How a country becomes a photo op

Here’s a statement I got from the Returnees Caucus. They have a four-point point to make so put down your ukulele, boys and girls. It’s hammer tyyyme.

So what happens when a group of “politically diverse businesspeople and professionals” meet at the Sheraton? They make four-point pointers. Such as? Such as… [All emphasis added.]

1. Expressing our heart-felt appreciation of the donor community’s debt-cancellation measures, and acknowledging that the crucial elements of the Paris Club’s policy decisions will positively impact Ethiopia’s development efforts, we call on the international community to increase its generous support to this country as it wrestles against formidable of economic challenges.

Ex-squeeze me very much. Did you say increase? Yeah. Let’s ask the donor community for more money because the $1.9 billion dollars it pours into the country has worked so well. Poverty in Ethiopia has been alleviated, Ethiopia is not in the midst of yet another devastating famine, the World Bank’s assessment of the economy is not tragic… oh, wait. I’m sorry, that’s in the Bizzaro Ethiopian World. I am assuming that some of the returnees might have lived in the US at one time. I might be leaping to conclusions also, but I am also assuming that none of them was on welfare. Why is that? Because it’s an unending cycle of poverty? It is psychologically debilitating? The stigma of accepting crumbs was probably unpalatable to them? Just a guess. So why do they want Ethiopia to be a permanent welfare mother? International aid comes with more strings attached to it than Donald Trump’s pre-nup. Debt canceling might seem like an achievement until you realize you have a lower credit rating and no sane institution will let you borrow money ever again. And is debt cancellation the new form of fiscal responsibility? Again, do the returnees remember what happens when one declares bankruptcy in the US? Is there a bank that perpetually lends you money? (If yes, please send name and address, quickly.) My guess is that you guys worked hard to pay your bills because you didn’t want a negative credit rating. and because there is honor in hard work and self-reliance.

2. Similarly, confident that the efforts being made by the World Bank and IMF to ensure the continuation of the support provided to Ethiopia’s development scheme will succeed, we express our hope that multilateral financial assistance to the country will be augmented in the coming years.

Don't know how this is different from point numero uno except it is a more politely worded "send more money" SOS. Yeah, yeah. Except the World Bank is now headed by a strong neo-con who believes in the spreading of the democracy and attaching aid to good government. Paul Wolfowitz is actually eminently lobby-able by Ethiopians in the Diaspora. (Not to mention sexy in a ‘let’s preempt’ kinda way.) The tide has turned with the American people who are starting to get jittery that their tax money is being used to prop up governments who use aid to suppress democracy. The whole ports debacle has 'sensitized' our legislators, and goodness gracious, if it ain’t mid-term elections.

3. Whereas international assistance is pivotal to help Ethiopia reach the Millennium Development Goal and help millions of Ethiopians break out of the poverty trap; and such positive external intervention is also beneficial to us returnees who have invested capital in many private-sector endeavourers, we call for the expansion of international aid to the country.

Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place? Apparently there are all kinds of factors working here. It seems (could it be?) that international aid is a lucrative business. And why not? ‘Things We Should Have Written Down’ had an excellent post, Lords of Hypocrisy 2:

The estimated budget for an upcoming 17-day ‘research trip’ by an acquaintance working for an anti-hunger NGO:

SUV rental: 500 birr per day x 17 = 8,500 birr ($979)

Gas for SUV: 600 birr per day x 17 = 10,200 birr ($1,175)

Hotels: 200 birr (two people) per night x 17 = 3,400 birr ($391)

Miscellaneous supplies: 100 birr per day x 17 = 1,700 birr ($195)

Estimated Total Expenses: 23,800 birr ($2,741)

Destination: Several of the top tourist spots in Ethiopia

Justification for this trip: “Preliminary research for a future survey”

So on this feeding chain there are hoteliers, SUV rental enterprises, gas station owners, ‘miscellaneous’ supplies’ suppliers-- all ready to partake in fighting hunger. So there you have it. Except there’s a ‘but’. But surely, you might be compelled to think, surely Ethiopia has much more potential than being an NGO pimp? You would be wrong, my friend. Imagine all the private businesses in the US who supply welfare offices with computers, pens, pencils. Heck, I’d have a stake in increasing welfare if I were on the state vendor list. So now we understand the sentence “external intervention is also beneficial to us returnees who have invested capital in many private-sector endeavourers, we call for the expansion of international aid to the country.” I was a little confused as to why private business people would have so much stake in increased aid. I get it already. If the stakes are this high for a lousy $2,741, then imagine when we get to talking about millions, nay, billions, of dollars. I am not sure what the returnees are asking us to understand here. I am an intractable capitalist who believes in a thriving middle class. But… is the only thing Ethiopia left with poverty tourism? “Ethiopia, 13 months of sunshine: Come see how poor we are. Reserve your SUVs early”?

From my heart, ouch.

Please tell me we are on point 4…

4. Finally confident that our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora will share our view that external aid to Ethiopia is critical particularly to the poor of our country, we will continue to make our voice herd emphasizing the need for the continuation of aid to Ethiopia.

Uh. Is there anything in points 1-3 that’s about the poor? Let’s be honest: no one gives a damn about the poor because even 1% of that $1.9 billion would have helped a lot of the poor. I am involved in a small scale project with a $50K annual budget. That small organization has been able to change a few lives here and there. We do what we can despite the bullshit bureaucracy. So let’s not get the poor involved in this ending poverty business.

