text:
|Ethiopia - Portrait of a dictator with a thousand faces »
By Eleni Zaude Gabre-Madhin, PhD
Many Ethiopians have been intrigued by the advent of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange and many voices have been heard from around the world in our virtual cyber-community and in private communication, some encouraging, some thrilled, some questioning, some skeptical, some downright opposed. I would like to thank all of those who have taken the time to express their interest, whatever their viewpoint. Open dialogue on important ideas, in a mutually respectful manner, is vital to our ability to grow and evolve as a society and as an economy. As we proceed in our dialogue, I trust that those who organize these forums will enforce the necessary standards of courtesy worthy of our age-old civilization.
To quote Victor Hugo, "there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come." In response to the many thoughtful and sometimes provocative questions that have been raised, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you why we believe that the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange is an idea whose time has come. Here in Ethiopia, over the past two years, we have continuously held open discussions with our stakeholders, in numerous events, engaging with thousands of private market participants from farmers to traders to processors to exporters, from all sides of the market, as well as others. Given the recent interest by those in the Ethiopian Diaspora, we are happy to take the time to respond to concerns raised and to clear up the misinformation and misunderstanding that seem to
currently prevail among some. We do so out of respect for our fellow Ethiopians and because we believe that all deserve to get the facts about this important initiative in our country. This is probably a good time to make the appropriate disclaimer that the views presented here are my views and, where relevant, those of the Exchange, and do not represent the government of Ethiopia, any other institution, or any political party. In this essay, I will focus on the core questions related to the need for the Exchange, its ownership and possible control by government, and whether it is a free market or a monopoly. For those who might not appreciate the technical detail provided, please skip to the end where I summarize the key points. For the rest, buckle up and enjoy the ride.
I start with addressing why ECX is needed to begin with, and why we believe it can fulfill its vision of "transforming the Ethiopian economy by becoming a global commodity market of choice." Like most countries in early stages of development, Ethiopia depends on agriculture as the backbone of its economy. To get out of agriculture and transform into a modern industrial state, Ethiopian agriculture must become increasingly productive so that labor can shift into other sectors. Greater productivity comes through investing more capital into production, through investing in productivity-enhancing technology, such as fertilizer, seeds, better farming tools, mechanization, etc. This investment can only happen if it is profitable. Profitability depends on whether there is a market where the product can be sold reliably and efficiently. Understandably, farmers hate risk. In addition to weather and production risks due to pests, crop disease, and other vagaries of nature, farmers also face the risk that there is no buyer, that they can't access the market or it is too costly to do so, that prices are unknown or will drop, or that they won't get paid. These very real market risks and costs prevent them from making the
investments they need to make to be more productive. So they are stuck in a vicious cycle, producing at low yields, mostly for themselves, which is why only 25% of total agricultural production reaches the market. Farmers are not the only people whose livelihood is constrained by the market. If they are unable to get the supply of raw commodity delivered to them when they need it or prices fluctuate or the quality is unreliable, industrial processors, such as flour factories or biscuit or oil manufacturers, routinely incur higher costs because they are unable to utilize their machinery at full capacity and are thus discouraged from expanding their production. Similarly, commodity exporters who have contracted with international buyers face the terrible risk of not being able to make their shipment on time if they are unable to get the supply in time or in the right quality. To avoid this risk, they often are forced to tie up their capital holding large inventories, which means they can't readily expandtheir
business. So there is a real market problem, and it is faced by many actors on all sides of the market. And this problem constrains our economic growth. How does ECX provide a solution? ECX is a neutral third party, providing service to the market in four major ways. First, ECX certifies the quality of the commodity to be sold and holds it in warehouse on behalf of the seller, thus guaranteeing the quality, quantity, and delivery of the commodity to the buyer of that commodity. This solves the problem faced by buyers such as exporters and processors. Second, ECX operates a payment clearing and settlement system which takes payment from the buyer and transfers it to the seller, guaranteeing that the payment will be made in the correct amount and on time. This solves the problem faced by sellers, such as farmers and traders. Third, ECX provides a trading system which enables buyers and sellers to find each other when they need to trade. This trading system is for now a physical Trading Floor where bids and offers are made in person by buyers and sellers (or their agents) but will also have an electronic trading platform which can be accessed remotely. Finally, ECX disseminates information on prices as soon as trades are made to everyone in the market so that no one is at a disadvantage because they are missing market information. This price transparency helps everyone to plan their commercial actions better and thus make better deals. Having a reliable market system helps farmers produce more, expands our industrial base, increases our exports, and enhances our food security because commodities reach the areas where they are most needed faster and at lower cost. That is why commodity exchanges are part and parcel of most advanced and more recently emerging economies around the globe, starting with the best known US commodity exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, started in 1848 for precisely the same reasons why our farmers and others in Ethiopia and our economy as a whole would benefit from an organized market.
I would now like to address a set of related questions: Who should own the exchange? If the government of Ethiopia owns it, how can it be considered a free market? Is it a monopoly and/or an instrument of control? These are all valid questions and have been asked many times by our stakeholders here in Ethiopia. Let us start with ownership. The historical experience is that exchanges in Western countries were set up by private actors as "mutual organizations" on a non-profit basis, meaning that a group of merchants got together and set up this third party marketing system which sustained itself from fees charged to its mutual owners, or members, at zero profit. Even though the exchange itself was non-profit, the members who owned the exchange on the other hand privately benefitted from the system by restricting entry into the mutual organization and charging for-profit brokerage fees to non-members to use the exchange trading system, thus becoming very profitable, large brokerage firms such as Charles Schwab, Merrill Lynch or others. Over time, this system of mutual ownership become problematic because of the inherent conflict of interest in that the owners who were also members tended to put their private interest ahead of the market's interests. So, traditional exchanges in most of the Western countries and newly established exchanges in the emerging markets have in the last decade evolved to "demutualized" entities, meaning that the owners are separate from the trading members. In the US, this has meant that most of the exchanges have gone public, meaning
that they have sold shares to many individuals, who are not members of the trade. Inplaces like India, exchanges have been recently set up owned by a few investors, such as banks or insurance companies (half state owned and half private), again who are not trading members. However, if there are investors or shareholders, it implies that the exchanges no longer have a non-profit orientation, meaning that they charge fees intending to maximize profit, rather than at cost. In the case of Ethiopia, having reviewed these various global experiences, we chose a unique "hybrid" model. Our model adopts the demutualized entity status in keeping with global trends, but retains the traditional system of membership and the non-profit status of the exchange, in order for it to attract maximum participation and not to impose a financial burden on the market users. In effect, this is a Private-Public partnership model in that, as a non-profit, it would only make sense for the state to sponsor the investment since no private actor would be willing to invest large sums on a non-profit basis. At the same time, there is private ownership of a restricted number of permanent and freely tradable membership seats (like shares) which gives incentive to private members to profit from using the exchange system and from charging brokerage fees to non-members. This model essentially marries the social objectives of creating an organized market with private profit incentives. By law, and unlike any other publicly owned enterprise in Ethiopia, our Exchange operates on an at-cost basis and does not pay dividends to the government Treasury and may only re-invest any net earnings into its own scaling up. Initially, in fact, the Exchange is operating at a loss since it charges fees somewhat below cost, in order to encourage participation. Thus, there is no motive to retain ownership by the state and over time, as the Exchange system takes hold, the government has publicly expressed its commitment to passing ownership to private entities. This model is not entirely without precedent. In the US, Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) in the financial sector, the most well known of which are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac corporations which operate multi-trillion dollar markets for home mortgages, were set up under state ownership in 1938 and later went into private shareholding in 1968. Their recent bailout, along with other financial institutions, by the US government following the 2008 financial crisis has restored ownership back to the US government. Many stock exchanges in emerging markets, such as Dubai, Tel-Aviv, Eastern Europe, and others, are established with government ownership, usually for the same reasons as Ethiopia, that the investment costs are too high to encourage private investment and because the exchange is desired for social objectives, as a benefit to the economy. I should mention that the start-up cost of our Exchange is in the order of US$ 24 million which, because of its public ownership and non-profit nature, was able to be financed by donor partners such as the USAID, World Bank, UNDP, WFP, Canada, and others.
