January 4, 2005
Ethiopundit on ethnicity
Ethiopundit has kicked off the new year with a typically thorough post on the country's high ethnic diversity.
It is difficult to comment on the whole thing as I am still digesting it.
But he does have some scary things to say on the downside, particularly relating to Ethiopia's ethnically based government, where different political parties represent different ethnic groups.
Offically, the reason for the current ethnically based government is a desire to avoid conflict and to generally provide for legitimate self determination. Unfortunately, with issues ranging from internal commerce to education, development measurably suffers. Indeed, given increasing competition for resources in a system where ethnic division is encouraged, the prospects for widespread ethnic warfare are frightening.
To me, this seems rather alarmist. But Ethiopundit is right to worry about how heavily armed the general population is. Decades of war have spread AK-47s to every corner of the country. You see them everywhere. If anything ever did kick off, it would be fairly bloody.
Posted by aheavens at January 4, 2005 3:25 AM