Hunger or famine games in Ethiopia?
USAID says there is no
famine in Ethiopia, only hunger (a/k/a “severe malnutrition”, “food
insecurity”, “food scarcity”, “food insufficiency”, “food deprivation”, “severe
food shortages”, “chronic dietary deficiency”, “endemic malnutrition”, etc.)
caused by El Nino drought.
I say there is famine, as in F-A-M-I-N-E!
In countless
commentaries over the past 8 years, I have called attention to the occurrence,
recurrence and flareup of famine in different parts of Ethiopia.
Is there or is
there not famine in Ethiopia in April 2016?
The only
people in Ethiopia who could answer that question are the people who are facing
the Black Horseman of the Apocalypse straight in the eye.
They have
spoken.
The people of
Tigray have told USAID they are facing FAMINE as never before.
A couple of weeks ago, the people of Tigray told Jeremy Konyndyk,
Director, USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance that they are
teetering on the verge of total collapse.
Konyndyk
summarized what the people of Tigray told him:
This drought is massive.
It is the worst drought in 50 years in
most of this country… When we were out in Tigray yesterday we spoke with many
people living in communities there who told us this was
the worst drought they had ever seen in their lives — worse in many cases than
the conditions that their areas had seen in 1983, 1984. And
yet we also know that the outcomes of this drought don’t need to look like the
outcomes in 1984…” (Emphasis added.)
What were the
“outcomes” in 1984?
In 1984, 32 years ago, Ethiopians in Tigray region
and other parts of northern Ethiopia faced “biblical
famine”.
Today even
though the people of Tigray are telling Konyndyk and USAID that they are facing
“the worst drought they had ever seen in their lives” and by Konyndyk’s
admission is the “worst drought in 50 years, Konyndyk and USAID adamantly
refuse to use the “F”amine word to describe their catastrophic condition.
Is Konyndyk
willfully ignorant or simply turning a deaf ear to the people of Tigray?
There is no
question Konyndyk would have heard the same story if he had visited various
parts of Oromia, Afar, Amhara and SNNPR regions devastated by the
“drought”/famine.
Frankly, I do
not know why Konyndyk did not go to the other regions.
Perhaps the
T-TPLF would not allow Konyndyk to go to the other regions. The T-TPLF
probably thought Konyndyk would go to Tigray, listen to the T-TPLF line
about “very severe malnutrition”, do a photo op and come back and do a press
conference at the “5 star” Marriott Hotel in Addis Ababa.
But the people of Tigray would not lie for the
T-TPLF by saying they are facing “very severe malnutrition”. They told him the
real deal. They ARE suffering from biblical FAMINE!
Wouldn’t it
make sense for Konyndyk, the chief U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, to visit
at least a couple of the other regions as part of a more complete
fact-gathering effort?
Perhaps
Konyndyk did not bother to go to the other regions because he believed that if
you have seen one “drought”/famine, you’ve seen ‘em all!
Konyndyk
and USAID talk about DROUGHT, DROUGHT, DROUGHT…?
But they never ask and answer in public the
logical next question: What are the effects and consequences of DROUGHT?
Konyndyk
glossed over the question in his interview. He just said the “outcomes of this
[2016] drought don’t need to look like the outcomes in 1984.”
What exactly
were the “outcomes” of the “drought” in 1984?
Konyndyk says
Ethiopia is facing “massive drought” today, the worst in 50 years!
A massive drought in 1984-85 caused
massive famine in Ethiopia. But Konyndyk wants us to believe a massive drought
in 2016 is just a massive drought?
“Oh! What a
tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
There was a
time when USAID used to be able to tell the truth about drought/famine in
Ethiopia.
That was three
decades ago! How time flies and the Big Lie flies with time.
USAID in its “Final Disaster Report: Ethiopia Drought/
Famine, FY 1985-1986” (p. iii) told it like it was:
In 1984, the world came to know, through the nightly television news broadcasts, the tragic plight
of the famine victims in Ethiopia. By the end of 1984, with nearly 8 million people In Ethiopia considered at risk of death
due to starvation, appeals were made for 1.3 million metric tons of
food, in addition to millions of dollars in other emergency relief supplies.