And now, for what really matters, what about control? To begin, it is important to understand that, although government-owned, the Exchange is not a part of government. It is not an agency or department of any particular state organ. It is established, by law, as an autonomous commercial enterprise having its own legal status. A parallel example might be Ethiopian Airlines, although the corporate governance of the Exchange is unique. Our establishing law extends the concept of demutualization further to separating ownership, membership, and management. Thus, by law, the Exchange is managed by professionals that cannot be appointed from within government or come from the trading community. The Exchange has its own salary structure and its employees are not part of the civil service. In fact, at present, the Exchange has an internationally recruited management team of 10 professionals, financed by external donors, as a management on loan program, to ensure that the Exchange is run professionally and to transfer needed skills. Again, unlike any other publicly-owned enterprise in Ethiopia, the Board of Directors is composed in almost equal part of representatives of the owner (state) and the private members of the Exchange as well as the CEO as a non-voting director. The Exchange's CEO is appointed by and reports to this Board of Directors. Thus, without any doubt in the law or in practice, the Exchange is managed independently of any government organ and is aservice-
providing entity to the private market actors. There is no interference or intervention in any aspect of day to day ECX operations, whether it is the warehousing and quality inspection, the dissemination of price information nationally and internationally (which relies mainly on the systems that ECX itself has developed), the financial systems, or the trading sessions. One could say, and many of our private sector members have quickly realized once it was explained, that the ownership-membershipgovernance model described above essentially gives a free pass to our private members, who can gain private profit from the exchange at minimal cost, without investing in the expensive assets, and still have a big say in the management of the entity.
At the same time, like in any country, no market can exist in a vacuum outside the reach of policy or the laws of the land. Thus, our Exchange regularly consults with appropriate line Ministries on the direction of policies, regarding changes to domestic or external trade policies, tax, or macro policies. This is no different than in South Africa, the US, India or elsewhere. For example, in 2008, when domestic inflation got out of hand, the Indian government banned rice and wheat trading on the Exchange and imposed an export ban. This has nothing to do with who owns their exchanges (in fact it is a combination of public and private investors). Similarly, the US has recently initiated a crackdown on
excessive speculation in the commodity markets (oil) and imprisoned or fined several market actors such as Bernie Madoff who violated laws in the financial market. In addition to the laws and policies that govern a market in any country, all exchanges also have their own internal Rules that govern how the market is organized and how the market actors must behave. The Rule books of the Chicago and New York commodity exchanges are thick volumes with thousands of pages developed over 160 years with detailed instructions on how to govern their market. We also have our Rules of the Exchange that, like in the US, Argentina, Brazil, India or elsewhere, have to be approved by our regulatory body, the newly established Commodity Exchange Authority. This Authority is a government body which has the mandate of overseeing that our Exchange itself and our Members are in compliance with our law and with the other laws of the country and with our Rules. Having been set up alongside our Exchange, the Authority has been in active partnership to build its capacity through training with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on which it is modeled. In any country with a serious market, government regulators like SEC and CFTC in the US, or FMC and SEBI in India, have a significant and constant presence. So a market is not a free market because it is operates outside of laws or rules. It is in fact the presence of these laws and rules that ensures that the integrity of the free market, or the principle
of market competition, is maintained. For example, one of our rules regarding our Trading Floor is that all prices must be shouted out audibly so that all market actors can hear the bid or offer. This is a rule designed to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to compete for that trade.
So what makes a free market? It is, within the confines of the existing rules and laws in place, the absence of interference by any third party in the actual buying and selling of any good. In a free market, as long as the rules are followed, any seller can sell whatever they want to any buyer at any price, any time, and in any amount, and vice versa. Let us think of a free market like driving on a highway. As long as you have a driver's license, a registered and insured vehicle, and follow the traffic rules, you can drive in any car you want, anywhere you want, with whomever you like, for as long as you like (gas permitting, of course). The rules are there to ensure that everyone is safe on the highway. In our Exchange market, this is precisely the case today. Our 450 mostly private trading members freely trade at prices and quantities and with whom they like without any interference whatsoever.
Finally, what about a monopoly? Why force all coffee or all sesame trading into the Exchange? Why not let people choose to use the Exchange of their own free will? To extend our above analogy, we might say that this is like forcing all drivers onto a single highway. At first glance, this seems quite unpalatable and rather contrary to the notion of a free market. Here is the catch. Among the four functions of the Exchange that were listed above, its very core role is to provide a central trading system for buyers and sellers to match their trades. This trading system results in what is known as "price discovery" which is the emergence of the competitively bid market price that reflects true supply and demand of a good at a particular moment. However, to be a truly representative market price, the trading system needs a critical mass of sellers and buyers, otherwise the Exchange's price is meaningless as an indicator of market supply and demand. In other words, if the ECX price represents only a small share of the actual market trading, then this price is not the true market price. For this reason, all of the world's exchanges essentially force this critical mass of trading in a commodity or stock into a single trading system. That is why there are only two major stock exchanges (NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange) for the entire U.S. economy and most companies are only listed on one of these exchanges. Similarly, for commodities, although there are about 4 active commodity exchanges in the US, each commodity is traded exclusively on only one exchange. For example, Hard Red Spring Wheat is only traded on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and Soft Winter Wheat is only traded on the Chicago Board of Trade, and so on. By the way, the term "monopoly" is not the correct use of the term in this case since monopoly implies a single buyer or a single seller that sets prices non-competitively and, here, we have hundreds of buyers and sellers freely trading competitively at their own prices. We would hardly say the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has a monopoly on corn trading, no more than we would consider that the CEO of Fannie Mae is part of the US government. So, more appropriately, it can be said that our exchange, like other exchanges elsewhere, is an exclusive platform for trading in particular commodity contracts. Over time, as the market volume and liquidity grow, it might be appropriate to have more than one commodity exchange and our law provides for the Ethiopian regulatory body to recognize other exchanges.
IN SUM, here are the key points. A better functioning market is good for everyone and for the economy, from farmers to domestic traders to processors to exporters and an exchange is a tried and true model to deliver a better market. Though state owned, ECX is an autonomous (non-government) commercial entity set up on a non-profit basis, with private ownership of membership seats, which thus represents a Private-Public partnership model in which private seat owners are able to gain profit from using the exchange system at minimal cost. Our corporate governance structure ensures that ECX is managed independently and professionally with a Board of Directors representing nearly equally both the owner and the private trading members and a separation by law of management from ownership and
membership. At the same time, the Exchange operates within the policies and laws of the country, like any exchange in the world. Within these rules and policies, there is no interference by the state in the operational management of the exchange or in the day to day trading by market actors. Finally, ECX cannot be considered a monopoly in the correct sense of the word but rather an exclusive trading place for specific commodities, in order to have a critical mass of buyers and sellers, in keeping with the way exchanges are set up around the globe.
In subsequent essays over the coming days, I will address the human side of ECX, the lives that have been touched and who is really benefitting, particularly among small farmers, and the very important issue of coffee trading and the concern on specialty coffee, as well as our first year performance and the exciting plans ahead as we embark on our second year. Some of these themes are also addressed on our website, www.ecx.com.et, where you can also find our establishing law. Some have questioned why invest the time to engage in this dialogue. It is because we believe that a national institution such as ours must be accountable and transparent to all Ethiopians, wherever they are. Public education is part of our job. We also believe that, through bringing knowledge or investment, anyone can meaningfully engage with ECX. After all, it is your Exchange too.
Recent Articles by Dr. Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin
Will The Real Poor Farmer Rise (By Eleni Gabre-Madhin)
This is my Ethiopian story- (By Eleni Gabre-Madhin)
AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME (By Eleni Gabre-Madhin)
Songs of Freedom, Stories of Change (By Eleni Gabre-Madhin)
Dear Dr. Elleni,
You are great and Ethiopia is lucky to
have a good duaghter like u. Keep working
hard and things will change to the
better. People like u and Mr Wake
(Ethiopian) show
that things can improve through hard
Please skeptics give people a chance to
show what they can do.
Very educational information. I see a bright future in trading if ECX succeeds. I wish you all the luck and thank you for your effort.
…"only 25% of agriculture production reaches the market"… that is very sad to hear and with your hard work, I hope and pray you will achieve your goals/dreams. You are the true daughter of Ethiopia and we have nothing but great love and respect Dr. Eleni. You are the true role model of millions of Ethiopians and we hope more Ethiopians will be awakening and do their parts to support the rebuilding process in Ethiopia.
