In reference to your article, Ethiopia: Reflection on Haile Selassie, I would like to give the following comments:

The article insensitively hypes and glorifies Hailesillassie. Hailesilassie may have been famous in the outside World. But, in his own country, he was a blood-sucking despot. He enslaved the majority of the people of Ethiopia by taking away their land and giving it to his cronies and blood relatives who became absentee landlords. The absenttee landlords thus enslaved the great majority of the rural people. The peasants were forced to till the land and give the fruit of their labor to the landlords. The landlords held wives and children of the peasants captives for housework.

During the war against the Italians, Hailesillassie did not stand by the brave Ethiopian patriotic fighters. Many of the patriots died in the battles for their country whereas Haileilassie himself fled to Great Britain with members of his family and cronies.

On the whole, most ills of today´s Ethiopia have their roots in Hailessilassie past tyrannical rules of about 50 years.

Hailesilassie was simply a criminal and ought to have stood before the International Court of Justice if he were alive today.

What a pity that Haile Selassie, to this day, wasn't fullsy scrutinized. He was a ruthless dictator, on whose watch, Ethiopia was doomed to decades of stagnation despite its enormous potential.

Haile Selassie and his cronies are responsible for the dismal state of affair in one of the oldest Nations of the World. Numerous investors were discouraged frm investing in the Nation due to the policy of Haile selassie and his blood sucking circle of cronies. Who along with the Church owned more than half of the land in Ethiopia. The feudal system benefitted these rascals. I agree with the previous blogger. how about the billions he stole from Ethiopia. History will judge him as a dimunitive arrogant ruthless dictators who claimed divinity. I blame the British for putting him on the Throne after he cowardly left the Nation!

I think the article focusses on the positive aspects of Haile Selassie's legacy. As it does not go to details I do not blame the author. However, I differ with the two comments that insued. We in Africa always attempt to blame the past leaders for what is happening today. We should judge our past leaders in their own context. When Haile Silassie came to power he was one of the Japanizers/modernizers of Ethiopia. He was a reformer. Remember, be it Haile Silassie or Minilik, Yohannes or Tewodros, non of them were "educated" to be leaders. The only education was literacy in Amharic language, except that Haile Silassie is better as he speaks French. We are talking about a Feudal society. I am surprised when one of the comments referred to not allowing investment. For me the seeds of investment in Ethiopia started during Haile Silassie. As did his predecesors Haile Silassie might have not been enthusiastic to have the country overwhelmed by foreign investors. His dream was to Ethiopianize every aspect of the society. Do you know that Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Electric Light and Power Authority, Ethiopian Telecommunication Authority etc were established and flourished during his time. If you go to this institutions today you may find out they are still where he has left them 34 years ago. This is the development our generation achieved since His downfall. Cheers!

It is a pity that there are folks who don't do any comparative assesment of Ethiopia's economic performance relative to those of the Allied forces soon after the Second World War. A Nation which was a founding member of the League of Nations and United Nations should have achieved a lot more. Gemany and much of Europe were in ruins after the War. Look what they have achieved due to a transparent market oriented policy. No govt owned enterprise( Ethiopian Airlines, ETC) would have accomplished the monumental task of rebuilding Germany. What made Germany was the fruit of hard work and market economy and US investments. Haile was approached by numerous investors to open up the economy. He adamantly refused to let foreign investors who looked up to Ethiopia positively. When the Germans asked for hundreds of thousands of workes to man their bustling industries, Haile refused to meet their demand. Today, millions of Turks are ripping the benefit. So much for his accomplishment.

I bet ya Menilik, despite his lack of formal education like that of Sellasie, would have achieved a lot more than that dimuinitive ( according to the Economist Magazine) Dictator, who imbezzled billions from his subjects.

WHAT SURPRISES ME IS WHEN I LISTEN BOB MARLEY SONG FOR HAILESELASSIE! AND NOW TEDROS KASSAHUN/TEDY AFRO IS DOING THE SAME...REALY BOTH OF THEM HAD NO ENOUGH INFORMATION ABOUT THAT DICTATOR ,FIRST AND FORMOST HAILESLASIE DIDN'T SATAND BY THE GRAET ETHIOPIAN PATRIOTC FIGHTERS. MANY OF THE PATRIOTS DIED IN THE BATTLES FOR THEIR COUNTRY WHERAS "MAJESTY" HIMSELF FLED TO GRAET BRITAIN WITH MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY.

