The Unhindered Holocaust (cont.)
 

Newspaper reports, video footages and personal accounts of starving Ethiopians pleading for help are slowly emerging in the international media. In an effort to soften the hearts of those affected by donor fatigue, disturbing images are transmitted around the globe showing the plight of millions on the verge of starvation. With all its technological advance and scientific achievement, the world is witnessing, once again, the horrors of a mega-drought in the new millennium. The response, however, is the same old superficial commotion to save wasted lives at the eleventh hour.

The current government, in stark contrast to its predecessors, has been continuously making a rather aggressive effort to alert rich nations and international aid agencies about the impending threat of a widespread disaster. With a somewhat proud sense of accomplishment, it is shamelessly and bluntly demanding that its supporters help it survive a situation, which under normal circumstances should have led to its demise. The sense of accomplishment that it is observed flaunting comes from its misguided assumption that it has promptly forewarned others to take care of what, in the first place, should have been its responsibility. While it has made an unavoidable decision to make the problem known to the world, its action and/or inaction in terms of policy and governance have to a large extent contributed to the continued presence of drought and the exacerbation of the problem. Although it tries to lay the blame on nature's uncooperative and unpredictable demeanor, the effect of the drought is basically the result of human mischief, mismanagement, arrogance and lack of vision.

The abundant untapped resources of the country have been deliberately sequestered, denying the nation's able population and investors to engage in innovative and creative ways of agricultural production and industrial development. In an attempt to consolidate power and to guarantee its continued existence, the government has deprived a large majority of the country's work force the freedom of access to capital and the means of production. Its land tenure, agricultural extension, urban development and others policies reflect its fear of public empowerment.

The narrow-minded development programs put forward by the party have proven to be biased, ineffective and detrimental to the country's welfare. They have miserably failed to address the severe environmental degradation of the country's ecosystems and the development needs of the poor. The leaders arrogantly concentrated their efforts on unnecessary priorities and failed to create through conditions conducive to sustainable development rapid economic transformation. They have demonstrated time after time, to the Ethiopian people, that they are determined to divide and destroy the nation rather than to work for common prosperity. After more than a decade in power, the only thing their government has managed to offer the people is a large dose of hopelessness coupled with a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the future. 

The needless war with Eritrea, the deliberately instigated ethnic tensions around the country and the lack of vision of egomaniacal government officials play a direct role in creating the crisis.  Along with these, the mismanagement of resources, a stubborn leadership which has no latitude to accept new and innovative ideas and new ways of thinking and the uninformed and indifferent endorsement of the government's actions by influential foreign governments/international agencies all directly contributed to the escalation of the problem. These factors will continue to aggravate the situation unless a drastically different and progressive course of action is taken. Without a doubt, our world will regularly continue to see the tragedy of even worse and wider disasters if it allows the current trend to continue.

The government that is led by "a new generation of visionary leaders" has squandered the opportunity to lead the people towards self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, as usual, foreign support keeps this crippled pseudo-democracy alive. Suffering under a government that is forced upon them, the people of Ethiopia are betrayed and sacrificed in the new world order only to get limited attention when they die en mass. Blinded by ethnic hatred, their obstinate, cruel and selfish leaders who grabbed power to promote a hidden agenda are incessantly conspiring to destroy the country's future. With 15 million people on the verge of starvation, there is no better way to express this horrible tragedy other than to call it a modern-day holocaust.  

As the misery keeps escalating around the country, in Addis Ababa, government officials, non-governmental organization bosses, donor and international development agency representatives run their costly but ineffective relief and development programs with the usual condescending attitude. They have come to regard drought as a phenomenon, which they cannot attempt to control but have to reluctantly deal with when it happens. They show little initiative and desire to try effective means of tackling its root causes for eliminating the devastating effect of drought. With such a huge scale, and the level of human misery it carries, the current drought should have prompted a major change in the way they operate. Yet, instead of concentrating on finding a long-term solution to the problem and addressing the real cause, the government and aid agencies play the leading role in aggravating the problem.    

The solution they prescribe for today's problem is the same as the response 28 years ago. The number of those affected due to the consequences of drought keeps increasing even though international involvement has been intensified and significant lessons have been learnt from earlier experiences. Compared to what is happening today, the horrific famines in the 1970s and 80s could be considered as minor incidences. With all the resources and expertise available to them, those in influential position lack the fortitude and determination to act decisively. Instead, they blame the poor, nature and other scapegoats for the failure of their fruitless programs. It appears as if our leaders and international development agencies are working together hard towards a common goal of pushing the entire country to completely succumb to drought.