Accountability and transparency is the key for Ethiopia/ns to succeed in this 21st and feed itself. I wish she elaborated little more about the power of stock holders…another words, how much power would individuals stock holders will have based on their ownership values? Also, how much will private stockholders be allowed to purchase and control? Either way, I am really amazed and pleased to read the detail and wish you good luck.
Thank you… Dr Eleni,
One day your name will be recognized as one of the most influential and visionary woman in the world. I used to get sickened by the hate and attack against you by the under-educated and some so called intellectuals within the diaspora. You must continue this great work for my country without paying attention to the many false patriotic ethiopians with foreign passport. May God bless you and your family. As an eth'n woman, I am so proud of you. wish you all the success in the world.
Ms. Eleni you are living all our dreams. I would say 90% of the Ethiopians I know dream of contributing like you. I am sure even with all the love you have for your job it is a sacrfice in a lot of ways. I don't know what your personal feelings are about the government but I am sorry for anyone that has to seat with devil. It is not always easy to look the other way. Some times you don't even have to see they just come for you.
Thank you!
Hi Dr Eleni,
Thankyou for your good job. A lot of people were suspecious about you and your background and you clearly clarified that you are not a woyane. No body expected that you are related to King Tona of Wolayta and by extension, your part to be Wolayta. But how many people knows that King Tona is Tigre? I leave that for Historians and rather let me ask you a question on Economics.
Yesterday I heared that all diaspora Ethiopian business owners should report to Ethiopia inorder to get finger printed. Majority of the diaspora is critical about the current regime in Ethiopia and those business men are saying " the government wanted to seize our property if we do not show up for the finger print". My question to you is, as an economist what is your take on the finger printing idea of Ethiopian government when you see it from the perspective of encouraging investor confidence in such poorest of poor country. The world is suffering from global economic resession and almost all countries trying to stimulate their economy by taking various measures in order to enhance investor confidence. On the contrary, Ethiopia is discouraging investors by threatning them to show up for finger printing as if the diaspora is a suspected terrorist. What you say about this?
Thankyou Dr Eleni
So this the low budget PR effort? Dr. Eleni, why are you engaging in an endless quarrel with ppl who would never stop criticizing anything progressive? Instead do what is right and no matter how big the criticism your good work will prove you right. Keep the farmers and the low level traders happy. Our ppl know something good when they see it and sense monopoly and government intervention from 100 miles away. Be true to yourself.
Well… I am blown away. Not only am I blown away at her ability to once again explain as she did with clarity, but the mannerism in which she did it. I can say while reading her, and only once, not only did I get it… I felt her desire to reach you doubters and everyone else here understand her, to show you this is not about politics nor Meles-which you all love to dip in to everything-but is actually good for Ethiopia/Ethiopians.
Did those of you who had to ask get it?
Well, we will see….
SALUTE! to u!! "WELL SAID" the human VERBS and ADVERBS of WEYANE crowed dancers are just going with closed eyes and ears to the wedding to witsle and clapp, without knowing who were the actual grooms?
Thank you Dr.Eleni,unlike those "YEKEBERO BAHITAWYAN"who talk the talk but never walk the walk,you have shown us what it takes to be a real Ethiopian,by walking the walk with the poor farmers.by going back home and putting yourself in to the task.
Thank you again, and good luck.
"To get out of agriculture and transform into a modern industrial state, Ethiopian agriculture must become increasingly productive so that labor can shift into other sectors"
- does Ethiopia needs to have your famous "Exchange" to progress from an agrarian economy to industry based economy? Why not experiment with the introduction of more tractors and other industrial agriculture?
"Having a reliable market system helps farmers produce more, expands our industrial base, increases our exports, and enhances our food security because commodities reach the areas where they are most needed faster and at lower cost."
- Woman, you are focusing on Coffee and Sesame seeds which are mostly for export. Why not focusing first on those grains and legumes that are locally consumed by the majority of Ethiopians? such as lentils, pepper, garbanzo beans used for "Shurro" stuff like that. These would have help people in time of famine not the coffee, Sesame seeds,. Khat or horticulture - first let's us focus on internal consumption rather than giving too much importance on exported agricultural stuffs
"charging for-profit brokerage fees to non-members to use the exchange trading system,"
- Can you elaborate who are the people behind the scene? Maybe you forgot to mention Meles' avaricious wife?
"the government has publicly expressed its commitment to passing ownership to private entities"
- To who exactly? to Meles' clans and sycophants? .
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac corporations which operate multi-trillion dollar markets for home mortgages"
- So you want to drag Ethiopian economy down the drain like these malfunction banks have done so much damage to the properties in the US?
" The Exchange has its own salary structure and its employees are not part of the civil service."
- So, may we ask how are you being paid? in US dollars in a poor country? so woman you did not give up or sacrifice a good life in the US - on the contrary if you have secured a very lucrative job - being paid in US$ you must be living lavishly - " Hello Dubai every week-end" right?
"This is no different than in South Africa, the US, India or elsewhere"
-You keep on bringing those countries - for what? to justify yourself again? Why don't we concentrate on Ethiopia only. Don't tell us how the Commodity Exchanges are in those countries. we really don't care
"the US has recently initiated a crackdown on excessive speculation in the commodity markets (oil) and imprisoned or fined several market actors such as Bernie Madoff who violated laws in the financial market"
- Really? so, you are telling us something that the press never cover or mentioned about Madoff's being involved in oil? Are you creating something to distract us?
"Let us think of a free market like driving on a highway. .. for as long as you like gas permitting of course). The rules are there to ensure that everyone is safe on the highway."
- Don't you think you are patronizing us or talking to us like we are small kids? this analogy is good for your kids not for us
Let me conclude your rambling and tell you straight that you are lucky to be given the opportunity to experiment with your Commodity Exchange in Ethiopia - if ever it works good for you; you will be given all kind of recognition and hopefully you will be the new African version of Mohammed Yunis, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for introducing micro loan in Bangladesh - if the Commodity Exchange will not be working to alleviate poverty like you have claimed then you are not loosing anything, you have been paid in US $ and the living cost in a poor country like Ethiopia is way below than any Western countries so you will amass a good fortune to retire as a very rich woman at the expense of poor Ethiopian farmers.
Why did we keep the same procedure like Dergue time where all farmers were supposed to bring their products in the center of a designated area and the middlemen were supposed to buy directly from this center and the government control the price that they were selling to the public? Can you tell us what was wrong with that idea?
"Which thus represents a Private-Public partnership model in which private seat owners are able to gain profit from using the exchange system at minimal cost" This are her words.
Its a good idea,….my question is, what are the requirements to be part of ECX share holder? Do i have to deposit Kuntals, Cash, or Camels?
I need some Information on how to get my share on this pie because it is half-public funded. and that means,.. There is a lot of money to be made by the public who can afford it,…so, every Ethiopian should know how to get a piece of this pie
Just post the requirements here, Appreciate it
You have captured the imagination of so many otherwise unlucky dreamers. You are smart, courageous and have been very lucky so far. What is next? Why not the Stock Exchange… Why would Haile Gerima not do the same for movie industry and what happened to others whose star isn't shining as bright as yours?
The web site (www.ecx.com.et) is very impressive. There are 21 grades of coffees on the market and the ticker, scrolling left to right, is just great.
Public awareness is an ideal instrument to launch a healthy and robust institution. Probably that is the big hole in this government.
There is nothing better than getting public consent to energize and launch a new system or institution.
I am sure almost all Ethiopians will welcome your briefing about ECX. There is a long way to walk to smell success. However, the dream of having it run to the benefit of the majority people is an incentive enough to entertain challenges that could pop up along the route to the realization of a functioning trading institution.
Hope to visit your institution soon!
what a dedication thank you Dr Eleni
ecx (middle man )is not a panacea to the country's economic /marketing / ill.it is a good idea but with the current stifling political culture and disabling EPDRF policies in place its success will remain to be seen.
are the farmers empowered or are they
coerced to get in line?do they have options not sell on the ecx floor?
I won't be punting on this xchange.
The shabia TROIJA horse.
Weyannes are the only living parasites on plant earth who are capable of cheating and lying to its ppl. not only cheating and lying they intoxicated the entire ethiopian unity by new drug called ECX. It is like giving a child ALCHOL and drug to sleep.The so called ECX nothing but a new way of looting the poor ethiopians specially the Oromo. I warn you all that the greatest danger hanging over ethiopian economy is the eruption of this shabia TROJA horse called ECx run by crack heads from USA.
