Reader's Weekend music choice

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

31-7-2011

Over the week I got this e-mail from my old Ethiopian pal and arduous reader of my Blog . The gist of the e-mail was that she wants to dedicate this music(below) to one of her former friends on this Blog. Yap brilliant idea then came... I will use my Weekend Blogs to host your music dedication and choice to the ones you love or hate. Deal!

So here we go the first choice of De Birhan's Blogspot reader's music choice...Balawekuh Noro (Wish i didn't know you ) by Meskerem Alemayehu. Marta dedicates this song to her former friend Kumelachew....My English speaking readers...the song is about love..please cry Not!

Ethiopian billionaire wins libel action in UK : BBC reports

Ethiopian tycoon Mohammed Al-Amoudi

Ethiopian Review Publisher Elias Kifle

29 July 2011 Last updated at 15:13 GMT

An Ethiopian-born billionaire has won £175,000 in libel damages over allegations he had hunted his daughter down so she could be stoned to death.

Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi was born in Ethiopia, but now spends his time at homes in central London, Surrey and Saudi Arabia.

The article was published on the online news website Ethiopian Review.

Judge Richard Parkes QC said it was difficult to imagine more serious allegations.

The site's publisher and editor-in-chief, Elias Kifle, had denied liability.

The judge said that instead of apologising Mr Kifle had repeated the libel and abused Mr al-Amoudi and his lawyers.

The High Court in London heard Mr Kifle's response to the initial complaint was: "Here is my formal statement: Screw yourself".

The court heard Mr Kifle then went on to describe Mr al-Amoudi as a "scumbag bloodsucker" who was "funding al-Qaeda".

Mr al-Amoudi, 65, gave evidence during the libel trial that he was completely opposed to all forms of terrorism.

The judge said the site alleged that Mr al-Amoudi had "disgracefully and callously" married off his daughter Sarah, then 13, to an elderly member of the Saudi royal family as a gift.

'Wholly untrue'

The article went on to claim that Mr al-Amoudi was probably responsible for murdering his daughter's lover in Iraq and had hunted his daughter and granddaughter across London in an attempt to ensure they were stoned to death in Saudi Arabia.

Mr al-Amoudi told the court he was horrified by the "wholly untrue" article which could be seen by visitors to the website between January and August 2010, when it was finally taken down.

Mr al-Amoudi, who has a son and seven daughters, said he had a normal relationship with Sarah, who was not married.

He said she had completed a business administration degree in the UK.

Assessing damages, the judge said: "The claimant is not, I judge, a man who wears his heart on his sleeve.

"But his distress as he described the effect of the article on himself and on his family was evident to me, and the more so because, as it seemed to me, he was doing his best to preserve his composure."

Mr al-Amoudi, who was in the top 50 of Forbes magazine's 2009 rich list, is believed to have made his money in construction, oil refineries and mining.

Mr al-Amoudi, who is of mixed Ethiopian and Arab heritage, is sometimes described as the world's richest black man.

He was recently reported to be financing the building of Saudi Arabia's first car factory.

Source : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14345007

Daganchew's sex fiction : Profile of an Ethiopian writer

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

28-7-2011

I am going to a job interview this afternoon , a new one well paying- wish me well. Literature vis-a-vis writing is really a very very nice thing. Especially when you are well read, you have many fans and they send you message saying "You are so.....". That is cool for real... literary art has no boundary , an American, European or Oriental reader , scanning an African writer's writings would defiantly fall in love. Those who have gone through it know it.

One of Ethiopia's best writers and journalists was the late, Dagnachew Worku.Dagnachew Worku was born in 1944 near Debre Sina in North Shoa, Ethiopia.after acquiring his B.A. from University College of Addis Ababa, he received a three-year scholarship and studied creative writing at Iowa University in the U.S.Dagnachew picked up literary courage as early as when he was thirteen by staging his own play at Debre Sina. His early publication is a play entitled "Sew alle biyye" (1966). When he was a teacher in Harar, he staged another un-published play: "Seqeqenish isat". Later, when he was a lecturer at the Addis Ababa University, he came up with a play of better techniques entitled "Tibelch" staged at the Creative Arts Centre and Haile-Selassie I Theatre in 1964. The author got more sophisticated and technically elevated with his novels "Adefres" (Amharic) and The Thirteenth Sun (English) published in 1978 and 1981 respectively.