The response was tremendous. (Emphasis added.)
In April 2016,
Konyndyk says:
It is the worst drought in 50 years in most of
this country… The figure, the estimate of the people in need of relief are
about, well they exceed 10 million and that’s the current
projections. We expect that the period over the summer will be
the worst period…” (Emphasis added.)
Even though
Ethiopia is in “the worst drought in 50 years”, Konyndyk gags and chokes
as he tries to utter the “F”amine word.
“How
inexpressible is the meanness of being a hypocrite! How horrible is it to be a
mischievous and malignant hypocrite?”, quizzically ruminated Voltaire.
How come the world does not see on “nightly
television news broadcasts” bloated and emaciated Ethiopian children ravaged by
famine?
The answer is
simple: The T-TPLF has stonewalled and sandbagged all information from the
famine-stricken areas.
Any journalist
who reports from the famine-stricken areas will be charged under the T-TPLF’s
bogus “anti-terrorism” law.
But it is not
only journalists who are gagged and censored by the T-TPLF.
The T-TPLF has also delivered stern warnings and threats to
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that if they use the “F”amine or
“S”tarvation words or phrases like “children are dying on a daily basis,” “the
policies of the government in Ethiopia are partially to blame” in their public
statements, they will be kicked out on their tails before they can say
Jack!
When will we
begin to see a few smuggled photos of bloated and emaciated Ethiopian children
famine victims on “nightly television news broadcasts”?
Simple. As
soon as the T-TPLF allows the international media free access to the
famine-stricken areas.
Konyndyk would
have done American taxpayers a great service if he had brought along with him
international journalists to visit Tigray region and other parts of the country
to freely report on the famine/”drought”.
Is it too much to ask that USAID operate with
minimal transparency in a country where it claims to be the Second Coming?
Konyndyk sat at the Addis Ababa “5-star” Marriott
and fielded softball questions from representatives of international media: (How ironic! Talking about starving people hanging out at a “5 star
hotel”? WOW!!!)
Paul Shem
(Associated Press/ Washington Post): “A lot of aid agencies were saying about a
month or two ago that there’s a chance of the food pipeline breaking down… ?”
Konyndyk: “On the food pipeline issue… We’ve also
been talking with the Ethiopian government who are very keen to avoid that… I’ll defer to them on what their plans would be
for covering any break [in the pipeline]…”
Really!?
Eskinder (VOA
Horn of Africa Service): “I see here that the HRD [Humanitarian Requirements
Document] will be updated by the Ethiopian government and its partners.
Does this mean that, we already know that there are 10.2 million people in need
of emergency food assistance?
Konyndyk: “We’re still, ultimately the [Ethiopian] government sets that number and
we’re supporting the government in that process.”
Really?!
Just like
USAID supported the propagation of the bogus 10 percent annual economic growth
figure fabricated by the “government”?
Andualem Sisay
(National Media Group): “My question is about lasting solution for such
humanitarian crisis. We’ve been in such a situation every three and four
or five years, so what is your suggestion for a lasting solution to such
crises?”
Konyndyk: “That’s a great and a really important
question… [T]his is not an every four or five-year drought. This is
an every 50 years drought… This is an extraordinarily strong global El
Nino… Ethiopia so far has had some of the most
severe weather impacts of that, but southern Africa is suffering
quite a lot as well now.” (Emphasis added.)
Really!?
Ethiopia is El Nino’s chosen one this time around?
By the way, USAID knows how to synchronize talking
points. USAID Administrator Gayle Smith said exactly the same thing in a recent interview: “This phenomenon called
El Nino, [ ] is striking hard at a number of parts of the world, [but] nowhere harder than in Ethiopia.” (Emphasis added.)
They all
babble from the same talking points!
Why can’t the
various members of the international media go out in the drought/famine
affected areas and report on their own?
