GoE has come to believe its own anxieties about a fundamental shift in U.S. policy against it. This self-induced crisis of confidence has exacerbated the GoE's natural tendency of government control over politics, the economy and personal freedoms. To pre-empt retaliation, the GoE has increasingly purged ethnic Oromos, Amharas, and others perceived as not supporting the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from the military (Ref. B), civil service (Ref. C), and security services. Such moves only add to the already growing deep public frustration and have led to a vicious cycle. The public is increasingly upset over double digit inflation (Ref. D), anxiety over their economic future (Ref. E), the GoE's denial of the drought (Ref. F), growing public inability to feed their families, and narrowing of political space highlighted by the prominent arrest of opposition leader, Birtukan Midekssa.Prime Minister Meles is universally considered a brilliant thinker. Meles truly believes in reform and democratic values, but, like others in the EPRDF, he has a specific perspective on what each looks like and is confident that the party's approach is the exclusive path to a prosperous future for Ethiopia. Bold U.S. leadership is necessary now if we are to push Ethiopia onto a more positive trajectory.
WikiLeaks: Meles re-arrests Birtukan Mideksa
In the most overt case of harassment of the political opposition since the April local elections, the Ethiopian Government (GoE) has detained Birtukan Mideksa, Chairperson of the Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party, three times in the three weeks and today arrested her. Birtukan is a former political detainee who, along with over 100 other opposition figures, was convicted and sentenced in the aftermath of the May 2005 elections and later pardoned in July 2007 through intensive efforts by the U.S., other donors, and the "Ethiopian Elders." While on a outreach tour of Europe in November, Birtukan (technically correct) told reporters that she and the other political detainees "did not request any pardon of the government." Apparently offended by the statement which effectively denies the GoE the appearance of being compassionate by attributing the pardon to the Elders, the GoE is now on the brink of rescinding Birtukan's pardon, an act which could place our 2009 International Woman of Courage nominee (Ref. A) in prison for 15 years.As Birtukan is the most recognized leader of Ethiopia's political opposition, this harassment sends a clear message to the broader opposition community. The detentions, harassment, and arrest of Birtukan represent the latest and most blatant incidence of a string of arrests and harassment of opposition party officials in the past few months (Ref. B). As Birtukan's statements to the European press are factually true, the GoE has little excuse for this current harassment. As the international community clearly associates the July 2007 pardon of Birtukan and the other political detainees as heavily influenced by the USG, her re-arrest will likely be viewed by many as an affront to the USG. If the GoE pursues charges against Birtukan along with today's arrest, or if the GoE rescinds her pardon, we strongly urge Washington to release a strongly worded statement condemning the move and resuscitate language from our January 6, 2006 public statement noting that "steps that appear to criminalize dissent impede progress on democratization."
WikiLeaks - Religious conflict fueled by govt non-responsiveness
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09ADDISABABA2126.html
The non-responsiveness of the government to resolve the land dispute led Christians to resort to defying local authorities in order to build the church. It is difficult to determine why the government failed to respond to the issue, as it is usually quite proactive in resolving religious matters, as demonstrated earlier this year when the government initiated a series of interfaith dialogues following a religious conflict in Gonder. The Prime Minister was conspicuously silent on the issue once the conflict erupted, though he had intervened earlier and his directives were essentially ignored by the local administration. Though there seems to be some animosity on the part of the Christians towards the Muslims, it seems that most anger is directed towards the government. The long-standing harmonious relationship between Christians and Muslims in Dessie seems to have been preserved, indicating a high level of tolerance that is not easily shattered.
U.S. ambassador - Meles' revolutionary democracy has eroded stability - and, hence, U.S. interests http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09ADDISABABA1770.html
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Ambassador Yamamoto on July 23 that Ethiopia is pursuing a "democratic" paradigm fundamentally different from that accepted by the United States. Meles stated that he rejects President Obama's assertion -- as posed in the President's July 11 speech in Ghana -- that "development depends on good governance" and democracy. Rather, Meles argued for economic performance-based criteria for assistance, as he asserted at the G-20 summit in April. Meles argued that history does not support this assertion and that this "Western paradigm" of democracy and development cannot be imported from abroad and applied to other countries. Meles argued that the United States' "old paradigm" is "wrong and closes off the emergence of organic democracy in Africa." The Prime Minister asserted that the United States' approach to development assistance through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) simply creates "another network of patronage" that prevents doing away with patronage in Africa. In Ambassador Yamamoto's final call on Prime Minister Meles as Ambassador to Ethiopia, Meles finally acknowledged verbally Ethiopia's fundamental difference with western approaches to democracy and development. The Prime Minister's frank statements confirm Embassy Addis Ababa's consistent argument over the past two years: Ethiopia's political strategy is fundamentally different from any sense of "democracy" as commonly understood in the United States or western countries. Despite the second word in the GoE's prevailing ideology, "Revolutionary Democracy" (Ref. C) reflects an approach to governance and development that, while arguably FOR the people, is neither OF, or BY, the people. Instead, Ethiopia is clearly (through its actions) and intentionally (as confirmed by the Prime Minister) pursuing a top-down approach through which political, economic, and even social activity must be either directed or condoned by the government (and ruling party). That which is not will be suppressed. As we argue in Ref. A, this trend fundamentally has eroded stability -- and, hence, U.S. interests -- in Ethiopia. While we accept the Prime Minister's (and President Obama's) argument that we should not impose any system of governance on Ethiopia, it is critical for us to understand the deep differences between our countries and recalibrate our engagement to protect, and better advance, U.S. interests in this fragile region.
WikiLeaks - Ethiopia: We'are following China's model'
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/08/08ADDISABABA2290.html
At a hail and farewell on August 19 for Chinese Economic and Commercial Counselor Liu Yunbiao (reftel) and his replacement, Qian Zhaogang, Ethiopian State Minister for Trade and Industry Tadesse Haile extolled the close and growing commercial relationship between China and Ethiopia and said "We have to sustain high (economic) growth so we can be like China. We're following your (China's) model." Tadesse said that bilateral ties are entering a "mature" phase where both countries will be able to maximize the benefits of the trade relationship. For his part, Qian listed his priorities as facilitating government-to-government communication, working on behalf of Chinese companies, and increasing bilateral trade and investment.
WikiLeaks: Purged Air Force commander says military suffers from ethnic division
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1324.html
Major-General purged in 2006 while serving as commander of the Ethiopian Air Force, told the Ambassador on May 12 that the Ethiopian military suffers from ethnic division and Tigrayan dominance. Alemshet said Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles cannot afford to fight a war against Eritrea because the military lacks the will to fight and a war would exacerbate the growing cracks in the Ethiopian state. Lastly, he noted based on his continuing contacts with some military officials that the Ethiopian military was limiting itself to small-scale tactical operations in Somalia only and was not conducting any major offensive operations. Alemshet's comments about the Ethiopian military provide a rare insight into an institution that is by nature secretive and difficult to access for outsiders. His reporting of widespread dissatisfaction for the Tigrayan dominated government within the military is consistent with the views of the government held by the broader non-Tigrayan population. The morale problems within the military are certain to worsen in the next several years unless the government changes course and becomes more inclusive, something that at present they appear to have little interest in doing.
Wikileaks - Kuma Demeksa, an opportunistic 50-year old party loyalist http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1416.html
