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EPRDF Touts Phony Democracy in Africa

 

What is the reality in Ethiopia? Or how do you define the Ethiopian People Revolution Democratic Front (EPRDF) government? And who will win the 5th national election?

In doing so, one needs to distinguish between facts and speculations, as well as extracts theories from propaganda.

 

Modern nation-states are classified as liberal democratic and totalitarian, which further partitioned by shadow forms of states, namely, autocratic and welfare states. The former is a half-clone of totalitarian, while the latter is a hybrid of liberal democracy and a totalitarian of the communism type.

 

Totalitarian states take various forms like Bonapartism in France, Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and Communism in Russia. They gain their legitimacy by means of force and fraud (Carl J. Friedrich: Constitutional Government and Democracy). Totalitarians shall not recognize individual rights, obsessed with ideology, jealous of multi-party system, allergic to freedom of speech. Odd enough, they whim to control what you think, what you do and what you pray. Their ultimate objective is to mold you like a product of a certain company.

 

Coming to the case in Ethiopia, EPRDF government is swinging between autocratic and totalitarian form of states while cruising with a host ideological vehicles ranging from China Marxism to Stalin Socialism, from Albanian Communism to Revolutionary Democracy to Developmental State. It seems that EPRDF is floating with no ideology. Judging from its action, it is pragmatist, neutral to principle. It is an opportunist striving for mere survival. This, somewhat qualifies EPRDF government as an autocratic state as characterized by the absence of ideology according to A.R. Ball, Modern Politics and Government.

 

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Re-visiting Ethiopian Leather Industry

 

Ethiopian leather industry is regarded as a strategic sector; however, its performance is very poor, laced with high-profile corruption. Rather, it becomes a hemorrhage for the Ethiopian economy.

 

The leather industry had been ranked next to coffee in export earning until 1980s, fetching about 60 million dollar while operating with only a dozen of tanneries. In deed, since then the tanneries number is expanded to about 34; but for nothing, except sharing the existing profit.

.

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 Welcome to a dying lake!

 

Lake Abijata is dying, although the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is boasting that it is the country’s sanctuary for a colony of exciting birds. However, Abijata Soda Ash Enterprise (ASAE) is diligently harvesting sodium carbonate (soda ash), destroying plants, chasing away birds and depleting the volume of water.

 

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The Politics of BPR

“Don’t automate-obliterate” 

         

Is business process re-engineering (BPR) affordable? Is it a panacea?

 

The rate of BPR success was terrible. Its proponents were ladled as corporation killers. “Doing business from scratch “is its brutal method that demolished several thousand firms, scraped scores of gigantic operations and traumatized countless employees. Now, BPR has crossed the Mediterranean Sea, at its 15th birth date, to galvanize the ancient and poor land of Ethiopia.

 

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The diseconomics of “chat”: Is it a cash

crop or is it crashing the fragile Ethiopian economy?

 There is a raging controversy among historians in which some argue that ‘chat’ was initially grown in Ethiopia and then introduced into Yemen. Others argue the other way round. Nonetheless, as far as Ethiopian is concerned, chat used to mainly grown in the south- eastern part of the country. Its consumption was also limited to this area as par t of religious rituals.

 

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Street Kids’ Ordeal in Addis

           

Addis Ababa is chained by unprecedented rate of marginalization of its poor. If you have nothing you may be back to the bush. Street dwelling is another alternative. But the kids I have discovered in the dark, sitting on the tree branches, have suffered from both modes of survival.

 

The tragedy is happing in front f the Spanish Embassy and at the junction where the US Embassy is within view. A colorfully painted advertisement is installed adjacent to the three exhorting: “Stop Child-Labor Exploitation.”

           

The kids have nothing: no home, no custodian and no family. What they have in common is not only a miserable life, but also the language of their origin, Wolayta Sosdo/ Dorze Hizo.

 

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Efficient Quality Assurance Free From Politics

 

One of the most important discoveries of the last century is the concept of “quality”, an area where a lot had been done in managing it, and yet much remains to be done because establishing standards is dynamic. Not surprising, the quality movement has changed since then and reoriented the popular and traditional management under the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM).

 

In the aftermath of the Second World War, various types of national and international infrastructures were established to spur the quality movement, including the emergence of standard qualification and accreditation bodies. Ethiopia joined the club much latter: The Quality and Standard Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) was established 35 years ago. It is good to learn the leaps and bounds move by the Authority has begun, with the ambition to kick-start a certification scheme for the ISO-9000.

 

Hopefully, it will not take us too long to witness the inauguration of its name that may be dubbed as “Quality and Standard Institute of Ethiopia”. As it appears now, the QSAE could probably be the only agency left in the world with its name qualified by the word “Authority”

 

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Gold Lust Blinds Beneficiaries from Hazards

           

Gold harvesting in Ethiopia is booming with no barriers to reaping its rewards. Technically it is simple to extract and demands very little capital with handy equipment such as pick axe, spade, bowl and cheap mercury.

           

Gold is now used for jewelleries, medicine, electronics etc and was a medium of exchanging starting around 3000 BC until it backed paper notes around 1700 AD. Following the ups and downs during World War II, its power waned as the international monetary system shifted towards floating exchange rates in 1974.

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 Leather: the Dwindling Sector

 

A decade ago the Ethiopian leather sector was losing about 14 million dollars annually due to poor quality hide and skins (HS). The same figure was echoed a few weeks ago despite accelerated deterioration of the same resources of late. The statistics continue to plague the industry and policy makers, defying attempt to capitalize on a promising sector.

 

Leather production in the country has great potential in terms of input supply. Ethiopia ranks first in Africa and 10th in the world in terms of livestock population, even amidst rampant disease, smuggling and poor productivity in the sector.

 

The industry standard of establishing rank by counting horns reveals that the productivity of the livestock is low in Ethiopia by any standard. For instance, the country‘s share of the world leather trade is less than 0.5%, which accounts for about 40 billion dollars a year.

 

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From Wastage to Usage

An Account of Chrome Recovery in Ethiopian Tanning Industry

 

In Ethiopia, the leather industry is the second biggest export earner. However tanning processes are characterized by lack of waste treatment or recycling procedures. Roughly, Ethiopian tanning industry discharges to the environment every year, at least 56 tonnes of chromium in solution form, and mixed with other organic and inorganic compounds. While chrome recovery has been proven as viable, both economically and environmentally.

 

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You can find many more articles in the ARCHIVE

 

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