As starving Ethiopians make their way into towns to escape the ravages of hunger and as the unemployed urban population swells in number, the elite and their foreign associates are once again looking for quick fixes.  The looming disaster and its potential to disrupt all gains does not seem to trigger any alarm in their conscience.  They claim to address the situation, but the living conditions of those they declare to rescue remain as miserable as life on this earth could possibly allow.  

Illiterate bureaucrats, stubborn leaders and profit-motivated foreigners are experimenting on the lives of the poor who keep being mercilessly decimated in an unending wave of a series of droughts. Poor Ethiopians are paying the ultimate price for the shameless ineptitude of those who claim to work towards improving their living conditions. In the name of disaster relief, development assistance and democratic governance their lives are continuously condemned to a wretched existence in living hell.   

Answering the call, some celebrity may organize a fund-raising event in the name of those affected. The United Nations, non-governmental organizations and other humanitarian groups will beg and obtain huge sums of money. However, much of the assistance received will be spent to support the enormous bureaucracy created by the aid business. After sometime, the world will be informed that a famine of Armageddon proportions has been averted. Regardless of this, the lives of millions in the midst of the disaster will be permanently disrupted. Some of the starving people - mostly children, the elderly and vulnerable individuals - will certainly die. Some will get temporary relief after their lives have been irrevocably shattered. When all is said and done, and after much of the fabric that holds the community together has been irreversibly ruined, it will be claimed that the problem has been addressed. Nevertheless, another drought covering a much wider area, with more severe intensity, will definitely strike again as the root causes of the problem remain untouched. This vicious cycle will continue, as those responsible for the eradication of hunger, poverty, ignorance and other social ills are unable and unwilling to try and find a lasting solution to the fundamental causes of underdevelopment.

The Environment and Good Governance

Recurrent droughts have become common occurrences and have gradually spread over much of the country without showing any sign of abatement.  Subsequent governments responded to this problem reactively rather than following a proactive approach. Leaders whose main duty should have been protecting the safety, health and welfare of their people concentrated their efforts on other priorities. They reduced governance to the egotistic role of maximizing absolute power instead of ensuring public welfare.  So far, no meaningful measures, which take into account the people's needs and environmental concerns have been taken to create ecological stability to help avert droughts.

The peasant agricultural system has been forced to collapse due to the imposition and interference of the government in people's lives. The resulting resentful attitude has led to careless land management along with wasteful and destructive use of natural resources. The peasant's ability to practice subsistence farming on a piece of degraded land will in no way guarantee personal security or development. With its agriculture-led industrialization policy, the government could have done a lot more than just ensure the right to own a piece of deteriorating land. Wasting fertilizers and chemicals on land that has lost its natural ability to produce due to overuse will not make the land achieve instant fertility. This is a formula for more severe disaster and the current situation is proof of the misguided development programs implemented in all sectors of the economy. The agricultural extension policy, which concentrates on annual crop production is narrowly focused and fails to make efficient and suitable use of the land. Productive capacity, suitability, landform, slope and other aspects have been ignored in favor of maximizing annual grain output.

Droughts have been allowed to be permanent threats in much of the country. The real cause is, disruptive governance, which leads to severe environmental degradation, which in turn generates droughts and famine. The solution to the problem of drought, and other causes of underdevelopment, lies in the establishment of good governance, which firmly believes in the need for long-term environmental management and rehabilitation. A democratically organized, fair and equitable administration will have the inherent value that respects the need to safeguard the environment. It will stress the conservation of natural resources, as they are the fundamental elements upon which public welfare depends. This system will have the capability and desire to devise effective programs to rehabilitate the severely degraded ecosystems. Rejuvenation from the long years of neglect and over-use will be emphasized while complementary programs and appropriate technologies are incorporated to work in collaboration with nature.  Land identified as unsuitable for arable farming will be strictly put to other productive but environmentally sound uses to reduce the alarming rate of soil erosion. These methods will be complemented by creating favourable conditions in which land stewardship is encouraged through incentives that allow the user to take better care of the parcel of land he/she uses. 