My psychological observation is leading me to radical reassessment of conventional assuption.Even now all todays ethiopia commercial morality is really no more than a refinment of PIRAT-morality,buying cheaply from Poor farmers paying nothing but over head expenses if possible -and selling dearly. The poor farmer will be suffocated by this new system created and mastermind by shabia Troja horse.we must not trust the shabia Troja planted inside ethiopia economy.Be aware the true ethiopian, your land and your soul is on the table for sell. soon you will have a country full of Invaders from north and east.
Dr. Elani,
you are one of the people Ethiopia needed at this point and time. I'm proud of you, you're an Ethiopian well educated woman.I'm glad also you're not part of the useless diaspora whom thinks they are educated but in reality they are just zero is zero when it comes to Ethiopian situation.
I know the discarded diaspora were writting about you the cheap way as usual because they think you were as an a Tigrayen woman.Now, since you were explaning of your who you are,now again the diaspora started saying good about you because they know now you are not from Tigray.
One way or the other they failed to understand that you are working on for the Ethiopian development despite where you are from or who you are. Anyways again i'm proud of you by being part of Ethiopia and working on Ethiopian development.
Thank you very much modam. Yeha
So far so good. In theory, as you explained, ECX is good - good for the government and above all good for the people.
In many other countries what is good for the government is also good for the people and vice versa, because the government represents the people, and the people elect their leaders who fill government apparatus.
But unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case in Ethiopia. 'The government' is owned by few – we all know that most influential government offices are STILL filled by TPLF members. In addition major businesses are owned by EFFORT, which in turn is owned by TPLF.
You don't for instance tell us who the private owners are. Is the identity of the private owners of the Chicago or whatever exchange also so secret? Will the ECX (its goal) be affected (or remain unaffected) by how the government is run? We still don't know.
You said "…, like in any country, no market can exist in a vacuum outside the reach of policy or the laws of the land". True, but in Ethiopia the law is made by the government, the government is dominated by TPLF – Tigray People Liberation Front, TPLF owns EFFORT, EFFORT controls/dominates major businesses. Now, do you see where our fear comes from?
I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt and look forward to your next blog in which you "… will address the human side of ECX". I would like to hear not only concrete examples, but also statistics.
I hope you will deal with questions like, how many of our farmers are affected? How were their income before ECX, and after ECX? How many will be affected? How many traders are affected? etc, etc…
Dear Dr. Elleni
many thanks for your lecture on the importance of ECX for Ethiopia. Are you trying to fool us,don't bit around the bush like your boss (the bloody dictator meles).Please try to respond to the question striate forward other wise stop moving here and there and serve your boss and create a favorable environment for Effort to further exploit our poor farmers.
""I would like to thank all of those who have taken the time to express their interest, whatever their viewpoint. Open dialogue on important ideas, in a mutually respectful manner, is vital to our ability to grow and evolve as a society and as an economy."" Every time I read an article written by Dr Eleni, my mind get enlightened many folds.She is one of the few Ethiopians who makes me proud that I am an Ethiopian.Most people in the diaspora has to learn a lot from her, specially the way she addresses opposite/different point of views and the way she present herself.Thank you again Dr Eleni.
I knew something is bugging you Dr. Eleni. May be it is guilt. There is a better way of helping this poor people. You don't have to go this far to show how you love your country. You know all the things you said are not possible in an oppressed socity. Nothing free is possible where there is no freedom. Talking about free market or free commodity exchange where there is no freedom is like talking about life where there is no air or water. Please try to convince us first what makes you think there are the basic grounds, which are freedom and democracy, to establish free commodity exchange in Ethiopia.
This lady must be drowning in fantasy trying to set up an exchange whose sole purpose might be to put what ever private commercial enterprise which is engaged in trading commodities as varied as coffee and sesame in the hands of the government. This so called autonomous nature of this exchange is 'pie in the sky'. So long as the govt owns this exchanges any sort of autonomy is utterly rubbish. The ruling party already has numerous enterprises directly competing against private entities. Now, this lady, knowingly or unknowingly is trying to speed up the consolidation of the trade activity of numerous small entrepreneurs, middle men and expeditors will only make them obsolete. Ms Eleni G in her article mentioned various mercantile exchanges like the ones in Chicago and New York which have been instrumental in fan faring speculation of all sorts.
This will fuel further inflation and allow govt or party run operation to manipulate the prices of commodities and stockpile them on insider information.
It is open season on the urban dwellers and small exporters who cannt compete with powerful and connected Party enterprises who probably have secured seats at the exchange.
What the farmers in Ethiopia need is better seeds and agricultural machinery. They need the revamping of already prevalent extension programme.
I think this lady is confused or is being used as a tool by those who are trying to extinguish whatever small enterprise is in existence in the Nation. Sooner or later we will see valuable export commodities like coffee and sesame being carried across the porous border.
Farmers who are the corner stone of the regime's policy will be hoarding commodities at govt(exchange) owned storage facilities for little or no cost. Such a short sighted visionary will create more confusion and worsen the inflation.
If the author wanted to help farmers and pastoralist communities, she will have taken the complex challenge of getting top yielding drought and pest ressistant seeeds from the likes of Archer Daniels, Monsanto and Pionner at cut rate price. Similarly she could have tried to establish more veternary clinics throughout the Nation.
Her comparison of the established Exchange with Ethiopian Airlines as if the latter was an independent entity is enough reason to doubt the real nature of her ill fated adventure which will only create more suspicion amongst the ever dwindling small entrepenurs.
It is a pity when the West, including the United States, is trying to curb speculative trades in futures and commodites Ethiopia is embracing it.
Dearest Eleni,
I am sad that the sale out ER guy posted your article. If there is a way, please try to get that article removed from his garbage website. That garbage Banda doesn't deserve your article.
You are the best dearest!
Dear Dr. Eleni,
If your intention was to tell us about ECX and your motive, I am sure you addressed that with two successive articles. If there are still people who are against you, then forget them and keep up the hard work. I believe you go a very long way to reach to the '' diaspora's'', now should be their turn.
Sera le leseriw …. yelal yagere sew,
emmmmmmmmm…something is eating you right?Your guilt is eating you, that is why you talk too much. Deep down in your heart of hearts you know full well that serving the interests of the ethnofacists who hold hostage our beloved country is wrong, but you are doing it anyway.
By trying to justify what you are doing is right, you are fooling no one but yourself and
OH My God
"ECX certifies the quality of the commodity"…etc…
And you are saying you have a PhD in Economics. You have written to impress those who are waiting to comment positive what ever" Woynae" say. I would have given you F in basics economics if you were in my class. Amazing, you have written such a long essay using such wonderful and powerful vocabularies but did not answer our questions. And surprising, how the resemblance of you and Evil Meles , you both talk and talk just to confuse the uneducated society but never answered the question asked. You talked about European and American community exchange system and tried to compare it with Ethiopia. That is were you are totally wrong …But easy for you since your living a luxurious life in Ethiopian even better than how you would have been living in America and Europe , you can feel that way. But you need to understand your standard does not work in country where almost 25% of people does not have anything to eat!!!!!Anyway do whatever you do and lie how ever you want …but we really know you who really you are. One day the devil in you will go to hell with you or with out you , with the help of God.
ELENI DON,T RESPONCE TO THESE HATERS. just keep doeing what do. haters only want atention so don,t give them none just brush them off
dear Eleni, don't pay too much attention to cyber gossip, empty barrels makes the most noise, just do what you think is best for your country, Joro Dabba LiBess to dish washer diaspora.
You are doing just well. Go ahead
and continue to make a difference. Do
not mind those who can only talk talk
and do nothing to me they are useless
even to themselves live alone to their
country. It does not matter from which
part of Ethiopia you are - what matters
is you are an Ethiopian daughter and
we are proud of you and your team. May
God help you in whatever you are doing.
Well, how come some people afraid to ask the tough questions?
The above essay reads like what Meles writes on 'mirqana'. Eleni is living in an imaginary Ethiopia where the rule of law and an honest governance with checks and balances prevail.
Key questions that I would like to add
Why is the former spy and one if the most unqualified Weyane officials Debre Tsion onboard the governing body of your exchange? In fact what everyone says is that he rules the board. So you expect Ethiopians to believe that you will operate in transparency when you have a Weyane spy as your boss? What a joke!