Following its landslide victory in the April 2008 local elections, the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) appointed Defense Minister Kuma Demeksa, an opportunistic 50-year old party loyalist, as mayor of Addis Ababa. In a conference held at the City Hall on May 20, the EPRDF also selected the Deputy Mayor, as well as the Secretary General, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the City Council. Kuma's critics describe him as a colorless party-hack who has "been everywhere and has reached nowhere." Kuma is quite and reclusive and rarely meets with non-party members. However, he is committed to the party and very loyal to Prime Minister Meles. Kuma is said to be a survivor because he respects authority, is reclusive and keeps a low profile. He is not well regarded in Oromiya region, where he served as President for over six years, and has been labelled indecisive and ineffective. Kuma's appointment as Mayor has puzzled many residents of Addis Ababa. Observers expected that the EPRDF would appoint a sharper and more apt Mayor to address the multi-faceted social, political and economic problems of the city in order to win the hearts and minds of residents who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the opposition in 2005, and largely stayed home during the 2008 local elections.
Democracy: No We Can't! - US Frustrated by TPLF http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/06/08ADDISABABA1571.html
A paradigm shift must occur in the United States' discourse with Ethiopia on foreign assistance. Over the past year, the USG has delivered on all GoE claims of "broken promises" in order to enhance the security of the Ethiopian state and to help Ethiopia combat terrorism. However, even as the USG met its promises, Ethiopia consistently rebuffed USG efforts to pursue other priorities, notably political and economic reform, and also turned down a significant number of programs designed specifically to enhance trust, communication and security cooperation between our militaries. The GoE rejected many of the programs it specifically requested. Effectively, the Ethiopian government cherry-picked areas and programs for cooperation at a time where the cross-cutting nature of political, economic and security concerns has never been more evident. At the same time, the ruling EPRDF moved forward with increasingly statist and authoritarian policies and practices, to the potential detriment of Ethiopia's long-term stability (and thus USG interests). As a result, the foreign assistance conversation must now be framed as "Ethiopia's broken promises."
¶10. (S/NF) Comment Continued: Embassy Addis Ababa will make it clear to the Ethiopian government at the highest levels that the U.S.-Ethiopia strategic partnership requires reciprocity and that, for the United States, counterterrorism and security cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) Central Committee members, as well as ENDF leadership, often criticize the West for placing human rights and other conditions on the provision of military and economic programs to Ethiopia. They cite Israel, China and Russia as (more) reliable partners who provide affordable equipment, always deliver and never raise conditionality.
¶11. (S/NF) Comment Continued: The Ambassador will take every opportunity to highlight for Ethiopian leadership the linkage between democratic governance/free market economy and social cohesion and stability, and urge the GoE to reconsider the current statist and authoritarian trajectory of its policies. If the GoE persists in rejecting United States priorities in such critical areas as transparency (especially AML and CFT), governance (especially civil society support for political), market reform (especially necessary diversification) and security cooperation, the long-term risks to USG interests posed by robust support for the EPRDF government, as well as the level and breadth of our foreign assistance programs, may have to be reassessed.
WikiLeaks: US Embassy suggests to State Dept change of policy toward repressive Ethiopia
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/06/08ADDISABABA1674.html
This is the first in a series of cables outlining policy options on U.S.-Ethiopia relations in light of recent restrictions on political and democratic space The precipitous decline in political space has continued over the past two years. While placating donors by holding interparty dialogue on contentious issues, the ruling party effectively rejected recommendations by established opposition parties. When the lack of serious engagement forced an opposition walk out, the ruling party leveraged rubber-stamp endorsements by EPRDF-fabricated opposition groups to ram through a new National Electoral Board (NEB), a repressive media law, and a political party financing law that restricts and denies space to the opposition. In the past two years the clearly-partisan NEB has rendered suspect administrative rulings stripping the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (CUDP) and Oromo National Congress (ONC) labels from their freely elected and recognized leaders (Addis 145). Ruling party cadres' harassment and intimidation of opposition candidates in the run-up to the April local elections precluded them from registering for the April local elections (Addis 596 and Addis 667). Additionally, the NEB's bureaucratic delays -- and refusals -- in approving domestic election observerss prevented credible organizations from observing the elections (Addis 1065). Together these efforts guaranteed an overwhelming marginalization of any political opposition in the 2008 local elections. Ultimately, the opposition took only three out of 3.6 million contested seats in April's local elections. In our assessment, the local elections significantly increased voter apathy and deep frustration over the chances of building on the political gains of the 2005 campaign period and election results. Embassy Addis Ababa views this precipitous narrowing of Ethiopia's political space as undermining Ethiopia's stability which could affect the entire Horn of Africa region. Wikileaks - Revolutionary Democracy defined by Sibhat Nega, Bereket, Hailemariam, Tekeda Alemu
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/04/08ADDISABABA1154.html
Sabhat Nega's views represent the ideological extreme -- albeit still tremendously influential --- among the TPLF elites. EPRDF Central Committee members from non-TPLF component parties shed much of Sabhat's rhetoric while still clinging adamantly to the top-down imperative approach of bringing democracy to the people. Hailemariam Desalegn, chairman of the Southern Ethiopia People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), has argued to Post that due to poor education and illiteracy the Ethiopian public is too underdeveloped to make a well reasoned, informed decision, and so Revolutionary Democracy is the political bridge by which the "enlightened leaders" can lead the people to democracy. Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO) Deputy Chairman, and Trade Minister, Girma Birru emphasizes the "necessary" state role in the economy to establish an economic incubator fostering "agricultural-industrialization led development" and growth as the necessary pre-condition for democracy. On his part, Amhara Nation Democratic Movement (ANDM) Executive Committee member Bereket Simon emphasizes the merits of the EPRDF's Revolutionary Democracy by arguing that the opposition, writ large, is not ready for democracy because it is bent on street action, all-or-nothing politics, and rejecting the political system rather than the ruling party. The future of multiparty democracy in Ethiopia, Bereket told AF/E Office Director James Knight on April 11, lies with "the sons of the private sector" and the EPRDF "must nurture the private sector so that it can establish its own political party to move the country forward." Sabhat Nega's point that Ethiopia will disintegrate in the absence of the TPLF's revolutionary democracy strategy highlights the rigidity within the ruling party. In the TPLF's collective mind-set, any alternative to its top-down approach of "democracy" threatens the existence and future of the Ethiopian state. The opposition presents even more of a threat to the state -- in the TPLF/EPRDF's eyes -- in light of their view of the opposition as being infiltrated with Eritrean government hacks, bent on all-or-nothing politics, or (in a most generous interpretation) simply committed to a populous-driven bottom up view of democracy. Some GoE officials now are beginning to acknowledge that a functioning state much differentiate between its ruling party, the government, and the state. Still, there is no historical basis in Ethiopia or understanding in the public (or ruling party leaders') psyche of such a separation of roles in Ethiopia. Without such a distinction, ruling party elites appear genuinely to view threats to the ruling party -- such as those posed by otherwise legitimate political opposition groups -- as being threats to the state. The late 2005 "Treason" charges against scores of opposition leaders is only the most overt demonstration of this perception. The challenge in moving Ethiopia's democracy forward, therefore, is to identify a strategy that acknowledges the EPRDF's commitment to democracy, work with the opposition to present less of a threat to the EPRDF, and find the delicate balance whereby the mutually exclusive approaches to democracy can be vetted with, and subjected to the will of, the Ethiopian people. Post will soon propose a road-map for engaging the GoE and Ethiopia to advance democratic reforms while navigating this delicate balance.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Wikileaks Update(11) -Ethiocables