Why must they
be spoon-fed information sitting comfortably at a “5-star hotel”?
Konyndyk sits
at the “5-star” Addis Ababa Mariott and showers his agency, the T-TPLF, the
U.N. and the other partners with self-serving commendations and complements on
a job well done.
Re: the
T-TPLF, Konyndyk says, “I want to convey our thanks at the top to the
government of Ethiopia for hosting a very useful visit and for the broader
partnership that we’ve had together for many many years and the strong
partnership that we have together on this response to the drought.”
“Many, many
years and the strong partnership” with the T-TPLF!
I am cool with
that.
Barack Obama visited Ethiopia in July 2015 and
declared the ruling T-TPLF regime (the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean
People’s Liberation Front, an organization currently classified as a terrorist
group by the Global Terrorism Database, which claimed
to have won the May 2015 parliamentary elektion by 100 percent) “democratic”.
I guess that’s
what strong partners do for each other. Lie through the teeth for each other.
If Barack Obama can stand in front of the world
and call the T-TPLF democratic, no one should be surprised when Konyndyk
stands in front of the world and denies there is FAMINE in Ethiopia.
There is an
old Ethiopian saying, “Fish stinks from the head.”
Konyndyk
acknowledges, “Thanks as well to our partners from the United Nations and the
NGO community who are doing really tremendous and heroic work supporting the
response to this drought.”
Wouldn’t these
words sound more convincing if they were said by the international media?
USAID says the
cause of “hunger” (a/k/a “very severe malnutrition”, etc.) in Ethiopia is
drought caused by “El Nino” (warming of the ocean surface resulting in a shift
in atmospheric circulation and reduced rainfall).
Not only is El Nino the cause, it seems, if one is
to believe USAID Adminstrator Gayle E.Smith , El Nino is sent by
Providence to punish Ethiopia.
I was so incensed by Smith’s nonsensical statement
that I wrote a letter asking her why she thought Ethiopia was
singled out by El Nino and struck harder than any other country on the planet.
I also asked
Smith if she believed poor governance, lack of planning and organization by the
T-TPLF is an actual cause or at least a partial proximate cause for the
“drought”, or at least an aggravating factor in the causation, spread and/or
persistence of the current “drought” in Ethiopia.
Smith passed my letter off to her assistant
administrator to respond. In his letter, the assistant administrator tried to finesse me with bureaucratic
mumbo jumbo: “First, we acknowledge that food shortages and livestock losses
related to the drought are having a direct and significant impact on people’s
ability to thrive.”
What happens
to people who cannot “thrive” because they have absolutely nothing to eat?
I say the root cause of the persistence of famine
in Ethiopia is the depraved indifference of “El T-TPLF”.
El T-TPLF
has been in the saddle of power in Ethiopia for the last 25 years. In May
2015 El T-TPLF claimed to have won 100 percent of the seats in “parliament.
In 2010, El
T-TPLF claimed to have won 99.6 percent of the seats in “parliament”.
El T-TPLF has
been in total control of Ethiopia for the past 6 years after rigging elections.
What has the
T-TPLF done to prevent “very severe malnutrition” in Ethiopia over the past 6
years?
Not a doggone
thing!
What has the
T-TPLF done to deal with the effects of a “very severe malnutrition”?
Not a doggone
thing!
What the T-TPLF
has done is siphon off humanitarian aid and spirit it out of the country into
its off shore accounts.
What the
T-TPLF has done is stretch out its begging bowls year after year for
international alms and handouts.
USAID and T-TPLF in Denial-istan, Ethiopia
The T-TPLF and
USAID have entered into a silent conspiracy of famine denial in Ethiopia.
They give
self-congratulatory and self-laudatory interviews from Denial-istan, Ethiopia
and expect the world to buy their lies, damned lies and statistics.
The T-TPLF (the
“LF” in T-TPLF stands for “Lie Factory”) has been denying the occurrence of
famine for at least eight years.
When the
T-TPLF leaders were in the bush, famine was the all-important issue and topic.
They claimed famine alleviation and prevention is their be-all and end all.