The coffee incident -in my opinion-was the lithmus test. I am not sure you understand Ethiopia's coffee commofity business because the first thing you did was quarell with them. This even led to their arrest. So, if a trader refuses to enter your exchange, they get arrested! And you are saying World Bank is paying for this. What a joke! Who is next to be arrested because the market economy of 'chat mirqana' by Meles, Sebhat and Eleni now sats that if you don't use our 'idea whose time has come', we will then arrest you as hoarder. What is the dufference with Mengustu's sebl gebeya dirijt that left destruction on its path and send hundreds of small time traders to jail.
It is logic; commodity exchange has been a missing link between the buyers and the producers in Ethiopia. Even without having any advanced knowledge of economics we can understand its importance. What is a little bit concerning is the nature of the system that manages the commodity exchange. Here the professionalism and patriotic nature of Dr. Eleni and her staff is very important. She may at least lay ground for good operating system. Many things are initiated with good intention, but can be corrupted through time. Transparency, strict rules and regulations and a good government system are very important to support and control such huge national task. If such an idea is very important, together with participation of the whole people it will contribute to the development of the country.
If system of commodity exchange can increase market demand, it will enhance farmer's productivity? But if farmer's productivity is not practical we understood from experience that the local market can be highly affected. The local buyers (the people) will become victims of huge angry outside market and those of processing industries within Ethiopia. Before Dr. Eleni, practically in Ethiopia, a commodity exchange (for gold) worked very well; but commodity exchange (for oil seeds and other commodities and derivatives) had been observed to affect the local market; because there was not productivity and the aim of the exchange was mainly to export and fulfill the demand of industries.
C'est moi senayet,Lucy and Nunu
All three of you looks like have one thing in common."JEALOUSY"May be because you are women who are unhappy and felt intimidiated by Dr Eleni's achievments.when ever she is in the news you can't help it but runt your despise of her.you better get over it.there is nothing to hold her back.she is a very strong determind woman with a big vision .
I think Dr. Eleni has clarified the objectives and the how to process of exchange of commodities in the new ECX she is establishing. I admire her approach of addressing issues with passion and professionalism.
Ethiopia is experiencing difficult times the last four decades. The Derg era has destabilized the property ownership through nationalization schemes where citizens lost their entire wealth for nothing. The assumption was that the system was old unproductive backward etc and yet little progress was made on the nations economy or the society at large. Then comes the recent two decades of woyane rule that promote ethnic identity as solution to every problem to society. They initially promote socialism and target the poor farmers and workers they call the mass to be their beneficiary. At the end however they turn out to be tribal dangerously narrow and selfish animals who robe every one to benefit only few of their sycophants.
Here comes Dr Eleni in the middle of this mess trying to influence people she is working hard to benefit society. It is very hard sell considering the current regimes records. This regime ignored poor farmers from day one. The basic economy of the nation is agriculture and yet nothing has been done to help poor farmers to produce better. The derg and previous regimes have better records helping farmers produce more than this one. The current regime seems to focus on final grains not in plowing, weeding, harvesting or storing. If the country don't produce more and better there will not be any thing to trade. The key is in the production sector. I agree if producers get good price bla bla yes it is true but farmers have been neglected for too long.
It seems the regime seems to have given up in producing crops rather is now focusing on selling the land itself. Well the ECX will trade prety soon with Chinese because they will be the one who will produce the sesame in Ethiopia. Or the Indians and Arabs will bring stuff to your ECX because they are planning to grab the land for cheap and produce crop. So in the middle of this and with the bad records of this regime your effort falls into some kind of the extension of the regimes scam and unfortunately under scrutiny.
If you genuinely want to help your country and people I wish you good luck and all the best.
Frederick Douglass, Speech, April 1886 US abolitionist (1817 - 1895) said the following:
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe".
Lucy [Visitor]
"But easy for you since your living a luxurious life in Ethiopian even better than how you would have been living in America and Europe''
really you must be one of those donkeys in Addis market who pushed Eleni around. trust me, as a banker in US she had a better life than that. just because she didn't push you back, it doesn't mean she enjoyed it. control your hatred my dear.
She is trying for the next stage of PM after Meles.
One thing I do not agree with Eleni advice to Meles is selling our fertile lands to foreign countries while we have so many efficient farmers from the north of the country Tigray and Amhara regions. If the Government of Ethiopia gives them some incentives to do commercial farming in the South where our lands are exported to other countries to feed other nations while our people dying, they will bring crops to Ethiopian markets at a lower prices all people can afford to feed themselves.
We have to be careful if Eleni becomes PM of Ethiopia, she will sale out our country to higher bidders international multi corporations in the name of privatization and investments and our poor small farmers will end up homeless in Addis Ababa and other major cities in the future. Those Mega international commercial farmers tend to expand their farming lands by buying lands from small farmers and drive them to the cities and become homeless like Brazil did for its citizens
i just finished reading that long article. my quests remain unanswered. nevertheless, her argument looks sensible, even though she may or may not be aware of the disproportionate advantage taken by the ruling TPLF led conglomerates. so i would say - keep your work, the truth will come out in the near future when the ruling mafia is pulverized.
Shegaw - Yayew Hulu Yidenekal [Visitor] you comment is simply spectacular and you hit the nail on the head. i don't know why this Eleni stop blubbering.
My uncle had a PhD. in Sewer Technology. He came back to Addis to work passionately just like you and after a few major steps they threw him back and ended up ending his life because he was deeply dissapointed.
Brave,Jenuine, Decent persons are rare and mostly will never make it in Ethiopia. I hope you are not over your head Dr. Eleni.
Eleni bla, bla, bla just stop it. EXC is their to loot money. start digging your hiding place, you bosses days are numbered.
I would like to appreciate you for taking the time to communicate with concerned Ethiopians around the world on matters surrounding your agency, ECX. Through your eloquent and courteous communication skill, you have certainly demonstrated that you are not part of the EPRDF bushmen culture. I am saying this out of my frustration by the arrogance and boorish EPRDF authorities in the past decade or so.
That said I would like to say few points about the role you said ECX would play in the improvement of agricultural productivity. I agree with you, Ethiopia's agricultural productivity has to improve. Despite the vast areas of fertile land, diverse climate, generally adequate renewable freshwater and large labor pool, Ethiopia is one of the countries in the world where poverty and hunger are on the increase. mode Farming operation have remained unchanged for centuries and productivity is generally at or below subsistence level. In general, the country's agriculture is in a coma suffering from severe backwardness syndrome. According to Dr. Eleni's doctrine the establishment of the commodity exchange market will change the primitive mode of farming in the country and improve productivity and more grains will be available for trading. Paradoxically, the government seems to have different solution which is inconsistent to Dr. Eleni's doctrine. The government is busy leasing big chunk of the land to foreign countries to raise food production. Will the food produced by foreigners at the big chunk of leased land be available for domestic market? Domestic consumers cannot possibly compete with the prices foreign consumers would pay and investors will tend to siphon the food off to traders and consumers in other countries.
የውይዘሮ እሌኒ መንጨርጨር እየገረመን ነዉ። የወያኔ ፍቅር ያነደዳት ወያኔ ባለፈዉ ትግሬ አይደለሁም ብላ እኛንም እዉቀታችሁ ትንሽ ነዉ ብላ ሰደበችን እንደ ማለት ነዉ። አሁን ደግሞ ስለ ኮሞዲትይ ኤክስቻንጅ ልትነግረን ትፈልጋለች። ነጥቡ ግን የት እንዳለ እያወቀች እንዳለ ዘላዋለች። ምንም በማር ብትለዉሽዉ የምትሰሪዉ ስራ የዉሽሞችሽን ወያኔን እና የራስሽን ኪስ ማድለብ ካልሆነ ሊትዮጵያ ሕዝብ መከራ ካልሆነ ፋይዳ እንደማታመጭ ሁላችንም እናዉቃለን ስለዚህ ከምትለፈልፊብን አርፈሽ ብትዘርፊ ይሻላል። ከመዝረፍ ያቆመሽ የለም ግን የሚያባንንሽ የምትሰሪዉ ትክክል አለመሆኑን ስለምታዉቂ ንቻ ነው። የትግሬ ወይዘሮ ለኢትዮጵያ ለዉጥ ልታመጣ አትችልም፤ ይህ የማይገባሽ ከሆነ ምንም ኪትዮጵያ ሕዝብ ልትሰሚዉ የምትችይ ነገር የለሽም። ስል አንች በሰማን ቁጥር እነዚያን የናዚ ልጆች ጀፈሪ ሳክስን እና ፓዉል ሄንዜ የሚሏቸዉን ዘረኛ የወያኔ የሃሰት ምስክሮች ያስታዉሰናል፤ አንችም ከነርሱ የምትለይበት ነገር ቢኖርዝ ቋንቃችን እያወራሽ እኛን መስለሽ በመምጣትሽ ነዉ። ከዚህ የሚያደንቁሽ ያዉ ከናንተ የተከፈላቸዉ ትግሬዎች ናቸዉ ወይም የምትሰሪዉን ድብቅ አጀንዳ ያልገባቸዉ የዎሆች ይሆንናሉ። ድጋፍ ያገኜሽ እንዳይመስልሽ ለፍርድ በምትቀርቢበት ጊዜ አንድም ሰዉ ከጎንሽ አይቆምም። አሜሪካ ያልተሳካልሽን ሃብት ኢትዮጵያ ለመዝረፍ ብቅ ያልሽ ስለሆነ ወግናችን ከሚገድሉት ወያኔዎች የተልየ ቦታ ላንች ሊኖረን አይችልም። ያንችን ትምህርት ዉሃ ይብላዉ አንች አይሉ ምሁ፤ የጋን መብራት አይነት ነገር ነሽ።
You are the next Prime Minister.