I am not sure how often the Returnees Caucasus meets, but maybe next time it can tell us why we should reward a government that has been so blindingly incompetent and brutal. Most of us ignored politics and hunkered to do our part for Ethiopia. We thought that politics had nothing to do with our inherent responsibility to help Ethiopia. But politics is part of economics. As much as we didn’t want to see that, we were forced into it. Unless there is a half-way responsible government, there cannot be economic prosperity. If $1.9 billion doesn’t move us an inch, neither will 7 billion in the hands of a government that is careless beyond all reason. The Ethiopian Diaspora I hang out with has held a ‘No Confidence” vote on the Ethiopian government- which, by the way, makes us chauvinist, imperial-slash-Derg revanchist genocidal muck-mucks, thank you very much.

I mean, c’mon. Who charges political opponents with genocide and treason? Who the hell charges VOA reporters with trying to incite fucking genocide? It’s so bush league. But, at least there is something that coalesces the Returnees: more foreign aid.

Meanwhile, the Diaspora is saying that Ethiopia should not be a permanent beggar nation. We want to create our own solutions to problems that we make worse by thinking someone else has to solve for us. We think Ethiopians have the capacity to map their own destiny. Shoot us.

In the 80s NGOs thought they were doing us a favor by bombarding the world with picture after picture of big bellied Ethiopian children suckling on their dying mother’s breast. The world was outraged, I tell you, outraged. How many millions were raised? How much went to “the poor”? How much of the “external intervention” then was also “beneficial” to those who had a vested interest in “calling for the expansion of international aid” to Ethiopia? So Ethiopia became an ad campaign, and lately, a photo op for American celebrities with fledging careers. Yet the long term psychological effect on Ethiopia and Ethiopians has been incalculable. Aid has made us not only think we can’t solve our problems without foreign money, but that we are incapable of even thinking we can solve our problems without holding out a tin can. We used to blame the West for making us into a beggar state. But now we have to take it from our own?

Give me a break.

What the Diaspora is saying is that Ethiopian poverty shouldn’t just be a line on a policy wonk’s resume. Returnees are telling us to go back home and see what it’s like. Well, I have a proposal: we will if you come back to the US and agree to live on welfare for a year and see what that does to you. Live in government subsidized apartments, buy groceries with food stamps, stand on a soup line for kind ferenjies from the suburbs to hand you a soggy baloney sandwich and a bright smile. You do that, and we’ll return to Ethiopia.

The Diaspora is saying that Ethiopia is not a welfare mother. That’s all. We are saying that Ethiopia is better than that.

Okay. We probably won’t agree on the issue of foreign aid with our returnee brothers and sisters. But I’m sure we can find common ground… You all like Seinfeld?

Here’s some fantastic reading:

Comedy of Errors: Few of the commission’s ideas are new. Most have been tried before, including throwing money at Africa, with questionable results. Unfortunately much of that money has been given to regimes whose favourite pastimes include grand larceny. This, one knows, is a favourite refrain of right-wingers who care little for Africans; but, unfortunately for others who do love what is good and vibrant about Africa and the warmth of so many of its ordinary people, it happens to be true.

“Debt forgiveness creates a problem of moral hazard,” Mwenda argues. “One country borrows and invests the loan wisely and repays. Another borrows and squanders the loan, is unable to pay back and is forgiven. Such a scheme rewards incompetence and penalises good performance, and therefore creates a disincentive to better loan management.”

Cruel to be Kind: “Live Aid forced the world to confront the Ethiopian famine and raised more than £50m. But as Bob Geldof prepares his Live 8 reprise, aid expert David Rieff argues that guilt-stricken donations helped fund a brutal resettlement programme that may have killed up to 100,000”

IRIN interview with Berhanu Nega on foreign aid.

QUESTION: What do you think aid has achieved in Ethiopia?

ANSWER: If by aid we mean making a difference in the lives of people over the long term, helping people to live in a situation whereby they do not have to face those kinds of emergencies, then obviously aid has failed, because the number of people affected by emergencies has significantly increased over the years.

If you look at the famine the country faced in the 1970s, some one million people were affected, in 84/85 about six million, and now you have 12 million to 14 million. It is getting worse through time despite all these policy interventions trying to improve production and rural life. Aid in the short term might have saved lives, but in the long run it seems things are getting worse.

Lords of Hypocrisy: The opulence and inefficiency of the NGO in developing countries is well-worn territory, but it has become much more intimate for me now that I am in Africa. Now I see the White SUVs roar past every day, now I know what NGO employees’ salaries are compared to locals, now I’ve seen where the employees live.

Here are several recent examples that I have witnessed first hand that have left me sourly disappointed and disenchanted with the multi-billion dollar industry that is aid work.

Ethiopia: A ‘man made’ disaster: A government study made public on Thursday has condemned a much-heralded $200m a year aid programme aimed at ending perennial hunger in Ethiopia for failing to meet its targets and causing "a man-made disaster"…. As of the end of May, only 11% of cash and 44% of food had reached people in need, said the study by the government's emergency nutrition co-ordination unit.

"The inadequate implementation of the productive safety net programme is resulting in a man-made disaster in many areas of the country," the study said.

… On the same day, the European Union said it would augment its funding for the program by $72m over two years.