There is no point in fighting if the people are
finished. This is the saddest time in my life. I have seen many desperate
times. But none of them is as desperate as this one. Because the people I am fighting for are dying because of lack of
food. They are hardworking but because of lack of support,
because of lack of scientific agricultural practices these people are dying.
Because of no fault of themselves. That is the toughest thing for a fighter to
face. (Emphasis added.)
(Yeah, right! In 1984-86, Meles and his crew
siphoned off tens of millions of dollars earmarked for famine relief in the
Tigray region to buy weapons and enrich themselves. Read all about it in
my commentary “TPLF Licensed
to Steal”. That’s what I call easy money for a “tough fighter”.)
In August 2008, 17 years after sitting in power,
Meles Zenawi waxed philosophical telling Time
Magazine, “Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so
long, it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things
occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch — emergencies, but
no famines.”
Meles Zenawi’s “Minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development”, Mitiku Kassa, echoed his boss stating, “In the Ethiopian
context, there is no hunger, no famine… It is baseless [to claim famine],
it is contrary to the situation on the ground. It is not evidence-based. The
government is taking action to mitigate the problems.”
In 2011, Meles Zenawi pompously declared, “We have devised a plan which will enable us to produce surplus and
be able to feed ourselves by 2015 without the need for food aid.” In
other words, famine, starvation, severe malnutrition, etc. will be banned from
Ethiopia for eternity!
In January 2012, CNN asked Meles Zenawi:
“Ethiopia is facing a major famine. How can you justify spending on a military
operation in another country when your own people are starving?” Zenawi
responded, “There is no famine in Ethiopia as all humanitarian organizations
will tell you. There is a serious drought, but we are able to
keep our people fed….”
The drought
was considered in some parts of the region to be one of the worst in 60 years,
affecting more than 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa. The month before
the official drought declaration, USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network
(FEWS NET) warned: ‘This is the most severe food-security emergency in the
world today.’
In December 2015, T-TPLF “Deputy Prime Minister”
Demeke Mekonen said, “It is obvious that the foreign media works with
different bodies of special interest. There is no such thing as famine in Ethiopia
these days.”
On April 11, 2016, USAID reported, “The projected level of
relief food assistance for [Ethiopia in] 2016 is 10.2 million people.”
Does that mean
10.2 million people have nothing to eat and if handouts do not arrive on time,
a whole lot of them will die?!
Such is
T-TPLF-USAID broadcasting from Denial-istan, Ethiopia. No famine! No
starvation! No Nothing. Only El Nino-caused drought.
I will never forget what Meles Zenawi said in his very first press conference after parking
himself comfortably in the saddles of absolute power in 1991. Meles said he would consider
his “government a success if Ethiopians were able to eat three meals a day.”
Today, over 10
million Ethiopians are facing famine in the eye.
Today, the
T-TPLF bosses and their cronies are living high on the hog.
Does the
T-TPLF leadership today ponder on the ultimate litmus test of success set by
its founder and visionary leader?
The T-TPLF
leadership today does not give a rat’s behind about its dead visionary leader’s
dreams of three meals a day or the millions of Ethiopian dying from FAMINE!
That is a FACT!
But the famine
is getting worse by the day in Ethiopia. Untold number are dying every day
hidden from the world.
The number of Ethiopian districts identified as
suffering a humanitarian emergency increased 18 percent to 219
from December to March as the impact of drought worsened, the
United Nations said.
Consecutive
missed rainy seasons last year caused by the ocean-warming effects of El Nino
have left about a fifth of Ethiopia’s approximately 100 million population in
need of food aid. A total of 443 districts were categorized as being in at
least some difficulty, up from 429 in December, the UN’s humanitarian office
said Tuesday in an e-mailed bulletin.
Of those, 219 areas are defined by a “very severe
lack of food security,” which may include “excess mortality, very high and increasing
malnutrition, and irreversible livelihood asset depletion,” according to the government.
Ethiopia comprises about 800 districts, or woredas. (Emphasis added.)