The only worthy successor to Meles
Taken from above article:
"How does ECX provide a solution? ECX is a neutral third party, providing service to the market in four major ways. First, ECX certifies the quality of the commodity to be sold and holds it in warehouse on behalf of the seller, thus guaranteeing the quality, quantity, and delivery of the commodity to the buyer of that commodity. This solves the problem faced by buyers such as exporters and processors. Second, ECX operates a payment clearing and settlement system which takes payment from the buyer and transfers it to the seller, guaranteeing that the payment will be made in the correct amount and on time. This solves the problem faced by sellers, such as farmers and traders. Third, ECX provides a trading system which enables buyers and sellers to find each other when they need to trade. This trading system is for now a physical Trading Floor where bids and offers are made in person by buyers and sellers (or their agents) but will also have an electronic trading platform which can be accessed remotely. Finally, ECX disseminates information on prices as soon as trades are made to everyone in the market so that no one is at a disadvantage because they are missing market information."
Taken from ECX website (http://www.ecx.com.et/CompanyProfile.aspx#BD)
"As Owner, the Government of Ethiopia underwrites all performance risk of the Exchange related to the Exchange operated or appointed warehousing and grading of product, trading system, market information dissemination, and clearing and settlement. Members, for their part, are liable for contract performance on their own trades as well as of their Associates and Authorized Representatives."
So my question Dr. Elani is, how can the EXC be neutral if it is clearly stated in your mandate that it is OWNED by the current Ethiopian Government and in reality the current regime is the one dictating all the services you mentioned?
AFter I finish my master study ( engineering) I really want to put something useful to this brilliant project.
Keep up Dr. Eleni.
You are best.
dear DR Elani , i really want you to read the AUG 23 2009 Addis fortune life matters by Lulit , and every one can read it online most of our problems comes from negative and passive mind , yes we have good and educated people they luck the fire , honestly i think you are the spark and inspiration for every one who has a healthy mind , work hard and learn to understand why some people are so …? have no word may be that's life and every where even in the US some people take there gun to a town hall health care meeting .ayzosh yeset anbesa.
FYI if you are going to qoute Victor Hugo he also said:
"Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal. "
Thanks for your contribution, but you are confused who you are working for!
Meles owns it all:
Mititary, Police, Guns, All power, all business, courts, and may be you!
How could we trust EPDRF while they EXC s ownded by govenment who is run by him!
Please… You may be working for the right reason but you are in the wrong camp and allowing to shine the dectator for longer time!
Yes, you are taking finger print to collect tax and then what next?
LONG LIVE Dr. ELENI.
Dr. Eleni truly stands for the Ethiopian People. God bless her and her family. Only if we all can contribute in such a way, our Ethiopia would be a much better place. Accountability is everything, and she is showing these people who doubt her just who she is and what she is about. We are grateful for Dr. Eleni for her hard work; you are an inspiration to us all!
I would like to commend you for being gracious enough to take time out of your busy schedule to write the piece and educate the wider community about the ECX. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say that Ethiopians are not used to people in power (be it political power or administrative power) explain some of the important decisions politicians make affecting their lives. As well intentioned as some policies may be, the lack of public consultation and explanation reinforces the perception in many Ethiopians that the country is yet again ruled with an iron fist. Such mentality on the part of our leaders has made citizens jaded and without hope and has left Ethiopia far behind most poor nations. Poverty, brain drain, lack of direct foreign investment, civil unrest are all symptoms of poor governance and we can see from all international reports that Ethiopia is among the bottom dwellers in all development and other measures.. I am sure that there are many in government working their tails off to take this country out of this bottom; however, it is important to rally the public behind you to take ownership and achieve any meaningful and sustainable development. The advent of ECX, in my opinion, is great for Ethiopia. We need more and more "professionalization" of businesses and services. Doctors, Engineers, Accountants, Lawyers, Surveyors, Pharmacists, Economists, etc. should all be organized in a professional manner without interference by the government. Let's learn from Ethiopian Airlines and do our part to relieve the suffering of our people. I congratuate you for your bravery in handling this sensitive issues around ECX. Ethiopians have every reason to suspect initiatives by the current government because they yet have to see a government that exhbits and demonstrates compassion and accountability to its citizens. I look forward to reading your future articles.
Samuel (Canada)
thank you Dr. Eleni for spending your valuable time to answer some of the concerns conveyed by ethiopians. but you need to remember that some people simply dont want any thing good to come to the country because of politics. their fear is the success that the ECX could achieve in the future and the government taking credit for it. i am not trying to discourage you, because i realy enjoyed and learned a lot from your article, but keep in mind that your goal shouldn't be to make every pessimist (tesfa yeqorete) diaspora happy.
1. I would have appreciated your approach by explaining the pitfalls of your intervention first so that people would apprecaite the idea. I believe this is the right thing to do as an expert in the field. You are expected to be pessimistic at your level as we all know there is no one global solution to all problems.
2. All our problems would have been solved if the ideas/interventions bestowed by economists from WB/IMF and now new breeds like you on innocent peoples lives. I do not believe that you are an angle to solve farmers problem. I do not oppose your trial to satisfy and get your ego going. What I am saying do not impose your idea on others for your sake as such an approach hardly worked in Ethiopia or elesewhere in Africa.
3. Your intervention therefore has to be redesigned in such away that it doesn't monopolize or suppress the freewill of people.
on justification of what soever would be acceptable when it erodes freedom.
Dear Eleni,
Just simply Thank You for what you are doing for that poor and unfortunate country.
Thank you.
Stick with your gun and keep up the good job!
Here is a message to the four anti Eleni bunch
1)Professor Seid Hassan, Murray State University
2)Prof. Jawar Siraj Mohammed, Stanford University)
3)Prof. Wondwossen Mezlekia, Agro-economist in Seattle
4)Abebe Gellaw, visiting fellow at Hoover Institution
Jealousy is enraged in the hearts of the above 4 who cannot achieve the greatness of Eleni.
Jealousy is enraged in the minds of Seid Hassan, Jawar Siraj Mohammed, Wondwossen Mezlekia & Abebe Gellaw who believe they are
superior to others.
Jealousy is enraged in the souls of these "professors" who do everything to help
but wish to do nothing but hinder.
Jealousy is enraged in the hearts of them who are big men on very little campuses.
Jealousy is enraged in the minds of those
who are outranked & exposed by Eleni.
Jealousy is enraged in the souls of them whose hearts have been blackened by years of fruitless labor.
Jealousy is killing them. Jealousy is enraged
in the hearts of them who cannot achieve
the greatness of Eleni.
Keep up the Good Job Eleni!