The population pressure will be steadily reduced through the creation of pull factors, to attract peasant farmers from their land to other modes of production. Working with nature instead of against it and diversifying to ensure ecological stability is stressed. An integrated approach will be utilized where a combination of different economic, social, environmental and cultural factors is carefully put together to work towards the improvement of overall conditions.  Diversified programs will be implemented to gradually regenerate the depleted life support systems. This will help to effectively transform the smallholder peasant agriculture into an intensified, productive and stable system, which is less vulnerable to natural calamities. It will have effective coping mechanisms to cushion against the effects of disasters.  

In partnership with the private sector, agricultural development zones could be created with tax incentives and other creative ways to attract investors. The vast low-lying areas and valleys of the highlands have tremendous potential to alleviate the pressure on the uplands. A thoroughly thought-out land tenure system could make some land available for such purposes without displacing farmers or completely privatizing all land in the country. This development will help attract people to voluntarily move out of heavily populated vulnerable areas to lowlands where mechanized agriculture with irrigation is developed. This way, peasants could transfer their skills to a more modern and profitable mode of production instead of totally depending on nature for their survival. Along with these, the administration could come up with laws and regulations to protect sensitive areas and start rehabilitating the highlands with programs that promote permanent agriculture by utilizing regenerative environmental methods, which are designed to produce perennial crops, fruits, timber, tourist attractions and other products.

The Next Step 

The government and development agencies should start conducting their activities with a sense of urgency and purpose. They have to be more visionary, free thinking and innovative.  Better ways of dealing with the problem should be instituted. Their priorities, methods and assumptions should be reassessed and effective policies should be formulated to address the real causes of the problem. Instead of concentrating on begging for donations to avert a continuously occurring problem, long-term solutions, which could save another 15 million people from starving in the subsequent years, should be formulated in advance.  

With this, it should be understood that the people have the capacity to improve their conditions if they are allowed to live freely without imposition. In order to create a prosperous way of life they need peace, stability and some appropriate incentives. These incentives should motivate them to work hard and aspire for a better tomorrow instead of making them totally dependent on aid.

The problem is overwhelming and an all-out effort should be made to gradually bring the situation under control. With good will and open mind, it can be done. A program for continuous begging shouldn't be what the government offers the people as a development plan. The current mode of responding to the crisis when it happens will only address the situation temporarily while letting the country sink into more misery, which is getting more and more complicated to reverse.   

A genuine commitment to resolve the problem will have to be boldly put forward and it should be made the primary priority in the administration's agenda. This has to be adopted as long-range program to rehabilitate the environment and eliminate hunger, poverty and ignorance from the land. To be effective, it requires the participation of all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia. Ethiopians living abroad, investors and others should be encouraged and supported to participate in the program. The expertise and financial potential of Ethiopians everywhere should be effectively tapped and used. No one should be turned away from participating in the country's development when they have the talent and financial capability to contribute. They should be allowed and offered incentives to invest in rural areas to create ecologically stable, economically viable and socially sound communities. 

At a time when humanity possesses the knowledge, power and resources to control such a misfortune, millions have vainly lost their lives. Those who survive this most horrendous and cruelest of human miseries are scarred for life. The Ethiopians who suffer as a result of such disasters are facing this predicament because they have been suffocated by politics and incompetence in governance. It is not because they lack the desire or motivation to improve their lives.   

The old imperial government tried to hide the problem from the world. The military government that assumed power after making an issue about the secret handling of the 1974 famine attempted to deny the next famine that it helped produce in the 1980s. The current government has been grappling with droughts since it took power in the early 1990s. It openly announces the problem and has shrewdly elevated the art of begging to the highest level while contributing its share to further spread the problem. As a result of its well-orchestrated public relations spectacles it is continuously receiving substantial assistance. But it has not used this opportunity to put in place an effective program, which successfully addresses the issue.  

Drought keeps rearing its ugly head more severely each time it appears. And Ethiopians have lived under its threat for years. This has to change. The country has tremendous potential and its people are ingenious and hard-working. All they need is peaceful administration with less interference. They also need the world to understand their situation. The help they require is not just food aid.  The international community has to recognize that the Ethiopian food crisis is created by a combination of internal politics and foreign intervention, which has been complicated by international power struggle to safeguard economic interest. This selfish influence to maintain an insatiable, greed-ridden and uncaring lifestyle at the expense of the poor has to end. Individuals who respond to the plight may feel that they have done their part by donating what they can. But unless hunger and poverty are completely eliminated from the face of this earth, no human being or nation can claim to be free. The collective human conscience should wake up and find a lasting solution to this atrocious waste of human and natural potential. The holocaust of the 21st century shouldn't be allowed to continue.