S E C R E T ADDIS ABABA 001361 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/E 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/12/2028 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC ET
SUBJECT: ETHIOPIA: SCHOLARS OFFER VIEWS ON 2010 ELECTIONS 
AND THE WAY FORWARD (PART V OF V) 
 
REF: A. ADDIS ABABA 1357 
     B. ADDIS ABABA 1358 
     C. ADDIS ABABA 1359 
     D. ADDIS ABABA 1360 
     E. ADDIS ABABA 1111 
     F. ADDIS ABABA 1229 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Donald Yamamoto.  Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
PART V OF V.  THIS FIVE-PART CABLE DETAILS ETHIOPIAN 
SCHOLARS' VIEWS ON THE ETHIOPIAN POLITY. 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
1. (S/NF) Parts I-IV of this series (refs A, B, C, D) 
outlined how, in the views of Ethiopian scholars, the ruling 
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) is 
consolidating de facto one-party rule, weakening state 
institutions, and creating conditions that risk Ethiopia's 
stability.  Interviewed following the EPRDF's landslide 
victory in the April 2008 local elections (ref E), the 
Ethiopian scholars divided roughly into two camps: 
Pluralists, who favored participatory democracy, and 
Statists, who favored a dominant EPRDF.  In this Part V, 
Pluralists and Statists offered their prescriptions on the 
way forward.  While Pluralists were generally pessimistic 
about prospects for greater space for mainstream political 
opposition in the upcoming 2010 national elections, Statists 
held out hope that the EPRDF will reform internally.  The 
Pluralists and Statists differed in their views on any 
potential United States response to Ethiopia's internal 
developments, with Statists arguing that the United States 
should stay out of Ethiopia's domestic politics and only urge 
the EPRDF to open the economy, and the Pluralists arguing 
that the United States should use its leverage to create 
necessary space for mainstream political opposition.  This 
Part V further reviews the scholars views presented in Parts 
I-V.  In light of the scholars' views and other Post 
reporting, the Ambassador has begun approaching the EPRDF at 
the highest levels and frankly express our concerns that the 
EPRDF's current actions may adversely affect our mutual 
interest in the Ethiopian state's long term viability.  These 
discussions will encourage the TPLF-led Politburo to explain 
clearly how their consolidation of power enhances, rather 
than retards, the welfare and security of the Ethiopian 
state. End Summary. 
 