He is a peculiar modern Ethiopian writer because he wrote both in English and Amharic.

In this short profile wouldn't be going into details of who he is ; you can read about that from the Website that was launched in memory of him (http://adefris.info/index_dw.html).Surf the page , you will learn a lot about him and his writings.

I found something nice in his biography, i laughed. Daganachew started doing sex when he was 12, the biographer says " Although he was working, he did not want to marry and take the responsibility for a family yet; he wanted rather to continue his education. He could satisfy his sexual needs without marriage. Even in this area Dannyacchew started early. At the age of 12, he started playing at love-making with a 14 year-old servant girl hired to look after the children ("a kind of governess"), but as neither he nor she knew how to make love, it amounted only to caresses and he lying on top of her but without "penetration "- although she wanted both that and a child from the experience, murmuring lefré belew, "let it be for fruit," i.e. a child. Due to "ignorance" in the field, his sex life "proper" did not start until he was 14; even that was perhaps a bit early compared to most Ethiopian boys - but not much so. "

The following short fiction was written by him in English. I actually also have lots of unpublished short fictions and poems. They will come in book format soon, please God.

Read The Voice below that i cordially copied from adefris.info. It is a sex fiction written in a nostalgically witty way.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The Voice

By Daniachew Worku

Mana's life was tightly scheduled: during the day, he worked on the farm-cleaning ground, farming, cutting grass for the cattle, and sometimes even gathering fire-wood for the evening; and during the evening, he helped his mistress either with rubbing her body when she took her bath, or with massaging her with some kind of medicinal ointment to reduce, especially, the thickness of the neck, the hips and the legs or he simply listened to her various talks.

When Mana, about six years old, was first brought to the land-lady by one of her tenants, some thirteen years ago, he was entrusted, along with the lady's own daughter, to the care of the servants. All the servants loved him. The female servants especially seemed very much concerned about his upbringing. They fed him, played with him and told him that they loved him very much. Some of them kissed him to the point of swallowing him whole. Others touched him very delicately in various parts of his body and made him shudder, gasp and utter a cry of pain; and still some others had the temerity to rape him. On the top of it all, each of them, every time they did it made him promise to keep it secret - never to utter a work about it to anybody, including his mistress whom he rarely saw.

He kept his promise. But as times went on he found it hard to even talk at all. He developed a fear that he might say the wrong things and that in doing so he might antagonize them to the point of bringing accusation upon himself for something he hadn't done, ruining his favourable position with his mistress. But still he kept his promise and kept everything secret except, perhaps, one day when he dug the earth and shouted everything into it.

Those years, however, had been long past. Mana was now a grown up man who turned out to be, except for his black skin and upturned nose, strong and handsome. And the lady, though getting old, was, in the mean time, following the change closely, and in her attempts of keeping her subordinates tightly under her control, had already tangible plans for him.

In her time she had had her share of child reading. She had eleven children: two had died; one had run to some other province after having killed a servant in a quarrel…and nobody knew whether he was alive or dead; two had joined the army and never came to visit her except once or so every two or three years; one was studying in some government school; two of her daughters were safely married; and it was only the last one, mentioned earlier, who was living with her.

Her husband had died long ago, and it was in fact after his death that she started to gain weight at a terrific rate. She always liked to talk and her favorite subjects could be boiled down to four. They were: her project to open a drinking place, where she could dance as well, as it would improve the figure; her many children, and how good a mother she was; her husband, and how kindly and hardworking he was; and once in a while, her confessor, how understanding and encouraging he was and how he almost always took all the burden and prayer upon himself as long as she had a dollar or two for his service… And to hear her talk about these things every evening either directed to him or to others, had been fate of Mana.

He had patience and tolerance… He heard her with complete indifference showing no inclination to either agreement or disagreement.. But underneath such indifference he had slowly grown more and more bored and more and more withdrawn into himself.

