I think this article will be a lesson to the blind reports who are failed to see the good side of the government/the leader. Instead they are more focused on telling stories about the mistakes and problems of the country by ignoring the tangible result achieved by the excellent leadership of the country. Besides for a long time the media was dominated by westerner who do not have the appetite/gut to write any positive about Africa and you have did a good job in balancing the biased report of the westerners. Moreover, if such positive reports have appeared frequently in various web Medias, it will contribute positively in building the image of the continent. Finally this article is good news for the people of Ethiopia and lovers of Ethiopia.

Now this Journalist is telling us Zenaw's goodness and his intellegence for Ethiopians, a bit irony if not insult but anyway this world is so funny including this writer, I am sorry I wouldn't say journalist-yes for some Osama Bin laden is also knows what citizins want immaginary nations they (both Meles and Osama) may be thinking of.

Did the writter read where does Ethiopia stands in the list of international transparency?

Did the writter read that Ethiopia is the only country where Gold, not money can be corrupted?

Did writer knows the salary of Meles Zenaw (1000, 10K, 100K dollars) and his private account?

Did writer knows as we speak +9 million people are suffering hunger across the country

Which corrupted officials sent to jail? Howmany of them were convicted for the corruption?

The corrupted officials including are still in power, however, yes some who tried to challenge either his position went jail and accused for corruption...non-convicted...

yes there is some construction here and there where this writter migh have visited...but do you know how much money he has been given?

People like "chigiree" will never quit from blaming brilliant people like Meles.

"The Camels will never stop going and the dogs will never stop barking on them"

This emplies that Meles Zenawi will never stop working for development and prosperity of this country, Ethiopia and the stubborn people like this one will never stop opening their mouth wide...." Thank you the new writer , you could see the real situation of cuuren Ethiopia and you will see much more progress very soon.

This is a shame to hear from this guy praising Meles. It is an insult to the majority of us. Our country is divided ethnicailly since his regime came. We fled our country because of Mass Murders taking place everywhere in the country. Of course there are a small minority of Ethiopians "Tigre's" that has benefeted from him solely because he is from the same ethnic group. And the writer also forgot the useless war with Eritrea which has costed us dearly. In summary this regime is worse than ever seen in any account and it is a matter of time when the ethnic tension explodes in Ethiopia and we will see the next Rawanada in the next decade.

It is nice to here this kind of perspective from African brothers I appreciate it.Mr Meles is a great leader ever in our history but some dont agree on it, even me in some cases but The guy is determined to change our bad side that we got it from leaders in the past.however to me nothing is more important than pulling out my people from poverty.I will be in his side and I pray day and night to my Lord to keep him in power for the coming 12 years but I dont think he will agree with my idea.

Thank you all Africa

The Intrinsic genius of PM Meles Zenawi.

Washera_2000

March 16, 2008

I was preparing for a debate at the Ethiopian Television Network in Virginia on a variety of issues including the remarks of Senator Feingold on the senate floor of the Foreign Relations Subcommitte, Human Rights Practices in Ethiopia, the upcoming Ethiopian elections and whatever crumbs are left over from HR2003, when I stumbled across a document sent to me by a friend a while back. It was a Preliminary Draft (Not for quotation) prepared by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on "African Development: Dead Ends and new Beginnings". It was a 50 pages plus draft for discussion with selected extracts of a monograph under preparation. Over 190 references were also included at the end.

It has been a while since I concluded that the PM is a hard working and very intelligent individual. I must say I was truly touched by his analyses and supportive arguments in this document and also ended up well informed by the time I completed reading it. I hope to highlight some of his impressive arguments and personal views about how to tackle this vicious cycle of poverty and bad governance in Africa. I will also include definitions of a few economic terminologies that may sound Latin for the average reader.