The 2010 Elections and the Way Forward 
-------------------------------------- 
  
To Read more go through the followings links:

Confidential Meetings with Ethiopian Scholars 
 
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1357.html
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1358.html
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1359.html
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1360.html
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/05/08ADDISABABA1361.html

http://www.ethiomedia.com/andnen/wikileaks_090311.html
***

WikiLeaks - Privatization or Monopolization by Al Amoudi in Ethiopia ?
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/01/08ADDISABABA82.html

Wikileaks - CUD leaders' Charges "Political Offenses" not Criminal thus will grant visas

http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/08/07ADDISABABA2635.html

Wikileaks - TPLF not EPRDF against release of CUD leaders
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/06/07ADDISABABA2005.html

Wikileaks - Pastor Daniel Most Neutral Ethiopian Exposing Torture - I fear for Pastor Dan
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2007/04/07ADDISABABA1277.html

Wikileaks - Meles tells US to "remove the Bashir regime." - One more enemy for Meles...
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/02/09ADDISABABA259.html

Wikileaks - Simmering Religious In-Roads of Imported Wahhabism in Ethiopia
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/07/09ADDISABABA1674.html

Wikileaks - LUCY [DINKNESH] CLAIMS ASYLUM IN US [Satire]
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/04/09ADDISABABA745.html

Wikileaks - Seeye Opens up about EFFORT & control over resources by super-rich Meles and Azeb
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/03/09ADDISABABA677.html

Wikileaks - PARTIAL CABINET RESHUFFLE and BIO OF SOME EPRDFits
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/11/08ADDISABABA3011.html

Wikileaks - Hailu unwilling to pursue meaningful dialogue with others and show no signs moderation
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/09/08ADDISABABA2560.html

Wikileaks - Ruling Party's Heavy-Handed Recruitment of Students, Teachers, Farmers
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2009/09/09ADDISABABA2273.html


Wikileaks - Meles Adviser Gilkes confirms Meles gave "LARGE CHUNK OF TERRITORY" to Sudan
http://wikileaks.org/cable/2008/12/08ADDISABABA3400.html