HOW CAN YOU THINK OF ELECTRICITY,AIRLINES,UNIVERSITY,.NOTHING IS MORE ..DURING TEWODROS,YOHANES...WAS THAT POSSIBLE?!?!?!? WHAT ABOUT MINILIKS CONTRBUTION ABOUT SUCH TECHNOLOGIES... HAILESLASIE DID NOTHING..WHAT WE CAN SAY IS HE WAS FORTUNE.LUCKY THAT HE WAS LIVING IN THE ESABLISHEMNT OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES THROUOUT THE WORLD....BUT ALL THES THINGS ARE MINOR WHEN COMPARED TO ETHIOPIAN SOUVERIGNTY ,ETHIOPIAN PEOPLE AND GOOD GOVERNANCE...HAILESLASIE DID NOTHING CONCERNNING THESE.THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA WERE OBLIGED TO WORSHIP HAILESLASIE NEXT TO GOD!!!!!

It is a fact that is rarely acknoledged by many people who dont like Haile Silasie, that he took over a county that was extremely backward, basically stuck in stone age dispite the best effrorts of Menelik. The contry made great stride in developing on his clock. Air transportation, Universities/Education system, Parliament, etc etc. were established under his rule. Obviously, as the man aged and got older he started focusing more on international issues, and never made the kind of progress he achieved locally in the 40s and 50s. In all fairness he does not deserve to be named a "ruthless dictator". One important fact the other coments missed is that what ever land was given to "his cronis" was actually given my minelik and not Haile silasie. He actually did pretty well considering what kind of system he inherited. Under his clock slavery was baned and parliament was established moving the contry towards democracy. The biggest mistake he made was the fact that he never accepted constitutional monarchy like England and he hanged on too long to power. Also, he was not compasionate with the peoples suffering dute to famine, most likely be cause he was too old and detached from society unlike the person he was when he first assended to power. In all fairness we all must acknowledge the progress he made as slow as they were. On the other hand he obviously made huge mistakes and never lived up to a faction of his potential, leaving the country in the hands of blood thirsty murderers. Please let us be fair in judging this his legacy.

Haile Sellasie was a fake, a fraud and a phony. As for those who think Ethiopia, a Nation of 3000 years of history with its own script as being that in a stone age, I suggest check on your facts. All Human Beings are capable of achieving the level which the West has attained given transparent and good governance. Nations like Korea, where our boys shed their blood has proven that. The Koreans wernt any better than us but they were open to ideas and foreign investments. They copied their masters and look where they are now. Our despot who will be remmebered in infamy and his close knit buddies neither considered their subjects as human beings. They didn't allow any enlightment or substantial reform which made our country the laughing stock. In their narrow minds, all investors were blood sucker foreigners and were impeding efforts by them to invest in the economy of Ethiopia. There lies the fact, however one slices it.

Speaking about roads and other major infrastructure, most were built by Italians during the short lived occupation. Haile was busy building up Addis and vicinity at the expense of the rest of his Empire. And yes, he was transversing the World giving out gold nuggets to Germans and shiploads of cereal to Greece even as his subjects were suffering in abject poverty. He was claiming divinity and God gave him his wishes as Ras Tafrians are adhering to that. I am sure, the Despot is rotting in Hell, if there is one!

As per the abvove article, people may argue that Hailesellassie was a "unifier and a strong leader who kept Ethiopia an independent and non-colonized country within Africa". But the truth was knowingly or unknowingly overlooked about the the realities that took place in the late 1900s when many nations and nationalities were forced to surrender and folded into the Ethiopian Empire. Thanks but no thanks to the British government's supply of arms to Menillik and later on to Hailesellassie, Oromos, Sidamas and other nations and nationalities became tenants on their own lands, lost their identities and had to be forced to adopt to foreign culture and way of life. Hailesellassie was the extention of Menillik II who continued to suppress and mistreat the subjected peoples. Hailesellassie and Menillik used their own people from the North and made them their representatives to collect taxes and uproot the natives from their lands. The scar never healed and to this day, the people of Oromiyaa and Sidama continues struggling to become an independent country from the Abbisinian nation of the so called Ethiopia. Hailesellassie and the successive regimes of Ethiopia never changed their attitudes towards the Nation of Oromiyaa and minority nationalities in the way they govern the so called Ethiopia. Human rights abuse continued and their behavior towards other neighbours never changed. It was the same Hailesellassie who built fences around his people whenever OAU meetings took place. When many millions of Ethiopians were starving, he was dinning and wining within his palaces and never cared at all. What good is there to talk about this individual when the people were engaged in war with Italians and lost their lives to save the country, he had to run away to Britan with an excuse of getting support from the outside world. So, the editor of this article needs to read more and understand better about the realities of Hailesellassie's legacy.

thanks Qorricha Biyyaa