“Very severe
lack of food security” sounds like, you know, F-A-M-I-N-E to me.
What could be
worse than “very severe lack of food security”?
Very, very,
very, very… severe lack of food security?
The “very
severe lack of food security” could produce “excess mortality”. I think
that is a nice way of saying the famine (or is it drought?) is going to wipe
out a whole lot of Ethiopians.
George Orwell
said, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
The USAID,
T-TPLF and the UN are engaging in semantic gymnastics to make the 2016 famine
look like 10 milloin Ethiopians are missing mid-afternoon snack.
Why are USAID,
the U.N and others lying through the teeth about the FAMINE in Ethiopia?
Why?
In that
commentary, I complained about how Meles Zenawi and his international
supporters and international poverty pimps have been able to play public
relations and semantic games with famine and starvation in Ethiopia.
I get it!
It is
embarrassing for a regime wafting on the euphoria of a bogus “10-11 percent
economic growth over the past 10 years” to admit famine.
If USAID and
their international “partners” begin to use the “F” word, then the U.S.
Congress may have to conduct hearings into the causes and consequences. That
means accountability for USAID.
The
international press would be demanding access and accountability, and all hell
could break loose.
Martin Plaut in a recent article in News Statesman argued, “Ethiopia’s “biblical” famines of 1973 – 74 and
1984 – 85 left hundreds of thousands dead, probably around 200,000 and 400,000
respectively. The first resulted in the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie;
the second contributed to the end of the Marxist regime of Mengistu Haile
Mariam.”
The T-TPLF
knows it could share the fate of previous Ethiopians governments if the people
find out the scope and magnitude of the FAMINE today.
That is why
USAID and the T-TPLF react reflexively and defensively whenever the “F” word is
mentioned. The T-TPLF lackeys froth at the mouth condemning the
international press for making “baseless” claims of famine, and castigate them
for perpetuating “negative images” of the country merely because the
international press insists on finding out verifiable facts about the food
situation in the country.
USAID famine/hunger/ drought semantic games
USAID’s
messaging and talking points on drought/famine in Ethiopia are carefully
calculated to insulate and immunize the T-TPLF from any legal, moral and
political responsibility for its depraved indifference to the spreading famine
in Ethiopia.
USAID and the
other international partners know full well the consequences of openly talking
about FAMINE.
But USAID
needs to know two simple facts:
1) Ethiopians are not as dumb as they look. You
can stand up and tell them their lives under T-TPLF dictatorship is a
democracy. But do not mistake their stony silence for stupidity. Do not insult
their intelligence. Do not equate being hungry and
poor with being stupid and dumb.
2) A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
But famine by any other name (“very severe malnutrition”, “El Nino
caused drought”, etc.) is the bitter fruit of tyranny. (Is “very
severe malnutrition” a kinder and gentler word for famine?)
USAID is free
to defend its T-TPLF partners, cover up and tell lies for them and do whatever
they like. Emile Zola said, “If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it
will but grow.”
The seeds that
sustain life may not be growing in Ethiopia, but there is a forest of truth
about the T-TPLF and USAID that is growing like weeds.
How shameless of USAID not to mention a single
(not one) fact about the failure of governance and the failure to adequately
plan for famine/drought mitigation?
How shameless of USAID not to mention the death of
a single person (one person) from the 50 year-drought!!!
USAID thinks
it can pull the wool over the eyes of Ethiopians by feeding them a steady diet
of feel-good propaganda:
Thanks as well
to our partners from the United Nations and the NGO community who are doing
really tremendous and heroic work supporting the response to this drought.
This drought
is unquestionably a disaster. It is not necessarily a catastrophe.
It is entirely
possible to ensure that we do not see severe, catastrophic outcomes due to this
drought.
We have seen
very clear leadership by the government of Ethiopia in tackling this
drought. I saw across the board a strong, strong political will,
strong commitment to ensuring that this does not become a catastrophe.
[We can lick
the famine in 2016] because we have capacity and expertise that we did
not have 30 years ago. We have techniques and technologies we did not
have. We have specialized feeding products.