Tuesday 6 September 2011

The New Ideology Designed for Africa

The New Ideology Designed for Africa: Developmental Neo-Patrimonialism

Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa
PIERRE ENGLEBERT, POMONA COLLEGE /1: see abstract in the footnote/


Extract (from a paper which argues against the “patrimonial-state” in Africa):

“The weaker the legitimacy of the state they inherit, the more likely it is that political contestation will turn into challenges to the state itself and the greater, therefore, the instability of the regime. In such conditions,elites are more likely to resort to neo-patrimonial than developmental policies, not least because the former are less likely to entail difficult distributional decisions and trade-offs of present to future consumption that they canill afford. Finally, the more neo-patrimonial the nature of the ruling system, the weaker the effectiveness of government institutions, the poorer the quality of governance, and the worse the choice of economic policies. Over time, the capacity of such governments to design and implement policies further deteriorates.The law turns irrelevant. Trust in institutions, weak to begin with, further evaporates and leads to worsened corruption. Governments become unable to take sustained action, to make credible commitments, and to enforce the rules of the game. Meanwhile, their spending rises in proportion to their economy Long-term investments are neglected to the benefit of current expenditure on wages, consumption, and for the creation of additional state agencies to provide prebends (Joseph 1987). In the end, the instrumental legitimacy of systemic patronage, while substituting for the lack of political legitimacy of the state, introduces a systematic bias in policy away from long-run growth and leads to decrepitude of national institutions. Hence, the attempts by the elites to remedy their power deficit leads to the ruin of the state itself.”

 (My italics and emphasis; Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa)


Ethiopia in Retrospect (A pair of points on patrimonialism)

….”Hence, the attempts by the elites to remedy their power deficit
leads to the ruin of the state itself.”(ibid. PIERRE ENGLEBERT, POMONA COLLEGE)

That is the crux of the matter!

Ethiopia during and after HSI:

What gave life to Absolute monarchy during the initial period of emperor HSI, with the successful modernization project (alas?  Cultural alienation too, up-rootedness) at the beginning, among others, was the gradual introduction of ethnic diversity into the Ethiopian nation-state fabric by substantially counteracting local-patrimonialism (through various means, marriage, leading posts etc. integrating the ethnically diversified elite into the ultimate development of “the Gondarite” Abyssinian state with its south orientation too).
And as a matter of fact, what brought it down is also the gradual deconstruction of the ethnic diversity, which the state fabric has attained during the prior period.The ideological ammunition, which served this counter-development was “the national question” (with all the substantial social legitimacy it does have), as promoted in the hands and at the service of “alien” (of rather colonial nature) forces and dogmatic perception!
With the policy interlude of the military regime, concerning the ethnic nature of the state apparatus, substantial change has not endured and at times it has even aggravated the predicament; at the last resort the demise of the traditional–legacy Ethiopian state has ensued!

After the military regime:

The new state-legitimacy was supposedly – “the rights of nationalities” – i.e. “ethnic equality”, which was only ideologically promoted but in reality – rather the opposite was being implemented: a system of domination was under construction – under the ideological legacy of a “one-party” system of the former “communist states”, but in its “ethnic” nature, highly tainted under the hegemonial domination of one ethnic group, which won the battle in the contest of the struggle for “self-determination”!


In other words;

The “new” Ethiopian regime during the last 20 years, has continued the patrimonial character of the state under a different banner; in other words, it is in effect a continuation of the gradual deconstruction of the state from its ethnic-diversified substance (which positively was being implemented during the first half of HSI reign); i.e. a deconstruction which began in the late era of the HSI regime.
The difference is, in the power shift to the detriment of the “Shoan patrimonial hegemony” and to the benefit of the “Tigrean” patrimony (to use the ugly term – patrimonialism being promoted to be “salonfähig”/socially acceptable/)
 

It seems

Therefore to harmonize reality with ideology; the ideology has to be abandoned by those who have discerned the reality and a new legitimacy theory has to be constructed:
Patrimonialism being promoted to be “salonfähig”/socially acceptable/;

The Presumtion: Developmental patrimonialism- The patrimonial developmental state is legitimate since it would contain poverty. 

As though it would!

This is disastrous since it is undermining the kernel of a legitimate state - the rule of law; the kernel of which is: equality for all citizens in the eyes of the law!

“EQUALITY of man”, was even fundamental to “Kibre Negest” –the  valid “credo” of governance under the rule of absolute monarchy .…(Man in the image of God has to be treated equally, be it in Heaven or Earth!)

Developmental patrimonialism is for sure not only morally bankrupt but it will also be ultimately an economic disaster; even leading to a serious ethnic conflict as witnessed in some regions, with their states deteriorating into fascistic ones (Rwanda warns!) or a failed state ( Somalia cries!).  Moreover, the big danger in neo-patrimonialism as promoted for the legitimacy of the Ethiopian regime is not only just the “patrimonial” aspect of the “leader” as the primary factor but the ethnic backdrop.

