The loud voices from protestors challenging the authoritarian and undemocratic government in Ethiopia is legitimate, but the violent attacks on factories, farms and other businesses are a negative hit on foreign direct investments needed to continue Ethiopia’s impressive record of economic growth.
Protestors, mainly from the two largest groups; the Oromo and Amhara are upset with a government run mainly by the minority Tigre tribe, accused of leaving them out of the political process and confiscating land without payment.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest and poorest countries in the world. It relies heavily on agriculture-with poor infrastructure and suffers regularly from drought and occasional famine.
With all that said Ethiopia has been recording 10% average growth in the GDP for the past 10 years, and is expected to earn 6% growth this year. The drought and violence is weighing heavily on Foreign direct Investment, which is needed to move the country into Middle Class by 2025.
Ethiopia needs to create more industrial zones and that comes with foreign investments. When protestors turn violent and attack cement factories and flower farms, this will scare away existing businesses, and the new investors needed to fund railroads and highways in order to move goods and people at a profit.
The recent conclusion of the railroad linking the capital Addis Ababa with the port in Djibouti is quite an achievement for this landlocked country. This amazing fete was accomplished with financing and engineering from China. The electrified SGR Railway, a first in Africa, spanning 400 miles from the Addis to Djibouti at a cost of $3.5 billion dollars, was financed mostly by the Chinese.
More of the same is needed all over Ethiopia. The Turks and Chinese are building a rail line connecting the northern city of Mekele with Central Ethiopia. This will save time and money and facilitate the movement of people and cargo near industrial zones, capturing new investments near rail lines. Also, construction is underway for a line linking Addis Ababa to the south western town of Bedele.
Violence Will Only Delay Economic Development
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is under construction in the northwest and when completed in 2017 will supply its neighbors with much needed electricity in order to entice new investments. This is good for Ethiopia and regional countries like Kenya, Djibouti, Sudan and Tanzania, all of whom are ready to be electrified.
The Egyptian government is not happy with this huge dam. They feel it will deprive them of its share of the valuable Nile waters. In fact, former Presidents have threaten to go to war with Ethiopia over the Nile. One must understand that Egypt only has the Nile River, and everything else is desert. Some estimate that 85% of its Nile waters come from the Blue Nile which is in Ethiopia. So you can see why Egypt has an interest in the internal affairs of Ethiopia.
Egypt and Eritrea are accused of fomenting violence in Ethiopia.
The Egyptian government is blamed for supporting the opposition, causing property damage and in some cases bodily injury and death, in order to destabilize Ethiopia. In other words government officials are referring to opposition leaders as terrorists, especially the Oromo Liberation Front and Ginbot 7, whose leaders are outside the country mostly in USA and Europe. Eritrea, once a part of Ethiopia, fought a war with its neighbor from 1998-2000 and came out on the short end. They have a border issues with Ethiopia and both countries are accused of de-stabilization tactics.
As an African American, this writer is highly impressed with Ethiopia’s past; not only it’s resistance to European colonialism, having kicked out the Italians with British help, but more so it’s rich religious and cultural history. We’re talking about an ancient civilization here-one that is as old as Egypt or pre-dates Egypt. The Cushites and Nubians (black people) contributed much to advance Egyptian culture and civilization especially in the Upper Nile Valley.
You can’t speak seriously about Judaism, Christianity and Islam without including the Ethiopians. Until recently a large Jewish population lived in the country. They have since emigrated to Israel. But many Christians especially in the north and central have Jewish DNA lineage. It’s probable that some of Hebrews were Ethiopians, and contributed immensely to the founding of Judaism and Christianity. Ethiopia was one of earliest countries to adopt Christianity as an official religion. And one of the first countries outside of Arabia to erect a mosque on its soil.
If you are one of the opposition leaders encouraging violence because Ethiopia is repressive and undemocratic, then take a look at America with its racist and undemocratic past. Or the same can be said about China which is not known as a hotbed of democracy or political freedom.
But America and China are two of the most powerful countries in the world– economically and militarily.
Remember-you have to build infrastructure in order to achieve economic prosperity. Peace and stability is needed-not war.
T
hubiejones.com 