Media: Are Ethiopians Blindfolded and Gagged into Poverty?

In any country independent media and transparent Information is an artistry of commerce, free expression and a check on corruption and cronyism. But in Ethiopia’s history it has been the means of propaganda and tools of suppression. The TPLF/EPRDF regime is not an exception; however, unlike any other tyrant who prohibits the operation of independent presses, the regime has mastered the art of deception.

For instance, in its quest to hoodwink the international community, and gullible Ethiopians in the make-believe of 'freedom of the press' it came-up with the most elaborate charade ever seen in the history of free press.

To facilitate its deception, the regime oprates mass medias (Two Radio station, one Television and one Internet provider) all under it grips. Instead, it allowed print media to be published with a full control of the printing presses as a sole importer of printing material and as the owner/operator of all the printing presses of newspapers in the country.

The TPLF/EPRDF regime posturing as being the champion of free press is reviled on its own website: (Caution virus infested) Ministry of Information http://www.moinfo.gov.et/ (MOI) - the sole government Minster that decides what media can operate in the county, (license, regulate and enforce the rule). The MOI pride seems only print press circulation section that lists the number of newspapers and their circulation in the country.

Close scrutiny of more than 64 newspapers and 23 magazines listed on it’s website consisting of government, private and religious…etc publications, in three Ethiopian languages (Amharic, Tigrigna, Oromifa) and two foreign language, (English, Arabic) with a total weekly circulation of less than half a million for all newspapers and 200 thousand circulation for the monthly magazines. However, looking at the production closely it becomes evident that, out of 64 newspapers 27 are ‘political and social’ with 350 thousand weekly circulations with the exception of two government owned dailies (Addis Zemen and Ethiopian Herald).

A simple arithmetic reviles the true color of the print media as told by the regime and its enabler’s that 'private media under TPLF/EPRDF is flourishing'. Out of the 350 thousand weekly circulations when we take out government published Addis Zemin (18443) Ethiopian Herald (9,930) and the rueling regime TPLF/EPRDF’s published Abyotawi Democracy (63,230), Woyine (19934) and Oromiya (77709) we end up with 150,758 circulation for the remaining 22 weekly newspapers that are considered “private”, including TPLF’s own ‘private’ newspapers.

What it means is that, on the average, out of the remaining 150 thousands weekly circulation 21 thousand copies are circulating daily consisting of all 22 newspapers (less than 1000 copies) for each newspaper in a country of 80 million populations. Moreover the content is water down by constant harassment and jailing of reporters earning the regime one of the most hostile anti free press government in the world. In comparison, the residence of the City of Addis Ababa uses more napkins in one of the city’s cafe a day than access to news papers.

In contrast, one newspaper in Kenya (the Daily Nation) alone have 200 thousands circulation daily, surpassing all private weekly newspapers in the entire Ethiopia, not to mention Kenya is about one-third of the population of Ethiopia and 100s of private newspapers, 35 radio stations and seven television stations are operational.

In addition, the Ethiopian regime makes sure Ethiopians do not enjoy the modern IT technology by denying them full internet services like many other countries with less than 300 thousands subscribers. Once again Kenya, with one third of the population has three million internet subscribers with more than a dozen private internet providers. Even Somalia, with no central government enjoys better internet service than Ethiopians.

With practically no free press, not a single independent media Association in the country and with a complete black out of vital independent information the regime plays the biggest scam since the invention of the printing press in the early 15th century to dupe the world and unsuspecting Ethiopians in the make-believe free press it claim to allow.

It is common most dictators in Africa would not allow a free press and private mass media to operate; it begs the question why the TPLF/EPRDF regime is creating the make believe free press existence? Who are the regime operatives conspiring to leave the people of Ethiopia in the dark?

We urge concerned Ethiopian's institutions, the international community, and governments to demand the regime to be transparent.

Note: The Minster of Information recently deleted the number of newspapers in circulation in the country along others from its website, which does not have much information to begin with. It is also the only source of information in the country where interested partys find out about the policy of the regime and who is who in the media. We, therefore, demand the regime to be transparent and provide all information on the free press and the media to the public.

Economy: Commodity Exchange on the Back of a Donkey?

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange that was established by Dr. Eleni G. Medhin and on the endorsement of the Ethiopian ruling party on April of 2008 promised to turn the Ethiopian poor farmers in to a commercial farmers.

Though, it is the single most important institution that would impact the lives of the vast majority of the population it raised very little interest among Ethiopians in Diaspora and the urban elites in Ethiopia whose sense of economic development has been far removed from the daily reality of the majority of Ethiopians for lack of independent information.

The founder and CEO of the exchange Dr. Eleni, an economist from two of the prestigious US learning institutions who was championed, mostly by foreign crowd to crack the code of solving the 'edge old problem' of under-development and poverty made speeches, visited the Chicago Commodity Exchange, run-around in the corridor of donors, political power, and made presentation to foreign audience prior to establishing the exchange.

The celebration still continued after a year and half of operation with a recent PBS documentary-Wide Angele aired without much prior challenge from Ethiopians.