The only place he had some peace was perhaps the farm where he proved himself hardworking and energetic. He brought in more crop of "tef", wheat, and maize after every season of harvest. Fathers from the neighboring villages openly proposed their daughters to him either when they came together for a group work, as during harvest time or when they met him in the road. The dropped hints that he was always welcome in their houses; they invited him for meals and even went out of their ways to do him some other good service.

At the same time, the girls also had their parts to play. They purposely drove a goat, a sheep, or a calf to where he might be farming, weeding or resting for midday meal and came as if they were looking for it. He, however, didn't seem to care for them or if he did, it was at least very hard to say since he very very rarely spoke. Even when the girls took up courage and asked him questions, he simply grunted, nodded or pointed at the thing if he happened to see it.

Though taciturn, however, the servants had occasions, to warm up from him certain things about his family. He had told them especially about his mother who never allowed him to talk, protesting that he had developed foul tongue and that he had learned only swear words and bad words, and telling him that he wasn't as yet ready to talk to descent people. She seemed also to have told him that he was handsome and that people would be satisfied by simply looking at him… always adding, of course, … "but your soul, your voice is like your father's .. it has a sour and biting edge to it." She had even called out one day while he was trying to sing with his playmates .. " No..no..no..no..no..n…my dear .. the beauty of the voice is not given to our house!" He was painfully cut short and never attempted to open his mouth again in songs either on that day or any other. He had told them that he still heard her voice " No..no..no..no..no..n…" with the exception of "my dear" which was somehow swept away by some kind of wind before he heard it; or when he heard it, it was no more than congested words! He had told them too that during those days he had been so vexed with his mother for the outrageous exposure she had put him in front of his playmates that he had to voice his grievance by soiling his clothes with mud during the day, breading his plate during the evening, and by even burning his "mamma'.

He was a man now, nevertheless. There was no reason for him to want to suppress his voice every time he wanted to talk… But then how could he go about it… How could he forget his past. How could he convince himself that the truth lay in that voice?…the voice he feared?!.. If only he wouldn't become entraped in his emotions; if only he wouldn't hear his father's hard voice shouting, complaining, and accusing people for the slightest wrongs done to him and to others--- be it against a small boy or a helpless old man, as ling as he thought himself to be right; if only he wouldn't hear the servants shaking their index finger and sharply reminding him.. " mind you..not to any one.. not to any soul..or, it's between you and me.. only..not to a soul ll never never to any one.. I repeat it again… never…" And the lady came to his rescue in time.

Mana was called to the lady's room and was told that she had decided to give him her own daughter in marriage… As usual, he listened to her for some time with his arms crossed and his hand tucked under his armpits and when she had finished, he left her without so much as uttering a word. A month later, the marriage was celebrated, and Mana was made to settle at not a long distance from her compound. A year later, he was blessed with a son.

The marriage, however, at least from what the wife made it look, didn't turn out to be a bed of roses. Certain things about him became to her more and more intolerable. She had been used to a lot of talking, discussing things out. But in her new home there was nothing like that; she found it to be exactly the reverse.. a place of silence. During a whole evening, even if she were talking on various topics that might interest him, he simply nodded and remained quiet and indifferent.
He would sit on the earthen floor at the fire place opposite her, from time to time blinking at the blaze and poking the fire with a piece of wood, and would go staring at her. Staring at her… once in a while, the silence was disturbed only by the cry of the baby, the scamper and squeak of rats or by some kind of clinking of earthen ware by the fire side. He would stare at her at the things. He would in fact go to the extent of placing her legs at the right places; and would allow him because it gave her the feeling that she was with somebody after all. At times, she would even purposely put her legs together for him and he would go on putting them apart… with a kind of a shrug and a kind of hard puffing sound from his nose. At other times, she would put out the flame carefully so that he wouldn't look into her; and thus transfixing herself in the gloom, she would enjoy his irritation and his hurry at breaking more sticks for the fire and the way he went down on his knees before her knees to blow on the sticks to start the fire.

