The Horn of Africa Current Events Thread

[thatrapsfan]

https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/files/2018/08/The-future-of-ethiopia-20180817.pdf

Transcript of De Waal's convos with Zenawi on development and Ethiopian politics Can't lie this dude was very very well-read and calculated @Karbaash @The Odum of Ala Igbo


His thoughts on the development state are especially fascinating. If he just donned a red beret, we may have brehs stanning him throughout the continent.

 

[thatrapsfan]

Ethio government issues arrest warrant for former intelligence chief

Former intelligence chief became fugitive as Ethiopia issues arrest warrant

Not sure about the validity of the source tho

@thatknickfan

Need to see more sources.

This dude was a head honcho, Tegarus may have lost power at the top but they still control their own region and security forces. I cant see how they can arrest a guy this prominent without setting off violence.

 

[Karb]

https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/files/2018/08/The-future-of-ethiopia-20180817.pdf

Transcript of De Waal's convos with Zenawi on development and Ethiopian politics Can't lie this dude was very very well-read and calculated @Karbaash @The Odum of Ala Igbo


His thoughts on the development state are especially fascinating. If he just donned a red beret, we may have brehs stanning him throughout the continent.

Dude was a great strategist and clearly very intelligent

Will add this to my reading list.

This thread has delivered some great content so far.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/files/2018/08/The-future-of-ethiopia-20180817.pdf

Transcript of De Waal's convos with Zenawi on development and Ethiopian politics Can't lie this dude was very very well-read and calculated @Karbaash @The Odum of Ala Igbo


His thoughts on the development state are especially fascinating. If he just donned a red beret, we may have brehs stanning him throughout the continent.

Zenawi's death was transformative.

 

[JDH]

https://sites.tufts.edu/reinventingpeace/files/2018/08/The-future-of-ethiopia-20180817.pdf

Transcript of De Waal's convos with Zenawi on development and Ethiopian politics Can't lie this dude was very very well-read and calculated @Karbaash @The Odum of Ala Igbo


His thoughts on the development state are especially fascinating. If he just donned a red beret, we may have brehs stanning him throughout the continent.

Ngl Meles was a visionary. TPLF's downfall started when he died. This video is pretty relevant given the recent initiatives Ethiopia has taken towards privatization of traditionally state owned companies

 

[thatrapsfan]

Dude was a great strategist and clearly very intelligent

Will add this to my reading list.

This thread has delivered some great content so far.

MZ: You are correct: our attempts to identify the basis for a developmental state in Somalia have so far completely failed, and all we can do is operate on a tactical basis. We rent loyalties of Somali factions on contracts that typically last 18 months, no longer.

 

[thatrapsfan]

AdW: You insist that Ethiopia must be a democratic developmental state. But many people would argue that while you have delivered on the development, there hasn’t been any progress on democracy.


MZ: Let’s be clear what we mean when we talk about democracy: it must be a democracy of real choices. If we allow unfettered political competition today, the rent-seekers will be able to offer far more to the voters than a developmental party can. Part of it is false promises of all the goodies that will come taking power. Part of it is the windfall profits of privatizing key sectors such as banking and telecoms and selling off profitable corporations such as Ethiopian Airlines. And part of it is the zero-sum political calculus of winner takes all, loser takes nothing. That kind of democracy isn’t offering real choices. What would be a real choice is between different paths to value-creating development. We could have a dominant party system, as we have today, with different views expressed within the party. Or we could have competition between two parties, each of them subscribing to a hegemonic developmentalism, so that when they rotate in and out of office, the fundamentals of the national project aren’t in dispute.

This sounds prescient @Karbaash @JDH @The Odum of Ala Igbo

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

AdW: You insist that Ethiopia must be a democratic developmental state. But many people would argue that while you have delivered on the development, there hasn’t been any progress on democracy.


MZ: Let’s be clear what we mean when we talk about democracy: it must be a democracy of real choices. If we allow unfettered political competition today, the rent-seekers will be able to offer far more to the voters than a developmental party can. Part of it is false promises of all the goodies that will come taking power. Part of it is the windfall profits of privatizing key sectors such as banking and telecoms and selling off profitable corporations such as Ethiopian Airlines. And part of it is the zero-sum political calculus of winner takes all, loser takes nothing. That kind of democracy isn’t offering real choices. What would be a real choice is between different paths to value-creating development. We could have a dominant party system, as we have today, with different views expressed within the party. Or we could have competition between two parties, each of them subscribing to a hegemonic developmentalism, so that when they rotate in and out of office, the fundamentals of the national project aren’t in dispute.