-The Ethnic backdrop as a factor of stability and a guarantee for economic development in the structures of EFFORT and the affiliation to the ruling party.

The ethnic underpinning gives the neo-patrimonialism a primordial nature. - A “false faith” and fallacy suggesting to the protagonists that they are succeeding due to their being better than others  through their different “primordial” nature, culminating to outright racist ideological commitment, with all the social disaster of ethnic conflict that may follow out of this perception. And this is today in contemporary Ethiopia, already spreading like a social contagion all over the community, with those coming out of favor and benefit being more “ethnically” entrenched with their own fallacies and the beneficiaries on the other hand giving a sufficient ride to their loose tongues “being proud of the better race and origin”! - Simply because they are more successful and can take a ride to “heavens” with the accumulated wealth; not the least concerned and lending any empathic conscience to the misery being witnessed in their peripheries (see the crisis in the Horn of Africa today).

The perceptional disaster is belittling the fact that, patrimonialism embedded in primodialism as a belief or a “dogmatic ideological commitment” can amount to fascism.

Beware!

Nonetheless, since “the social” lies in the nature of the human, things could change for the better if counteracted in due course and in time!
But one never knows.  “Gedankenlosigkeit”/ “Stupidity” (cf. H. Arendt) is also rampant in any collective body, since a substantial section of the elite remains at times narrow-minded and one-dimensional in its perception of reality. The elite which mostly has an eye only on its portemonnaie! /2
Like 



….with funding from the UK Department for International Development and the Advisory Board of Irish Aid.
 It is led by staff of the Overseas Development Institute, London.

And with
The policy paper telling its presumption:
  
"And yet there is also evidence, especially from outside Africa, of neo-patrimonial regimes presiding over rapid and poverty-reducing economic growth. For example, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia had strong neo-patrimonial elements in their political
systems during their most rapid growth phases.
They were able to distribute economic rents in a way that balanced the demands of political stability and economic growth, while facilitating investment through what Moore and Schmitz have called ‘relationship-based’ governance.2 Most European political systems also contained significant neo-patrimonial elements during their initial growth phases."
The new "legitimacy theory" on board for the self-justification of oppression in the developing countries of Africa! I wonder, in effect, why even South Africa has been done away; with its apartheid at all!
May be, A new school, The theory per se  is going public to contain any sign of an African Spring, after the experience of the "Arab Spring", which went astray unabated and not controlled by the west as it should?

Crazy! Even if?

Do we have to "drink " the same potage what America and Europe or some others have had in their development!?
- Promoting the case of Côte d’Ivoire it is said:

"A skillful system of ethnic quotas, although favoring Houphouët’s own group, ensured that the benefits of rapid growth were shared with relative equity." The “ethnic quotas” whose consequences are turned tight till the antagonism goes to its peak, so that “the savers and the mediators” have the pretext to intervene and rule by proxy of this or the other side, which is softly instrumentalized in the process! Until things develop detrimental to their benefits.  Sudan is a recent example; Ethiopia and Ruanda are from Yesterday and so on…”
....and then they conclude in general:

"Crucial to making neo-patrimonialism work for development in Africa has been a system for centralizing economic rents and gearing their management to the long term"

...and in particular concluding for Ethiopia:

"Nevertheless there are some nations in which developmental patrimonialism looks the most viable route to pro-poor growth. Let us consider, for example, Ethiopia, an extremely poor, landlocked economy with no liberal tradition of note, in which market failures are widespread. Over the past two decades the dominant regime of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), under the strong leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, has presided over the increased centralization of rents and implementation of a long-horizon development strategy that aims to guide Ethiopia to middle income status."
And at last the recommended policy to live with "Melesse" or "the system" for long:

“Policy implications
"If we are right about developmental patrimonialism’s potential, donors and policy-makers need to be attuned to its existence. If they see genuine signs of developmental patrimonialism at work, they should think twice before insisting on best practice solutions like level playing fields, minimal rent-seeking and arm’s length government-business relations. They should engage African regimes in more imaginative discussions about the kind of administrative capacity building that might help better achieve their goals. And where, in under-performing economies, development partners encounter resistance over good governance reforms, they should consider whether developmental patrimonialism might be a more viable alternative option. ("
http://www.institutions-africa.org/filestream/20110610-appp-policy-brief-02-development-patrimonialism-by-tim-kelsall-june-2011)
*

The objective is: “The ruin of the state itself”

I.e. “…the attempts by the elites to remedy their power deficit would lead to the ruin of the state itself.” (My italics and emphasis; Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa)

“The Ruin of the State itself”- Once upon a time, the strategic vision of the classical colonial powers for Ethiopia , getting fresh life through the new “conceptual” positive formulation of a new and a fake state, - the developmental  patrimonial  state,  which would eventually wither away into a none-state!  That is the far cry from Somalia towards Ethiopia in agony!

