August 21, 2006
A tale of two books
Here's a round-up I just did for GlobalVoices about Ethiopian bloggers' reaction on the release of two publications - one by prime minister Meles Zenawi, the other by elected-then-imprisoned Addis mayor Dr Berhanu Nega.
Meles' report 'African Development: Dead Ends and New Beginnings' can be downloaded here [PDF of the first draft - English]. I'm looking forward to reading it over the next few days (seriously, no irony intended, it should be interesting, especially the idea of donors being 'rent-payers').
You will need to be an Amharic reader if you want to get into into Berhanu's book The Dawn of Freedom (PDF of the Introduction - Amharic). Is anyone out there translating it into English?
Fortune had a great piece of analysis of both books yesterday, headlined 'It was never this clear in Ethiopian politics'.
Up to now, it is amazing how little has been written about the actual policies of the main parties fighting it out on the streets and in parliament. Understandably, most of the media coverage and the political rhetoric has focused on the rallies, the clashes, the killings and the arrests. The unsigned Fortune article, however, says these new new publications are notable because they set out the a clear ideological divide at the heart of all the violence.
This is in reality a centre-left direction that Meles clearly wants to see the Revolutionary Democrats take the country to. This is similar to the social democratic parties in Europe who moderately accept market-driven allocations of resources with a significant public sector role within the thriving private sector. They favour state intervention in the economy in matters they believe pertain to public interest.For anyone who reads Meles' paper, his enthusiasm for these ideals and his out-and-out suspicion of the private sector is evident.
Although he supports limited state interventions in the economy when only the private sector fails, Berhanu's well-articulated and coherent book represents the voices of the opposition camp... There is an element in Berhanu's book that advocates individualism - that is contrary to the collective rights of nationalities as strongly advicated by the Revolutionary Democrats - that takes his views to the centre-right...
If you ignore the fact that one of these voices is of a man in Kaliti prison - and if you forget June and November last year - this could almost be an excerpt from a debate in any left-to-right swinging parliament across the democratic world.
Posted by aheavens at August 21, 2006 4:02 PM
Comments
That is what you, Meles, and donors would like to believe to tranquilize your concience. That it is merely a polarized idiological divide, a blip in the "democratic" process right?
Well here is what 70 million plus whose wishes should have superceeded everyone elses believe.
Our country is sold for neo-colonialists and our resources are looted by ethnic oligarcs, Our people are dying of poverty hunger and disease, our dignity is stripped, our voices are violently stifled, the donor community are having to do a face saving of sorts. Meles is in a bind because funds are short. People like you pull these kinds of analysis out of their butts and paint a pretty picture, a merely polarized process that only needs to be mitigated. Vicki Huddlestink takes this fodder and creates her own reality and cash flow is restored. More tanks and machine guns while people die. And you get to sleep at night.
I mean nobody died or suffered between election and now Right? It is just an expectedly flawed democracy
Posted by: uhuru at August 21, 2006 5:40 PM
Good to have you back Andrew, missed your blog!
Just noticed that the link to the PDF of Meles' report is broken - I got it from the source, looks like you have an extra a href in there. For anyone else looking for it in the meantime, the link should be http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/ipd/pub/Meles-Extracts2-AfTF2.pdf.
Posted by: Terri at August 21, 2006 9:18 PM
Welcome back Andrew;
Good that you've picked up on The Books. I haven't read Birhanu's contribution but here is what I made of Meles' - http://amecherant.blogspot.com/2006/08/meles-economist.html
Posted by: nathan abraha at August 21, 2006 10:21 PM
it's not about ideology. it's about political survival.
Posted by: gio at August 22, 2006 4:17 AM
"this could almost be an excerpt from a debate in any left-to-right swinging parliament across the democratic world."
Andrew the conclusion u gave (I copy pasted it above)is totaly wrong. Fortune mentioned only one or two paragraphs of what it is written in the whole book. Its poor reporting from you to post it as if like the book have nothing on it and we just are jumping with exitement only becouse the book got out of the jail. The most sadest part u didnt read single word from it.
this link at least help u 2 know somthin
http://seminawork.blogspot.com/2006/08/power-of-single-book.html
Posted by: Gebeyehu at August 23, 2006 8:39 AM