This sounds prescient @Karbaash @JDH @The Odum of Ala Igbo

Abiy Ahmed don't care

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

MZ: You are correct: our attempts to identify the basis for a developmental state in Somalia have so far completely failed, and all we can do is operate on a tactical basis. We rent loyalties of Somali factions on contracts that typically last 18 months, no longer.

I now believe Somalia needs a Mao to unify the country

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

AdW: You insist that Ethiopia must be a democratic developmental state. But many people would argue that while you have delivered on the development, there hasn’t been any progress on democracy.


MZ: Let’s be clear what we mean when we talk about democracy: it must be a democracy of real choices. If we allow unfettered political competition today, the rent-seekers will be able to offer far more to the voters than a developmental party can. Part of it is false promises of all the goodies that will come taking power. Part of it is the windfall profits of privatizing key sectors such as banking and telecoms and selling off profitable corporations such as Ethiopian Airlines. And part of it is the zero-sum political calculus of winner takes all, loser takes nothing. That kind of democracy isn’t offering real choices. What would be a real choice is between different paths to value-creating development. We could have a dominant party system, as we have today, with different views expressed within the party. Or we could have competition between two parties, each of them subscribing to a hegemonic developmentalism, so that when they rotate in and out of office, the fundamentals of the national project aren’t in dispute.

This sounds prescient @Karbaash @JDH @The Odum of Ala Igbo

Zenawi was scarily intelligent. If he lived 20 more years

 

[Karb]

MZ: You are correct: our attempts to identify the basis for a developmental state in Somalia have so far completely failed, and all we can do is operate on a tactical basis. We rent loyalties of Somali factions on contracts that typically last 18 months, no longer.

For sale like a buncha hookers

 

[Karb]

AdW: You insist that Ethiopia must be a democratic developmental state. But many people would argue that while you have delivered on the development, there hasn’t been any progress on democracy.


MZ: Let’s be clear what we mean when we talk about democracy: it must be a democracy of real choices. If we allow unfettered political competition today, the rent-seekers will be able to offer far more to the voters than a developmental party can. Part of it is false promises of all the goodies that will come taking power. Part of it is the windfall profits of privatizing key sectors such as banking and telecoms and selling off profitable corporations such as Ethiopian Airlines. And part of it is the zero-sum political calculus of winner takes all, loser takes nothing. That kind of democracy isn’t offering real choices. What would be a real choice is between different paths to value-creating development. We could have a dominant party system, as we have today, with different views expressed within the party. Or we could have competition between two parties, each of them subscribing to a hegemonic developmentalism, so that when they rotate in and out of office, the fundamentals of the national project aren’t in dispute.

This sounds prescient @Karbaash @JDH @The Odum of Ala Igbo

Do you mean that Abiy could potentially be a "rent-seeker", offering the public more goodies than he can deliver?

Zenawi was extremely intelligent. Not your typical African dictator. I like how he contrasts a democracy of real choices with unfettered political choice, which favors populists/demagogues with no real solutions. Western countries do not make this distinction when they push for "more democracy" in Africa.

 

[thatrapsfan]

back to the 90s flag. The new President's brother was killed by IIley in 2016. He also is educated, with a professional background in agricultural economics. Compared to the likely illiterate Iley, this is night and day.

@Karbaash

 

[thatrapsfan]

Do you mean that Abiy could potentially be a "rent-seeker", offering the public more goodies than he can deliver?

Zenawi was extremely intelligent. Not your typical African dictator. I like how he contrasts a democracy of real choices with unfettered political choice, which favors populists/demagogues with no real solutions. Western countries do not make this distinction when they push for "more democracy" in Africa.

Remains to be seen and I think Zenawi very seriously underplayed how political elites from his party/ethnic group were able to game the developmental state he was trying to create, to line their own pockets.

But Zenawi had a vision, however poorly implemented, while Abiy - despite the good changes - is still very unclear. We will see.

 

[Karb]

back to the 90s flag. The new President's brother was killed by IIley in 2016. He also is educated, with a professional background in agricultural economics. Compared to the likely illiterate Iley, this is night and day.

@Karbaash

This is an amazing turn of events breh

Who would've believed this would happen just a few weeks ago?

It's hard to keep up with all the recent developments.