 One can get a good notion of the whole mind-set of the “project” by reading the following discussion paper by one of the “scholars” employed to promote the new indoctrination: http://www.institutions-africa.org/filestream/20080623-discussion-paper-1-going-with-the-grain-in-african-development-tim-kelsall-june-2008

The partly entertaining “Teach ins” like:
Africans think about the relation between citizens and the state through the metaphor of an
Idealized extended family and its father. Familial metaphors, he claims, issue from an implicit
cultural and cognitive template, which shapes African political thought and action.”
*
” Politics is a clandestine, materialistic and opportunistic struggle tied to ‘the ability of the big-men of ethnic communities holding positions in the state to obtain for the regions and districts a significant share of the large scale collective benefits of development in infrastructure projects of roads, schools, dispensaries, etc, as well as the more individual rewards apportioned through the discrete personal contacts of the back verandah’
(Berman, 1998: 335).
*
This may all be partly true with all sorts of variations. However, neither that would make it sustainable nor viable to design acceptable governance on its grounds. The social “machinery” of a state has taken its primary orientation on the grounds of its advanced elements and not on parameters and variables, which would drag it to the far past.  In case the “advanced” elements i.e. the elite are no better than its traditional elements, it would have been another story. But, however lagging an African region may be, today, contemporary Africa has also its own elements of modernity. The problem is just the discrepancy of its social consciousness and national commitment, (mostly tainted and entrenched in corruption and sectional economic interests) in grasping its concrete social reality, to work for the objectives of national development.

IN A WORD:

The whole ulterior motive behind the new legitimacy indoctrination of “neo-patrimonialism” is the objective of making the state administration transparent for foreign powers in order to rule by proxy. -The new face of neo-colonialism. The structure is clear – the hierarchy is apparent, the social interaction is simple, and that makes it easily corruptible, to get in touch to the valuable resources (see the land grabbing phenomenon – a novel development of the 21st century Africa) – and attain full control over them. It is easier to deal with the “patriarch” than negotiate with all the off springs, where every one of them would come to get the share of the resources and interests.

IN A WORD: The promotion of “neo-patrimonialism is HYPOCRISY for sale in the name of research to perpetuate "neo-colonialism" with a new face: - "Developmental patrimonial state" under the auspices of the global financial oligarchy (an oligarchy for which of course, any "racist" birth-mark- is irrelevant-  ...it can be Europe, China,  America or Saudi-Arabian! “Capital is not racist” …. -But only promoted in case of convenience. ).  And yet, the oligarchy, in the short run, needs its ethnically structured entourage in the developing states, simply because it is easy to blackmail and manipulate!
I would even say; in the final analysis it is the same old "racist credo" which is driving them, to believe that we (Africans) could not do it otherwise than being "ethnically structured"!

***
1/ Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa (2000) - PIERRE ENGLEBERT, POMONA COLLEGE (http://prq.sagepub.com/content/53/1/7
Is a paper which argues against the “patrimonial-state” in Africa.

Abstract:
It is well known that Africa's development lags behind that of other regions. Lesser known is the substantial variance in development fortunes within Africa, with "miracle" economies compensating for the region's development disasters. Prevailing theories of Africa's average performance fail to account for intra-African disparities. Using empirical evidence from cross-sectional data, this study offers a new explanation for success and failure in African development, which builds upon the insights of neo-patrimonial theory. It argues that variations in the extent to which post-colonial state institutions clash with pre-existing ones largely account for what differentiates state capacity and economic growth across the region. The greater the incongruence between pre- and post-colonial institutions, the greater the relative power payoffs to domestic elites of adopting neo-patrimonial policies over developmental ones. The article challenges thereby the social capital and ethnic homogeneity theories of African under-development, and offers substantial qualifications to the "imported state" hypothesis.

2/ This is of course not to damn all their works, in search of the basics, that may be valid here and there. However, as it is a fact of common sense that African reality  is a hundred times different within itself; policy suggestions, need a hundred times more caution than the "one""patrimonial nonsense" which is for instance running in the air for Ethiopia!

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A Flash of the Day (Archive)

1. Working on the big "GOOD SENSE": The sense of Beauty.
( via cf. "The Logic of Sense" /Deleuze) (9/2010)

2. በትርታ ይጀምራል፤ ትር ትር ይልና ይተርታል ወይንም ይተረታል ወይንም ተረት ይሆንና ይተረተራል፤ ተረት ይሆናል።(9/2010)

3. Degrading the other to "none-will" is inhuman and counter productive... The human point is to come to a common "Big-Will"(10/2010)

4. The "inner universe" (mystics) to the "outer universe" (physics) is allegorically related as the conscious mind to the virus in the human body. (6/10/2010)

5. Feeling is the language of the "inner Universe". Music/arts is the interface between the "inner" and "outer" universe.

6. Demoralization is a disgusting political tool -an expression of inhumanity employed in a social evolution, indicating the inhumanity of the employer! A disaster! (7/10/2010).