But then such times were always difficult for her. He never raised his head immediately: every glint was a light for him; every coming up and dying of flame, every sputter, a kind of hope; every cracking of a stick and the flight of embers to her thighs, a strong suppressed gush of abrupt and half-indrawn kind of broad smile of- Ahha..ahha..ha..ha..- And then when the stick caught fire, he would make some sort of snorting noise and begin staring with bulged and shining eyes into her and would jump on her, his mouth puckering in a little unheard cry… a little struggle would ensue but she would give in, fall back on the ground before him, sometimes sobbing and clasping him round his hips.

That had become almost like a kind of food for him.. a kind of food without which perhaps he thought he wouldn't live. And for her it had become nothing more than an exhausting act. She knew she wouldn't go on like that since it became more and more apparent that his only interest was mainly that…

She thought it wise to tell her mother and she did so. She told her about it again and again and always telling her about the different things he did to her emphasizing his brutality. Her mother, therefore, first and foremost decided to make him talk; for she thought that would release his pent up energy. She devised various ways but she had almost failed when one day on New Year's eve.. when the family had some guests were gathered together for a feast, it dawned on her; perhaps encouraged and affected by the promising and joyful air in the room and the bright holiday atmosphere which permeated all around.. to beg her son-in-law in the name of all those present.. to start talking to people…. Before this of course the usual chatter was there.. she had talked about her husband.. about how good a mother she was… about her children.. and that she might even get a medal for having been God's instrument for bringing into the world so many…and so.. quite suddenly and unexpectedly she rose from her seat and opened her mouth:

" In the name of all of those present.. in the name of the Virgin Mary, our mediatress.. in the name of all the Saints, and especially, in the name of Kullube Gabriel, the healer.. Abuye Tsadiku who can shatter mountains.. and in the name of Saint George who appears in times of need and trouble, I beseech you… take us into your confidence.. or at least talk to us.. say something …something… anything…but say something.." she paused and continued "…by those heroic bones of your fathers and grand-fathers…your mothers and grand-mothers…" she paused longer, but there was no stir, movement or sound from around her, it seemed all eyes were reveted on the young man-and the lady started again, this time rather pitifully " at least give some consideration to .. a woman standing and begging you…"

Mana slowly cleared his throat and said almost inaudibly " My voice sounds like the sound made by a stone dropped in a deep well."

" Be as it may.. that wouldn't worry us …" cried the lady feeling encouraged.

" It's dry" he added.

" It wouldn't so us any harm; don't worry about that" she encouraged.

" It's sour and biting!" he continued.

"Anything!.. Anything! Anything is better than such as your silence!" uttered the lady with a sort of feeling and perturbed spirit. "Anything.. any…"she was saying again when Mana began, still with a low tone…

" How.. how…" and staring at her.. " How ..how big…I mean …" he continued looking at her hip.. " how wide would be… that.. that.. that gate that had opened… for eleven … heads!! …I mean… I.. mean… yours!" he added quickly.

The lady immediately hunched up her shoulders, withdrew her contorted face into it, began to shake and shiver, darted her eyes from her daughters to guests.. and gave a sharp sound as if something pierced her heart and seared her soul, wimpling into her seat as words dropped from her lips "…hitting.. s.. our.. sou.. r.. so..ur.." and tears clogging her throat.

" Eleven children.." Mana started again.

" No..no..no..no..no..n…" uttered the lady, the sounds wafting away to a great distance every time she uttered them.

" …and different sizes of heads at that…" he continued.

" Help me..ffffffriends… help me.. ssssssour…no.nno..no..no..nnnnnnnnnnnno.. not the word.

" …and like my boy's.. with such large shoulders…" he went on unmindful of what was going on..

" Sssut up! Sshut up.. shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup!!!" The lady shouted then, half rising from her seat, almost completely forgetting herself, and collapsing into her wicker chair again almost as immediately.

" He is talking, mother! Or isn't it what you wanted? Isn't it?" her daughter was saying bending over her mother.

" What I wanted ---? ---after all I have gone through?"

" After all you have gone through?!

Begging as a custom: Compilation of Ethiopia’s hunger appeals

25-07-2011

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

I just read Professor Al Mariam’s article, Dictator with a conscience? , just an hour ago. It was a hilarious one, please do read it. Below, I have complied some of the years, in which there is a record of, Ethiopia’s regime sought for food aid and or emergency appeal. Seemingly like a custom, there wasn’t a single year, in which the regime didn’t beseech for food. My question is “Is the government used to appealing for food?”