The thesis of his argument is that the neo-liberal paradigm of pervasiveness and efficient competitive markets to promote economic development in Africa is flawed and as a result has failed. It has made colonial Africa a weakened and predatory state (rulers extract tax for their own use) that is rife with rent-seeking (making money by manipulating the economic and/or legal environment) political economy tittering on the brink of collapse.

Neoliberalism was a right-wing libertarian political philosophy that gained ground a great deal after the stagnation crisis of the 1970s and the Developing World Debt Crisis of the 1980s. As articulated by John Williamson's Washington Consensus, it felt that government control over the economy was inefficient, corrupt or otherwise undesirable. As a result it proposed a means of transferring control of the economy from the public to the private sector. Specifically, Williamson's list included 10 points: 1) Fiscal policy discipline, 2) Reduction of public spending in education, health and infrastructure, 3) Tax reform, 4) Moderate interest rates, 5) Competitive exchange rates, 6) Trade liberalization, 7) Liberalization of inward FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), 8) Privatization of state enterprises, 9) Deregulation, and 10) Legal security for property rights. Thus the neo-liberal paradigm was put into action in many countries including South America. Its disastrous dead end in the African context has been chronicled by many respectable economists and Nobel laureates and PM Meles Zenawi proposes an alternative approach to get out of this dilemma.

He argues that the state should not be restricted to protecting individual and property rights in the form of services like the Police, Judiciary, Prison and Military (Night Watchman State), but must actively participate in the social and economic development of its citizens. Letting the market do its wonders has wondered off the target for too long. He proposes a paradigm shift (major change in certain thought patterns) to create a proper blend of norms, values and rules for a needed accelerated economic growth and social transformation. He refers to this as a Democratic Developmentalist Paradigm and backs it up with an impressive argument for the establishment of a dynamic agrarian democracy, much like the one advocated by Thomas Jefferson and help it evolve into a mature urban democracy.

He proposes to convince the developed countries to put their money where their mouth is. In this age of globalization where African countries are important as sources of transnational security threats, a breeding ground for drug trafficking and killer diseases as well as hundreds of thousands of refugees generated by failing states, it behooves the developed world to invest in his win-win proposal. He points out that pulling Africa out of its misery and into a successful democratic development will be in their basic economic interest.

PM Meles goes into specific steps to follow to accomplish this, like removing the vertical linkages of patronage in the rural areas, political reforms to remove the predatory state (rulers extract tax for their own use) and overcome rural marketing problems, promote civic engagement through horizontal networks and associations, promote civic virtues and democratic pluralism including religious and ethnic pluralism. Although the skeptics may question his methods, he strongly believes that is where the NGOs and donors (FDI) should direct their resources.

Not only does he believe that the doctrine of "There Is No Alternative (TINA)" be replaced by "There Are Thousands of Alternatives (TATA)" precept, but that his highly articulated vision is the best among such alternatives and with the right leadership that works toward a global and a solid domestic developmental coalition, the African state can be rebuilt and the pervasive rent-seeking phenomenon drastically reduced.

PM Meles expostulates convincingly that in an environment where most (3/4) of the agricultural production is non–tradable and leads to low income, production constraints and limited growth of rural farm and non-farm income is the rule. He proposes a mechanism for removing this demand constraint through increased productivity through technological change and decreasing transaction costs. This in turn will lead to greater sale outside the locality in greater volume and/or value which boosts farm income. The non-farm activities will get a shot in the arm and further increase demand for agricultural products completing this virtuous (not vicious) cycle. To break the dead end that has been made worse by the failed neo-liberal agenda, PM Meles proposes a massive investment in rural physical infrastructure, in market support institutions, in institutions for technological capability accumulation and government intervention to save agriculture for the credit crunch ( a state in which there is a short supply of cash to lend to businesses and consumers and interest rates are high) that it finds itself in.