7. "In Girard's language, the law order is "mythical" and as such obeys the logic of the founding murder." (cf. Peter Robert Stork; 2005)

8. "Wenn sich zwei streiten, freut sich der Dritte"/
When two people quarrel, a third rejoices... This will be a legacy; and in the 21st century, "Wenn sich zwei einigen, freut sich der Dritte" may take over. /A mutual understanding of two people rejoices the third/.

9. My quotation of the Day (8.11.10):

Baldwin’s thought: ("The Baldwin effect")
“It is as inexorable as the colour of his eyes and the shape of his nose. He is born into a system of social relationships just as he is born into a certain quality of air. As he grows in body by breathing the one, so he grows in mind by absorbing the other.’ (Baldwin, 1906: 69-70)

10.
If "I AM" the observer (the conscious entity) so that the quanta of matter/mass (the wave function) would collapse to be a particle /the particle object), enhancing IT to the phase of THE Existing Reality.
Couldn't I -The Self- hope and help the spiritual energy/ my consciousness/ as well, to extend the transformed energy /After Life/to collapse into that existence of "THAT Beyond" Life (1). Life pertaining to "intelligent" energy (spiritual beings in the sphere of the Akashic Field), as the reflection of the "intelligent" matter or mass (human beings in the sphere of "thermodynamics" or gravity ). 17.11.10

*
(1) like J.Wheeler's Model of "the participating observer" in the Universe.

11. Forget Time! And mind Your Mind only (24.11.10).
I.e. "Talk about "time out of mind"!"(1)

(1) http://www.megafoundation.org/CTMU/Articles/Time.html

12. Wikileaks in Amharic philo-play:

የዊቂ -ሊቅ ሰዋ ስው ...ባልታወቀ ነገር፤ሊቅ ፤ቂል ፤ ቅልቅል ፤ ቅል፤ ቀላል ቂል ወይስ ....በቃኝ ብሎ፤ ቅንጣት ቅብ -ብቅል ቀልቦ ፤ወደ ብቃት ሲቃ፤ ሲግዋዝ ይሁን ፤ ሲያንቀጠቅጥ ወይስ ተቀላቅሎ ሲያንቀለቅል።ያልታወቀ ነገር።
02.12.10

13. Gates and Centres:

Life , nature and actually the whole Universe know nothing about Top and Bottom or Up and Down. There are just centres in reality. Centres and Centres with all of them having their Gates, Gates leading to the Centres. What is wrong with mankind, always with the tick for tops and bottoms or ups and downs and not centres, but fixed to the gates, without the moral courage to move towards the centres -to build the symphony
- the symphony in the SPHERE.

The SPHERE:

- The SPHERE of IDEAS is THE WORD of the SOURCE. THE WORD - The PLAY where this ASHORE and that BEYOND of the HARMONY is eternally tuned to exist in the SYMPHONY of ALL, flowing and floating like in the "Ballet piece of Joseph Strauss " -the Dynamiden Waltz- with every being offering its harmonious "musical touch". (cf. The Harmony Model)

Morning, 03.12.10



ሰው በምግብ ብቻ አይኖርም....ወሎ


14. መቃብር ላይ የሚፃፍ /+++ተጨማሪ!/


መቃብር ላይ የሚፃፍ (ከርፖርተር የተገኘ)


ጥብቅ ማሳሰቢያ ሸክላን ለምትሠሩ፤
እዚህ መቃብር ላይ አፈር አትዝገኑ፡፡
ሲነድ ሲቃጠል ሲጨስ በመኖሩ፣

ሲቃጠል ለሚኖር፣
ለጀበና መሥሪያ አይሆንም አፈሩ፡፡

+++
(አንድ ከሚመለከተው የተጨመረ!
ከመቃብር በፊት)

ሰው ለመስራት ብቻ ከፍቀደ አየሩ
ክህነት ካላችሁ አሰቡ መርምሩ
ተራ ከገባችሁ ዘክሩ አስዘክሩ
ያልሆነው እንዲሆን ምከሩ ሞክሩ
ሽቀጣና ሽቀት እንዳይሆን ሃገሩ
አንድ ቀን እንደሆን አይቀር መቃ-ብሩ።

Michelle Holliday's Humanity 4.0 

15. Human DIGNITY:

21st century is the era of Liberation Movements for Human Dignity, encompassing all other Movements, to make them superfluous – non-dogmatic, non-religious and non-ethnic with the great Common Collective Will for Human Empathy!

11 0220 11 - EGYPT's Dignity Day, the Landmark for a radical break with all Tyrannies!

Thanks to Tunisia -The Heroic Pioneer of Freedom!

እንደዚህ ሆነና ...እስኪሆን ይሆናል!

Meditational

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Statement of Principle

Life is a jewel, a gift of the Absolute, which compares and equals nothing, other than its own defence and purpose:


HARMONY



Dedicated for all who suffered and lost their lives for the well-being of Ethiopia