I won’t go into much analysis (just landed from trip), I leave you to do your own observation and analysis this time and you be the judge too.

I start with this year’s appeal made by the Minister for Agri. Few weeks ago.

2011

“As a result, it is estimated that a total of 4.5 million people will require humanitarian assistance during the remainder period of the current year, i.e. from July-December 2011. This suggests an increase of 40percent from the April’s HRD estimate, 3.2 million. Of the total revised 4.5 million beneficiaries, 41 and 32 percent are in Oromiya and Somali regional States respectively. In order to fill the food gap of this population there is a need to provide a total of around 380 MT of food valued at approximately USD 292,434,684 urgently given there is already critical shortage of food resources in the country.” Ato Mitiku Kassa- State Minster of Agriculture, On the occasion of the launch of Revised Humanitarian Requirements Document for July-December 2011.

2010

“Accordingly, the findings of the multi-agency assessment conducted in November/December 2009 and subsequent monitoring results indicate that approximately 5.2 million people require relief food assistance in 2010. The total net emergency food requirement from January to December 2010 and non-food needs for the first six months amounts to USD 286.4 million. The net food requirement, including TSF needs, stands at 290,271 MT, estimated to cost around USD 231.3 million. In addition a total of USD 55.1 million is required to respond to non-food needs of identified beneficiaries in the health and nutrition, water and sanitation and agriculture and education sectors. ” HUMANITARIAN REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT - 2010, JOINT GOVERNMENT AND PARTNERS’ DOCUMENT

HUMANITARIAN REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT - 2010, JOINT GOVERNMENT AND PARTNERS’ DOCUMENT

2009

“In January 2009, the Ethiopian Government with its humanitarian partners identified a total of 4.9 million beneficiaries that require emergency assistance in the year through the joint needs assessment conducted in November/December 2008. This joint approach shows the Government’s commitment to make the procedure transparent.” Ethiopian Emergency Relief Appeal 2009.

2008

“Approximately, 2, 181,467 people are estimated to require emergency food assistance in 2008. The total food aid requirement for these beneficiaries stands at about 171,646 MT (139,395 grain, 4,181 oil, 13,940 pulses, and 14,130 blended foods).” Humanitarian Requirements for 2008, Government-Partners Joint Document .

Humanitarian Requirements for 2008, Government-Partners Joint Document.

2007

B e l g P re- h a r v e s t and P a s t o r a l A r e a a s s e s s m e nt a n d U p d a t e o n E m e r g e n c y Food r e q u i r e m e n t F r o m A u g u s t t o D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 7.

2006

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2006 Report.

2005

“In general, as per the multi-agency need assessment, followed by a review of the results by the federal disaster prevention and preparedness commission about 3.3 million people are likely to continue requiring emergency relief assistance from August to December 2005. The food situation of additional 2.5 million people still need close monitoring. The food assistance required for the remaining months of 2005 is estimated to be 235,400.60 MT, out of which 166,253.21 Mt is cereal, 47,535.44 is blended food, 4,986.56 is oil and 16,625.39 pulses.” Update on Emergency Food Requirement from August to December 2005.

As can be seen in most of the tables, the regions that are continually affected by the food crisis every year are Oromia and Somali regions of Ethiopia; which are the strongholds or main sources of rebels. Some even say that these regions are neglected by the Central government as a result experiencing man made hunger.

Update on Emergency Food Requirement from August to December 2005.

2004

“The multi-agency pre-harvest assessment teams determined that a total of 7,181,400 people (about 10% of the total population) will need humanitarian food assistance beginning in January 2004, while 2,187,600 will require close monitoring. Table 1 below summarizes the number of people expected to require food assistance and close monitoring in each region. Pastoral area assessment is soon to be undertaken in Somali, Borena and South Omo. Currently it is assumed that the 2003 beneficiary figure will remain the same at 1.1 million.” Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, Early Warning System , January 2004 Report.

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2004 Report.