Dr. Eleni confirms in Ethiopia " 25% of the total agricultural production reaches the market." What is the point she tries to make? Of course, that outcome indeed is expected. The Ethiopian farmers being almost 85% the Ethiopian population, their consumption of what they could have produced would be expected to be more than the 15% Ethiopians who are non-farmers. Although the farmers constitute the great majority of the nation, does she mean, their output to the market should exceed the 25% which Eleni apparently was not happy about? After all the 5% American farmers not only feed the almost 300 million Americans, but also immensely export to other countries. But comparision cannot be made between the American and Ethiopian farmers. Leaving aside the immense scientific advantage the American farmers had, the Ethiopian farmers seemingly had no other alternatives except being hunkered down in their birth place farming as their fore fathers did whether they choose or not. Any countries economic progress could be measured by the number of farmers the country had compared to those who engage in different other professions. In Ethiopia since EPDRF came to power the percentage of Ethiopian farmers, which is almost 85% during the Derg regime, remains the same. Without making effort to diversify the Ethiopian economy, the agrarian economy will continue to dominate, while the ratio of the peasants without changing. With no scientific improvement in our agriculture to be forecasted, a few years down the road, Eleni might be suprised to find having 25% for the market might even be difficult. As the Ethiopian population keeps growing,unchecked I might add, more farmers are expected to compete for the same land. When a father and a mother passed away, they might have no choice but to partition the land they have, say, for the four kids they have. When those four passed over the land to their offsprings imagine how small land the new farmers might have. With due respect, I would like to remind Dr. Eleni, ECX cannot solve the problem I have mentioned. It needs political solution. The EPDRF government does not have the know-how or the resolve to address the issue. I wish Dr. Eleni should not be used as a pawn by a government willing to do so as long as it serves the ruling party interest.
Thank you nazret for posting this excellent article.
Yibarkish yegna ehet!
You are a trail-blazer, a role model for all our Ethiopian sisters and even all our multitude of PhD holders
whose sole tangible achievement appears to be incessant blogging to create discource and more suffering for the people of Ethiopia.
Keep up the excellent work as you are really one true Ethiopian rose!
And a rose is a rose by any other name indeed!
Bless you! and Thank you!
Dear Dr. Eleni,
You really have associated yourself with cold-blooded politicians, and you already become one when you parry legitimate questions very expeditiously.You are eluding and obfuscating the crux of every body's question and concern and travail unnecessarily on something that we all agree up on. You already are acting like a savvy politician, as those who cut their teeth in politics and are experts in demagoguery.
It stands to reason that improving the marketing efficiency, the marketing network and infrastructure for sustainable development is a no- brainer, not only for a very poor country like that of ours, but also for every country in the world.
The question, however, is how you are going to enact the core ideals and principles of a free market/laissez-faire/ economy in a country where there is neither political nor economic freedom? Tell us how you and your free market axiom would function in a country where the regime is the major economic player in the name of nefarious endowments and big Government corporations that have preferential treatments that ordinary citizens couldn't fairly compete with and make their ends meet? How would it be morally justifiable for you to work with a repressive and tyrannical regime, Eleni, that doesn't have any qualms to massacre hundreds of unarmed civilians with sniper bullets in a mere desperate effort to cling to power? Do you really believe that the group who hold power in Ethiopia works for all Ethiopians equally? Is that your assessment, Eleni? Do you really believe that you are the only educated Ethiopian that would redeem Ethiopia and its people from its abject poverty, may be, the long-awaited knight with a shining armor? How egotistical would that really be, Eleni? Why do you think thousands of educated Ethiopians, who have never dreamt to leave their country, have fled out in flocks? If you really want to help your poor people as you purported you want, shouldn't you be working in protecting and safe-guarding human rights and ensuring political and economic freedom for the downtrodden people of Ethiopia, prior to ECX? Do you really believe that thousands of those unfairly incarcerated Oromo and Amhara prisoners of conscious, suffering in the dungeons of a brutal, narrow and ethno-centric regime, including the honorable judge Birtukan Midekssa, are not Ethiopians or are not worth advocating for or their issue is just so trivial when compared to ECX? Do you really believe that you are helping your people by condoning all these vivid and brazen political and economic injustice and deafening us with ECX?
If you really are honest to yourself and doesn't have any other motives, let's here what you are going to say about all these questions.Otherwise, please spare us from your academic and theoretical pontifications.
In my opinion, one has to get treatment for the malignant cancer in the brain, that is creeping and slithering to kill before he cares for a cataract surgery in his eyes.I am sorry that you disregarded the killer cancer and have rushed for the cataract in the eyes.
So long!
dr. eleni i am very proud on you keep doing what you stared we will pray for our country's suceces and i strongly belive we will make our problems history.go we are behind you.
It is sad story; and what happened to your Uncle back home is a major concern in the minds of many people who plan to invest or work in Ethiopia.
I will wait how, good intellectual, principally that outstanding economist give their professional view and analysis about this complicated, mixed with a tonnage of terminologies of Dr Elen article.
Some reason here are:
Dr Eline is steel looking some justification for her association with Ethiopian virus, corrupted TPLF criminals gangs, one time she augmented her ethnicity as no tigrian to Ethiopian people, looking some reasonability to be masked, but Ethiopian people send to her clear and authentic message indicating that, Ethiopian people have no any problem with ethnicity and if you want you should address to your master racist criminals. But she comes here again with an unprofessional article with a set of terminologies.
Who is Hugo?, Spanish, American, Mexican, Cuban, + millions of Hugo who are living around the world?, pleas at list for a professionals ethics you should to put under your last utricle your sources as references , Any way his saying don't have a good place in your article and today Ethiopia reality. Inside Ethiopia there are no free environment that permit flourish freely any good idea, for that a lot of brilliant Ethiopian are inside jail and outside Ethiopian known economist, Lawyers, university professors, engineers, politicians and others respectful Ethiopian are serving other country for no want any type of implication to the Ethiopian children killers , I am sure you agree on that. Here in Ethiopia there are no way for free market, all investments, all Ethiopian wealth is under small dictatorial group/ TPLF/ who make drive the little economy, and those are working day and evening to build they're own capitalism and you are serving to cover that criminal activity and you and your idea of ECX came after that, to give legality to those criminals Who are making big money by selling Ethiopian fertile farm land but this time you are coming with donors money. / Also there are rumours this project doesn't belong to you, this project was made by others and it was blocked and locked on the government shelf office for a long time/
Inside your article there are a number of country experience quoted for your hybrid ECX and you stated that all are married with problem and again you go to the recent world financial crisis taking as your support for your new discovery Ethiopia adopted hybrid model for Ethiopian people/ Indian, American, Dubai, Tele Aviv, South Africa…….ahm.. / Common Dr. at least as a professional ethics you should put your resource as reference. Any way, your comparison is not fair, how you compeers Indian large and rich investors with that Ethiopian farmers who farm for their family existence 3, 10 or 50 sac of Tef or Maize. First to dialog a lot about the market our farmers must to farm healthily without any mafia intervention a lot of Ethiopian people are under feeding program, to talks a lot about your tonnage of mixed terminologies, first we need wealth atmosphere and our professional which are in jail must to be free and must to develop health and un hidden view which conduct to development, and all that mafia enterprises must to be sold and to be demolished for free market.
The other miracle thing is your 24 millions dollar for your office!!!! And that come from donors, unbelievable! Poor Ethiopia! Pleas you can state here your administration cost? Principally how much money you are sending for a foolish board meeting? Know we have a full right to know because this money is from donor and it's begged on the name of Ethiopian people.
I don't understand why people would criticize the ECX. Efficient markets are essential instruments to an economy. It is definitely one big step forward. However, it is true there still a lot more to do in this country. That is why we all need to work really hard to improve things.
I understand and respect your dedication to change your country,however i don't think any market can work in a current Ethiopia political situation where the majority of the people oppressed even to express their view.
To Lucy,
The last thing anyone to be is in your class room.you see to make a change you have to get involved, this is exactly this lady is doing and deserve a respect.what have you done other than throwing rubbish on those who are trying to make a difference.I believe you are jalouse,uneducated,underqualified so on who cry by the side of the road.
What ever the result I think it is time to launch ECX , it is expected there is high tendency it is going to be manipulated by the TPLF but at last it is going to benefit the country so it is not bad.
men [Visitor]
You asked the lady -"Who is Hugo?, Spanish, American, Mexican, Cuban, + millions of Hugo who are living around the world?"
You should be ashamed to ask this kind of silly question. By the way is one of the most famoust famous French novelist and one of his book "Les Miseerables" is the most read book on the planet. Some people even believe that there are more people who read his famous book than the bible. Please go to your nearest library and get acquainted with this novelist who mostly wrote about social injustice.
Jomo and Kokeb…
Jomo i dont think Elleni seeks PR as she had done it without from the beggining…Diasporas are somewhat irrelevant as there were many friends of Ethiopia who have lend hands full support for this lady to succeed in the first place.