We’ve been
working with the government. The government has stepped up in a big
way. So there is a lot being done, there’s a lot that’s been achieved,
there’s a lot that’s been in place.
USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team to help prevent the drought in
Ethiopia from becoming a full-blown humanitarian
catastrophe. (Is a “full-blown humanitarian catastrophe” FAMINE?!
Why can’t USAID use the word FAMINE? “The 2016 drought in Ethiopia could become a full blown FAMINE.”
J’accuse USAID!
USAID’s
approach to famine prevention and mitigation in Ethiopia is HANDOUTS and MORE
HANDOUTS.
The Indian economics Nobel laureate Amartya Sen
argued that the best way to avert famines is by institutionalizing democracy
and strengthening human rights: “No famine has ever taken place in the history
of the world in a functioning democracy” because democratic governments “have
to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentive to
undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophes.” Famines are kept
hidden from public view by jailing opposition leaders, journalists and civic society
advocates who could sound the alarm over an impending famine. That isexactly what is happening in Ethiopia today!
Barack Obama
last July stood up in Addis Ababa and declared the T-TPLF is a “democratic
government.” In his defense, he did not say a “functioning” democracy.
A non-functioning democracy is a thugmocracy. (That is what you
get when you cross a thugocracy with democracy or when thugs hijack democracy.)
The T-TPLF is
a thugmocracy.
The truth
about famine in Ethiopia is occasionally told by honest members of the
international donors and loaners.
In 2011, Wolfgang Fengler, a lead economist for
the World Bank, in a refreshingly honest moment for an international
banker said, “The famine in the Horn of Africa is a result of artificially high
prices for food and civil conflict than natural and environmental causes. This crisis is manmade. Droughts have occurred over and again, but
you need bad policymaking for that to lead to a famine.” (Emphasis
added.)
In other
words, it is bad and poor governance that is at the core of the famine problem
in Ethiopia, not drought, El Nino or El Nina.
Penny
Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, after visiting Ethiopia observed:
“Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution. If communities have
irrigation for crops, grain stores, and wells to harvest rains then they can
survive despite what the elements throw at them.”
Martin Plaut,
BBC World Service News Africa editor explained that the food “crisis [in
Ethiopia] is in part the result of policies designed to keep farmers on the
land, which belongs to the state and cannot be sold.”
So the obvious questions are:
Why does a
regime that has rejected socialism and is presumably committed to a free market
economy insist on complete state ownership of land?
Why is there
not an adequate system of irrigation for crops, grain storages and wells to
harvest rains throughout the country?
What is the
T-TPLF’s food security policy for Ethiopia?
Meles Zenawi
said Ethiopia will not need food aid by 2015? Is that T-TPLF’s food policy?
The ‘Great
Famine of 1983-86’ was exacerbated by the ill-conceived policies of the
Derg. Because of climatic changes, the drought of that period was bound to be
major, but under other circumstances its effects might have been mitigated
through effective policies and timely foreign disaster relief. But the
Ethiopian [Derg] regime seemed more interested in pursuing a political
agenda of statist control rather than a strategy designed to achieve food
security.
Today, the
T-TPLF is more concerned about a political agenda of total statist land
ownership and land grabbing and land giveaways than a strategy designed
to achieve food security by ensuring land security.
USAID cannot
save El T-TPLF from accountability for famine in Ethiopia by blaming El Nino.
J’accuse USAID!
USAID! Stop
insulting the intelligence of the people of Ethiopia as you watch them perish
in famine.
Man up USAID!
If it looks
like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, IT MUST BE A DUCK!
If it looks
like famine, feels like famine and kills like famine, IT MUST BE FAMINE.
That is food
for thought at USAID.
I will make
USAID an offer they can’t refuse:
If USAID stops telling lies about the
non-existence of famine in Ethiopia, I will stop telling the truth about
USAID’s El Nino and severe malnutrition lies in Ethiopia.
Deal?!
No comments:
Post a Comment