2003

“The multi-agency pre harvest assessment teams concluded that a total of 11.3 million are estimated to need food aid beginning in January 2003, while just under 3.1 million people are expected to be able to cope but will remain under close monitoring. In total, 14.5 million people are at risk by the drought, about 21% of the total population (see Table 1 below). It may be the case, depending on upcoming cropping seasons that this group will need relief assistance towards the end of the year.” Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission ,Early Warning System , January 2003 Report.

Food Supply, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission, Early Warning System, January 2003 Report.

1999

“The failure of this year’s Belg has now created additional need which has to be addressed through a much more effective relief intervention during the remaining months of the year and beyond. Including the recent Bleg victims, the total number of the people which will require relief assistance (those affected by Meher and Belg failure as well as the displaced) is now at a minimum of 4,603,478 which could reach upto 5 million. The food assistance require,nt during June-Decemeber period is estimated to be about 358,950 MT.The breakdown of this by region is as follows ” Revised Appeal for Assistance, Emergency Relief Needs in Ethiopia in 1999, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission .

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taEcj-rQLpM/Ti29XQiIinI/AAAAAAAAAYM/FKWwwoJukZg/s320/1999.JPG

Revised Appeal for Assistance, Emergency Relief Needs in Ethiopia in 1999, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission.

1997

“Earlier expectations that food security situations would considerably improve in the belg crop growing areas with the coming in of the belg harvest this year have not been fulfilled. Instaed, the food situation in nearly all of these areas have deterortaited considerably because of the poor belg. Consequantely, a total of 1,211,800 people are now seeking relief food assistance purely due to the failure of belg crop this year. The total food aid required to meet their relief needs up to the end of the year is estimated at 98,349 MT. An additional 569,500 people affected by the current poor belg, will be under close monitoring” Early Warning Department, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission July, 1997.

Conclusion

The above compilations are few of the ones I found. Since the Meles Zenawi government came to power there was no year that a year passed without an appeal for food aid. In the previous regimes there were one or two major famines that were all. But in the current regime, Ethiopians continue to starve regularly every year. The tables above are evidences for it.

I am trying collect food appeals in the previous regimes, those of you have the records please do halla at me.

Then I say,

· Unless the government or the ones that will come root out the issue of hunger; find a once and for all solution for these people; there won’t be peace or development.

· Somalia our neighbour may be helped to skip the current famine with the international support but it won’t be hunger free unless the Nation finds stability. Their instability will trickle down to us meaning we will continue to starve as a Nation and as a region.

· NGOs started to bud over half a century ago. But their success in times of hunger and famine, which are predictable and early warned, has not been more than a job of a fire brigade. What do they do to prempt and prevent hunger and such famine. Why do they all of a sudden now alert the whole world and force citizens of the West to aid, fund and donate? The same with the regimes of East Africa. Very oxymoronic …

Weekend's music choice

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

24-7-2011

"I watch her reflection in the mirror, clear and proud with beauty, her lips wide,full painted blood-red and her eyes coloured are large liquid brown.Clasped around her neck, a silver necklace, glittering with green stones, lights up her face " I took the above excerpt from one of my newly introduced friends article that appeared in the Nation's top magazine.

My article below on full belly thesis had one of the highest hits- over 400 in two days.May be the presidents are taking a note out of it too.lol

De Birhan Blogspot would like to express its condolence to the families and fans of Amy Winehouse. She died at a tender age.

For around four years now, I have been so busy and with little or no time to indulge myself. I smell time is coming for that. Go somewhere funky,hot and do crazily self indulging stuffs.

Anyway, here is my weekend's music choice,

Stevie Wonder - Part Time Lover

The Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Eritrea: the Full belly Thesis

