President Obama’s Visit to Ethiopia is “unfathomable”!

July 2, 2015

by dula

As lame duck President,  Obama is free to do anything he likes including wining and dining with any brutal dictators. He is slated to be in Ethiopia late July according to the State Department. Ethiopia like many of the African countries brings lots of baggage of crony capitalism, anti-Gay legislation, corruption, abuse of human rights, simply absolute lack of rule of law. The Washington Post called his visit to Ethiopia “Unfathomable” in its June 25th Editorial.

For example, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and his party have been in power for the last 24 years, and their legacy is dreadful, as Ethiopia is  ranked  one of the poorest and  sickest country in the world, where over 70% of the population goes hungry on daily basis. The primary reason for the dreadful situation is government control of the economy by unseasoned tribal cadres.

A young boy waiting for his mother
A young boy waiting in front of his tukul for his mother as she arrives with a body of his 4-year old dead sister who died of malnutrition in Shashemene, Ethiopia: Source: NBC & Creeping famine-is-back-to-Ethiopia
Like North Korea, the regime controls everything, spies on everybody, at the village level as well as via the Internet, even though less than 2% of the people have  Internet access. Like North Korea, the state controls all  land, telecommunication, Internet, mining, banking, and major industries directly or through cronies.

In Ethiopia, like in North Korea,  there is no freedom of the press, freedom of assembly,  no free or fair election, no property rights, and simply no rule of law when it comes to the majority of the citizens. Although the ruling party TPLF, represents less than 6% of the population, but like the old Apartheid regime rules the rest of the country through its private and ethnic army and as well as cronies.

It would have been more natural to visit only those countries respecting and applying democratic principles. Furthermore, winning and dinning with African dictators will mean nothing unless President Obama has a concrete plan and he can make it stick.

For example, he can propose a Marshall Plan for Africa like the way Truman did for Europe.  He can prompt  African leaders to spend less on the military, because the armies are primarily used to keep the one party dictatorship, and spend more on education, technology, and economic development.  Adopt a common language, privatize the economy, end corruption, respect human and property rights, rule of law, and form a stronger economic and political union.

Raging ethnic and religious tensions are primarily fueled by lack of hope and oppression. In many cases, the primary culprit for the hopeless situation are dictators that thrive and survive with U.S. support and largesse.  Some will go by the wayside without massive Western  aid. This gives President Obama tremendous leverage  to promote democratic and economic reform in the continent.  For example,  the rabid anti-Muslim and anti-homosexual  government of Ethiopia lead by  Mr. Desalegn was forced last March by Washington to rescind an anti-homosexual legislation ( Homosexuality-non pardonable) that he orchestrated  through his  rubber-stamped parliament.

The Ethiopian regime pretended for long for things that it is not in order to earn respect and foreign aid. The Ethiopian regime spends huge sums of money  to make sure the West does not notice the cruel and evil system and to portray the regime incorrectly anti-terrorist and democratic. It co-opts high level government officials such as Susan Rice, Wendy Sherman, Gayle Smith and congressional representatives by hiring one of the largest lobby groups in the world, DLP Piper.

For example, Azusa Pacific University Board unanimously withdrew a plan to award an honorary degree to Mr. Desalegn on July 31, 2014 after they learned gross human rights violations by his regime (university-withdraws-honor).  In 2003, Texas Southern University canceled a planned event with an Ethiopian government delegation for similar reason.

President Obama can rise to the challenge if he dared too. Pushing democratic values and free market economic development strategies are critical. President Truman provided a lifeline to a devastated Europe and created strong democratic allies for the U.S. The total cost for the Marshall Plan from 1948-1952 was $13.3 billion.  President Obama has the option to embark on a similar, bold political and economic agenda for Africa, while opening a huge market three times that of Europe for American businesses without beholding to dictators if he ever has any desire to leave a lasting legacy in Africa. Nonetheless, visiting a country mired with gross human rights violations may send a wrong message and tarnish his legacy.

By Dula Abdu,  dula can be reached at dula06@gmail.com  (article was adopted from previous articles from similar topics).