He chronicles how financial institutions have failed to perform their task of mobilizing savings and directing them toward profitable investments. He goes on to detail the issue of high interest rates, high incidence of non-performing loans, excess liquidity and low savings to accounts that has made them risk averse because they are operating almost in the dark. The absence of tax returns, proper audit reports or the absence of proper information on businesses has made them skittish about loans to ordinary businesses or the average guy. The financial sector liberalization as advocated by the neo-liberal dogma did little to resolve the problem and Meles believes that it contributed even more to the above dilemma. The liquidity in some banks was so excessive that some banks have been known to turn away savers.

Mr Jerry Okungu,

How could you write this artice while staying only two nights in Ethiopia?

Those blind people like you who only look at the empty buildings and write without doing detail studies are the ones who failed the poor African people.

Mr Okungu, did u really to see and understand the GDP of Ethiopia? For you information, the GDP of Ethiopia is lessthan that of Somalia, a county who hasn't government in the last 15 or so years.

Mr Okungu, those buildings that you have seen are built by the looted money of the Ethiopia people.

Mr, didn't see you that many, many people of Addis Abeba are still sleeping under bridges and drainage culverts?

I am sorry for you

What we should all be clear about is that Ethiopia is a developing country, and a least developed and at the bottom of the rung, at that. This being the case, it should have been apparent to the oppositions that there are overwhelming diverse and complex problems hindering progress in the political, social and economic sectors. As shown in this writing, most of the criticisms leveled at the government by the oppositions are lies, fabricated, exaggerated, etc. These criticisms emanate from a limited number of vociferous persons who, strangely enough find time, besides working to earn their living, to churn out a flood of articles. How do they do that? Simple, most of them do not conduct research; they sit down and cook articles, not supported by facts but based on their biases, fabrications and repeated ad infinitum boring allegations. What they seem not to realize is the fact that the country and the system of governance have reached a point of no return. They have made themselves irrelevant and lost credibility and respectability. Generally, people judge others by what they are themselves. They are guided by ‘what would I have said or done if I were in the shoes of the person(s) being judged.’ It reflects what kind of mind set they have. Some are positive: understanding, sympathetic, supportive and give the person(s) concerned the benefit of the doubt. Others are negative: selfish, jealous, suspicious, unforgiving, revengeful, etc. Apparently, many of the persons in the oppositions fall under the second category. It seems that they have lost their faculty for reasoning. They are very angry having lost power, wealth, integrity and dignity. They are hopeless; no amount of logical reasoning could enable them to see and accept truth and reality. Some of those in the oppositions are victims of heresy. They have never been to Ethiopia during the rule of the incumbent government. They have been mislead by the diehards who are blinded by their prejudices, jealousies and hunger for power. Their knowledge of the current situation in Ethiopia is based on the oppositions’ versions and therefore one-sided, i.e., biased and based on wrong and deceitful information. Even many of those who visited the country and observed first hand deny of any progress achieved. The exceptions keep quite either to deprive credit to the government or for fear of being labeled traitors, Weyannes, hodamoch, etc. What is surprising is that some of the Diaspora Ethiopians return from visits to Ethiopia with horror stories of poverty as if they have not only seen it but experienced it themselves or their relatives or their friends before emigrating. As the saying goes, ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ There is no magic wand for creating instant democracy. It takes time for democracy to take root, especially in the diversified traditional Ethiopian society comprising about 87 ethnic groups. Contrary to what the oppositions allege, significant progress has been made in politics, democratization and related areas. Of course, as in other governments anywhere, mistakes have been made. Innocent people have suffered. The oppositions are partly to blame for misinforming and inciting students and others to achieve their agenda. Had it not been for their obstacles the process of democratization and therefore governance and respect for human rights, would have, by now, attained higher levels. Sustainable peace and stability are essential preconditions for enhancing the democratization process and improving the grinding poverty of the Ethiopian people. Anything that undermines these preconditions cannot and should not be tolerated. Individuals or groups who are guided by and practice ‘the end justifies the means’ and undermine the peace and stability, and therefore the development process that is underway in the country, should be considered enemies of the people and human rights violators. The poor country and people cannot afford further distractions by such elements.