By Ankob Zuta, Blogger of De Birhan Blogspot

21-7-2011

Somalia's malnutrition, has been declared a famine by the United Nations yesterday. It is so unreal, in the 21^st century famine? damn. The whole region of the Horn of Africa is starving. So sad. But what can a poor man like me do…except lip service and bewail? I am ashamed of the region as a whole as it failed in this high-tech century to develop and be still holding the bowl of begging. Dambiasa Moyo (PhD), the Zambian born international economist had preceded few years ago a new school of thought that decimated the aid model. She argued the the so called NGOs, aid agencies and donations have done nothing for Africa but made them dependent fools. I added ‘fools’ in fact lol. But we are---yes we are fools who still depend on others for our survivals. Although, some would say even European countries and the US do beg IMF and WB…it is a completely different scenario from us …Social Welfare and food stamps are also different from the beggaries of ours. So I was saying, Moyo’s new movement and thought of changing the aid model that has been gaining momentum has been crushed down by the shameful and starving nations of the Horn of Africa, who revived and rejuvenated the dying international NGOs again. If the drought and famine of the Horn of Africa didn’t happen or had the leaders and governments of the Horn of Africa had enough preparation and readiness for such times, the international NGO model would have fully perished. And Africans would have been compelled to stop looking at the hands of others and worked their ass off.

Look at the Diagram below,

It is the most used and applied social psychological theory. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs. Let’s now take the above diagram and apply it to the politics and politicians of the horn of Africa. Do moist us or our politicians see ourselves/themselves in the above diagram? Do you think our politicians have reached the self actualisation stage before they joined the political struggle ? Can we name any of them?

I personally like the theory and feel that it applies in most contexts to me and even politicians. If you ask me …in which stage I am I can proudly say I am at the bottom— I am the stage of fighting for my daily food, wising to build my own house, have a wife and settle and do SEX lol in general I am working hard to fulfil my psychological needs now. But that doesn’t and hasn’t prevented me from having or aspiring to have the stages in the esteem section and worrying about the welfare of others and basically from leaping that Stage.

Now, are the people of the Horn of Africa, whose 50% are under the poverty threshold/hunger stage, so calm and unable to fight for their freedom, equality, rights and democracy because they haven’t fulfilled their psychological needs? Closed ended question again.

The Full-Belly Thesis

Just a year after I was born, in 1983, there came a cross-cutting research by Rhoda Howard entitled “The Full-Belly Thesis: Should Economic Rights Take Priority over Civil and Political Rights? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa’’. The Full-Belly Thesis, it is a theory, and is my topic for today.

According to Howard, the "full-belly” thesis is that a man's belly must be full before he can indulge in the "luxury" of worrying about his political freedoms. Simply put it says that freedom and civil and political rights are luxuries for the starving masses and can only be bestowed upon them once the primary needs of food and health have been fulfilled. Proponents of the 'full belly thesis' would point to the history of the industrial revolution in Europe or to the success of the four Asian dragons to vindicate their stand, insisting on the need to focus the energies of the population towards meeting basic needs.

The Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Eritrea

The region that holds these countries is one of the most unstable, corrupt, repressive, diseased, hungered, war ravaged, totalitarian, and ‘backward’ regions of the world. Recently, it has appeared in the headlines of the international media once again not for any success story but for famine and hunger as usual. One good thing that this chaos brought the region was an attention from the Western Policy makers, who now started to view the regions as a strategic location. Crisis makes a place a strategic spot. If it is strategic then, influential Westerners would start to hear the voices coming from the Region, either from oppositions, civil societies or tiny creatures like me who think have panacea for the regions mess that disrupts international peace and prosperity.

Leaving, that aside let me delve on these countries from the spectrum of Full-Belly Thesis.

The Sudan: Sudan has recently found oil. It is one of the major exporters of oil in the Horn as well. Sudan is making huge economic strides. Infrastructures, huge manufacturing are being built in Khartoum.On the other hand, according to this year Amnesty International report ‘throughout Sudan, the government routinely represses human rights defenders, political opponents and ordinary civilians, subjecting many to torture and other forms of ill-treatment.’’ All forms of civil and political rights are suppressed mainly due to repressive religious laws and government.Al Bashir’s regime still sequences economic development (filling the belly) before freedom and civil and political rights.

Djibouti :located in the shores of the Horn of Africa, this small country of less than one million people is also making good economic strides especially in terms of GDP, around 6 percent in 2010. However the United States Department 2011 reports states, “Significant human rights abuses in the country included difficult prison conditions; prolonged pretrial detention; denial of fair public trial; interference with privacy rights; restrictions on freedoms of the press, assembly, and association; lack of protection for refugees; corruption; discrimination against women; female genital mutilation (FGM); discrimination against persons with disabilities; and restrictions on unions.” Omar Gulleh , who is a monopolist capitalist himself, promotes fast economic development by relinquishing the above rights. He practices the full belly theory too.