What most Ethiopians did not pay attention was the exchange is no longer an exchange of grain commodities as promised, but a government agency to facilitate export commodities to earn foreign exchange.

In a recent article, "The dangerous hype behind the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange" Dr. Seid Hassan eloquently outlined numbers of structural problems and lack of transparency of the exchange. His article outlined the complete lack of any one of the key structures that would make a free market institution functional.

The founder and CEO undoubtedly possess the knowledge as a product of two prestigious learning institutions in the world (Stanford and Cornell University) and considered an expert on how the free market works. What went wrong, she is not able to create the basic transparency necessary to begin the process of developing the market?

There is no doubt a commodity exchange is the sole market institution that would transform an Agriculture based economy into a manufacturing economy provided, it is out of the hands of the government, unscrupulous, and politically motivated players. Currently the ECX not only turned out to be a government institution contrary to the claim of Independence, but it appears to be set-up by unofficial decree of the ruling regime to force its political and economic will on the people of Ethiopia.

In an economy where the ruling party's affiliated enterprises dominate the private sector never seen by any African standard, and when the means and ways of agriculture production including land and market infrastructures are under a strict control of the regime, to call it an exchange is troubling.

Furthermore, there is no a single mass-media under the private sector that could expose corruption or reflect transparency. In addition, the largest grain commodity buyer and seller in the country is a government agency (EGTE) and a member of the Exchange.

How an exchange owned, operated, and regulated by the government on top of market information disseminated by the only government owned mass media is considered to be a free market institution by any standard is the million dollar question that needs an immediate answer.

The donors who financed to establish such an exchange cannot claim ignorance of how a free market institution should operate. It begs the question and calls for extensive inquiry, why they chose double standard of transparency- one for a poor country like Ethiopia and another to the rest of the world.

It is quite troubling to see a country of 80 plus million populations in the verge of a major famine and rampant poverty is left to a regime and its enabler intellectuals without transparency and accountability to anyone under the funding agencies' watch.

Therefore, we urge Ethiopian intellectuals, independent Media, civic institutions, political parties, and the donors’ community to demand transparency and accountability. We believe the exchange should be taken-over by independent committee consisting of private market players and independent third party. In addition, banning the ruling party's affiliated enterprises and disclosure of the financial interest of the officers of the exchange is necessary to build confidence and protect the public from unscrupulous and politically motivated traders.

Note: It is estimated there are five millions donkeys in Ethiopia transporting the vast majority of grain commodity in the country. That would be the largest donkey population in the world, next to China of 11 million.When agriculture commodities transportation are heavily relied on animal packs, and when the vast majority of assembly markets created are consistent with how far a donkey travels in a given day, it is important to note the complexity of market formation and the bottleneck created to reach the consumer.

In addition, the lack of independent market institutions, credit, contract enforcement, market information, and storage to farmers and traders must be addressed before an exchange can be considered independent and functional.

An exchange can only be successful when it is transparent and addresses the problem from the bottom up than the top down, as ECX is attempting.

Related Articles

“Let’s be like the free market”: Ethnicity and the market for myopia By Professor Minga Negash

Free market without freedom By Abebe Gellaw

Ethiopia: Response to Eleni Gebre-Medhin of Commodity Exchange by Hankamo Gota

Family: Adaption or Child Trafficking?

The EPRDF lead Government seems promoting the adaption of children in western countries by allowing 22 US adapting agencies to operate in Ethiopia along many local adaption agencies. The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington prides itself listing two dozen US adapting agencies on its website. Likewise, European countries, Canada and Australia are most of Ethiopian children are being adapted.

The surge of adaption and the number of agencies rushing in Ethiopia in the last few years seems there are more to the stories than helping children who needed loving families to adapt them. It is heart breaking when an Embassy of a country that does not have any other listing of important agencies like investment, education, democracy, health, etc. prides itself to promote 22 adaption agencies out of the US alone.

In an alarming report "adaption in Ethiopia" the Schuster Institute for Investigative journalism reviled a stunning story of lack of transparency and corruption in adapting children from Ethiopia.

When human trafficking of young women for domestic help and prostitution to the Middle East by dozen of 'legal' and illegal agencies in the country was not enough according to Human Trafficking Report of 2009, it seems children trafficking is the new addition in the ever ending crime against Ethiopians by unscrupulous individuals with permission and knowledge of the regime in power.

Who are theses individuals and agencies who operate out of the United States? What motivated them to register adaption agencies faster than they can set-up a legitimate business? and which government Ministry or agencies are responsible to allow them to operate?

Our source in the country tell us the foreign exchange earning is what motivated the government to allow all theses agencies to rush in to adaption business ranging from 25-35 thousands US dollars to adapt a child. Why it cost so much to help a child find a loving family, and why foreign parents are sought-after than Ethiopian parents reviles the shadiness of the operation that requires serious public scrutiny.

Ethiopian religious institutions, the independent media and civic organization must get involved to investigate and make the government and the agencies' officials responsible and accountable. There has to be transparency on who is who in the adaption agencies and the criteria to issue them a license to operate in Ethiopia.

Articles

Ethiopian children exploited by US adoption agencies Source: ECADF From AM News Australia