Eritrea : a small nation that seceded from Ethiopia in 1992, has been described to have had this kind of civil and political rights level by the 20111 report of Amnesty International “The government severely restricted freedom of expression and freedom of religion. No opposition parties, independent journalism or civil society organizations, or unregistered faith groups were allowed. The authorities used arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture to stifle opposition, holding thousands of political prisoners in dire conditions, many in secret detention. Military conscription was compulsory and deserters, draft evaders and their families were harassed, imprisoned and ill-treated. A "shoot to kill" policy against anyone attempting to flee across the border remained in place.”

In the middle of these atrocities, it is only Eritrea that has little suffered or has so far been affected by the drought problem in the Horn of Africa. In his recent, interview, the Information Minister of Eritrea said that his country had achieved full food security and wouldn't need any food aid from anyone. The Country has also found gold mines and is showing progress. Eritrea also openly practices the full-belly theory.

Somalia: Somalia which is now famine hit, failed state led by a shaky government. The Nation is difficult to be considered in the above theory or any other deconstruction. One thing clear here is that; Somalia’s famine is mainly caused due to long-term political and civil rights absence meaning state failure,war and conflict from the nation not just due to yesterday’s rain absence.

Ethiopia: Ethiopia, my mother land is a good case of the Full-Belly Thesis. The regime of Meles Zenawi is the darling of the West.He plays and flexes to all beats. Meles has been a Maoist, then a liberal and since 2004/05 a developmental democrat. Intrinsically and ideologically; a revolutionary democrat. Since then he has been advocating that economic growth and filling the belly of poor Ethiopian precedes social and political rights or success. His recent Growth and Transformation Plan is a prime case in point as it only plans to ambitiously be wealthy than the latter. “A serious analysis of the relationships between civil/political and economic human rights must confront the fact that sub-Saharan African societies, like all other societies, are stratified by social class, and that the elites who formulate economic policy may well be doing so in their own interests, not in the interests of the malnourished masses.” (Howard,1983) says.

The service sector of Ethiopia has been highly growing and the GDP was reportedly growing too. But, Ethiopia has now one of the most repressive regimes in the world that denies all the civil and political rights of its citizens at home and even in the Diaspora.

China set out one version in a 1991 white paper, arguing that survival rights - to food, shelter and health - take priority over freedom of expression and other civil and political rights, since the latter are meaningless if one is starving. Violation of those rights is justified as a trade-off by states with limited resources.

Bundle up

I bundle up my points with three conceptions; interactivity, universality and indivisibility. By interactivity I mean, basic human political and civil rights and human security (economic development) are interactive not sequential. That was Howard’s contention too.

And the last two points as I quote from another study here “'universality', that is that human rights and obligations apply worldwide, and cannot be watered down in a particular country or region - through bogus arguments about cultural specificity for example; and 'indivisibility', that all rights are vitally important - that the right to development, for example, does not take priority over the right to join a trade union. These are arguments that continue to be used by governments today to justify torture, killings and 'disappearances'. If development is to result from substantive participation not only have all to be free to join in the debate but, be empowered to contribute. ”

As an anonymous participant in the 1966 Dakar seminar on human rights quoted by Howard (1983) put it, 'To sacrifice the liberties inherent in the human personality in the name of economic development... [is] to reduce the individual to the role of producer and consumer of goods, which . . [is] far too high a price to pay for improving the material conditions of existence."

Countries of the Horn of Africa :The Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Eritrea ought to be revolutionised. A new generation of freedom,justice, equality,peace, liberty , prosperity and comfort lovers and upholders need to come in. The new generation has to take power. Instead of solely working for selfish and individual national solutions, these countries should work for a regionally cooperative and mutual growth and benefit. The current enmity and war tempered situation of the Horn would and could be solved by the reconciling and forward thinking youth. The Horn of Africaners should work for a holistic solution to our identical miseries.