I think the hateful diasporas just opened the stage for her…
QUESTIONING HER ETHENICITY was an opportunity in disguise and she was smart enough to quickly grab it…It was a perfect invitation for her to to TRANSMIT HER GOOD WORK AND CONTEGIOUS MESSAGE TO THE MASS…
You got it wrong.
Like many loosers u thought she is on your side cause she told you she is not part of the Ethiopian gov't…Ofcourse she is not, but dont be a fool thinking she is in your DC camp. Even if she was part of the gov't, she is smart enough to resign first before engaging herself in a FREE MARKET. kikikiki
Elleni is giving it to the hatefful diasporas WITH KIMEM…and this aint Force-fed.
Either they swallow it or vommit it the hateful diaspora will lose and Elleni and Ethiopia will win.
Right now, ur idols leaders in DC are praying for this topic to evaporate in thin air…and for this lady not to wright any article again…
I guarantee you she Your ER guy is however is not miscalculating. He is trying to win some hearts and minds for Essayass's mistake as well as to gain back many site visitors.
Prepare yourself to call her PM of Ethiopia in 10 years…I AM ALL TEETH ALREADY.
Dear Dr. Eleni,
I really appreciate the incontrovertible step you have taken to deliberate on the questions and comments about ECX. This transparency, apart from being answerable to the public as a public servant, is crucial for the success of what you are doing. In my opinion, as many would agree, investing time for answering and informing the people, whom you said you are serving and the ECX is benefiting, is as important as establishing and operating ECX. May be even more in a country like Ethiopia where there is already a growing mistrust between the government, unfortunately the owner of your ECX, and the people at large. I just hope all the rest of public and government authorities in Ethiopia follow suit.
I have the following points on your article. For the sake of clarity and staying in the course, my comments will follow after quoting statements from your article. I am just one of the citizens, not an expert in the field of economics or marketing, whom you said one of those you planned to educate. If I err, then you shouldn't bother much. I just want ECX would be a success for the sake of poor millions. That is all.
I will start from the last point you explained in your article, concern about monopoly. Your explanation is as follows.
"Finally, what about a monopoly?…. At first glance, this seems quite unpalatable and rather contrary to the notion of a free market. Here is the catch. Among the four functions of the Exchange that were listed above, its very core role is to provide a central trading system for buyers and sellers to match their trades….. For this reason, all of the world's exchanges essentially force this critical mass of trading in a commodity or stock into a single trading system".
What would be difficult to understand from this statement first is the frame of reference you used to bring 'provide(ing) of central trading system', which is ECX's "very core role", in agreement with 'force(ing) the critical mass into a single trading system'. The understanding is that the ECX serves as a medium bringing buyers and sellers providing a modern and professional centre. The key terms here are "provide" and "force". Providing doesn't imply forcing in both its literal and figurative meaning of the word. But above all the main question is, are the world's exchanges forcing the critical mass with price and service competitiveness and other peaceful means or using otherwise tough government measures? Because, some people might say this is forced in Ethiopia through tough government regulations, closing the private business, appropriate their holding and jailing the owners? How do you compare that with the means the world's exchanges practice?
When you deliberate on ownership you state the following. "Our model adopts the demutualized entity status in keeping with global trends, but retains the traditional system of membership and the non-profit status of the exchange, in order for it to attract maximum participation and not to impose a financial burden on the market users." In response to that one may say why bother for ECX being non-profit as far as being a profit organization is in fact going to work fairly and efficiently which may also keep the clean work environment and integrity of ECX? What if you are compromising integrity and fairness for making ECX non-profit? The other natural question is, when you are saying "not to impose a financial burden to the market users", is it based on assumptions or market research and consulting market users about benefits and costs for ECX beforehand? By the way, what do you mean by "traditional system of membership"?
At other place you state the following. "Thus, there is no motive to retain ownership by the state and over time, as the Exchange system takes hold; the government has publicly expressed its commitment to passing ownership to private entities." I personally appreciate your trust to the government to the extent that you are talking on its behalf about motive. However, first of all, is there any specific time point as to when the government will exit? Explicitly what will be the governments and ECX's measuring stick to say it quits for the government? Second, is it literally public expression or is there a signed protocol/agreement among the parties, namely the government, private sector and ECX? Remember that the government invested money and it is the owner now. How could we be confident that it will not be tempted later and changed its mind when the ECX potential is growing? Besides, if there is no binding paper agreement, isn't this out of standard procedure? The other question is if the non-profit venture is good for ECX, then why the government is going to exit anyways handing ECX fully for the private sector? Not only that. If the fully private venture is known to benefit ECX better, then why the government not hand over ECX right now? If this might be because the government still has to collect the money it invested before it exits, then there should be transparency as to the accounting means and process of getting that money back to the government, which might be very important for you to deliberate on that in one of your future articles.
Let us carry on. You write "Again, unlike any other publicly-owned enterprise in Ethiopia, the Board of Directors is composed in almost equal part of representatives of the owner (state) and the private members of the Exchange as well as the CEO as a non-voting director." In response, one may say why different from other publicly-owned enterprises in Ethiopia? Because that might in fact put the ECX in experimental adventure of a new approach which may or may not work eventually. If the structure is proven it worked somewhere in a similar set up (which will be good for other publicly-owned enterprises in Ethiopia to follow) then why the privilege to ECX? Or better put, what is in giving this special privilege to ECX?
You state "There is no interference or intervention in any aspect of day to day ECX operations, whether it is the warehousing and quality inspection, the dissemination of price information nationally and internationally (which relies mainly on the systems that ECX itself has developed), the financial systems, or the trading sessions." Let me take your word that there is no intervention whatsoever from the government, and I believe, that it would be, except my doubts on independence of "the financial systems". Because these are just routine work that should be taken over by the exchange, to begin with, the government may not be interested with. My question is, are these the only job descriptions of ECX? For example, where among those ECX duties listed above does forcing the critical mass fall?
Further, you state "the membership governance model described above essentially gives a free pass to our private members, who can gain private profit from the exchange at minimal cost, without investing in the expensive assets, and still have a big say in the management of the entity." I respect the confidentiality of information with regard to share holders who got the "free pass". But, was the sell for ECX shares open to the public then and as a result the identity and composition of the private share holders of ECX indicate this very fact right now?
How do you comment if one says to you that the comparison of Bernie Madoff to coffee exporters, or other private businesses in Ethiopia for that matter, is an extremely exaggerated one. I hope you very well know the weight of the 11 count criminal complaints Madoff was found guilty; it was not exclusively for "excessive speculation".
Finally, I want to comment on the following statement from your article. "In addition to the laws and policies that govern a market in any country, all exchanges also have their own internal Rules that govern how the market is organized and how the market actors must behave." That is understandable, but is there any information as to who prepared the internal rules, how they were prepared and what these internal rules are apart from "shouting out prices audibly"? This arises from a need for transparency for the public and share holders, and if these rules have been consulted to the fairness, and professional standard expected from exchanges before they have been implemented.
I believe that, by embarking on such a peaceful dialogue, you are not only doing well for ECX. You are also taking a new and winning direction to problem solving and leadership. This is what living by example is all about and encouraging others in similar and higher public office follow the same path.
Thank you.
Dear Mr."Men"
I read your hateful comment with disgust. You and alike( Prof al mariam) ,it is okay,keep on enjoying your drive through "big Mac" meals on the streets of America, till the day comes, when you succumb from Coronary artery disease and be buried by county/municipal fund. Leave alone those who have the courage to sacrifice and make a difference to their people and country. I hate to go too low to your level and say nasty stuff.Change of ppl,change of economy,change of a country ,all requires sacrifice. If you cant do it,please do not try to look smart by discouraging others or endlessly writting hateful articles as your buddy Prof AL-Ebedu does( yewereket nebir)
I Salute this lady with her entire Staff
To those who criticize people for raising legitimate questions, here is my answer.
If you want to believe or worship people or what they say, your place is in Sunday schools and not a discussion forum where issues are debated. Feedback is how things improve and people who raise legitimate questions are giving feedback and contributing. There is no such a thing as perfect. I have seen a person saying forget the skeptics (save that for your sermon).
If you read the article above you would realize there are legitimate questions raised by the critics and acknowledged by the writer such as ownership, forcing farmers and buyers to use ecx and so and so forth.
Only petty people thinks in terms for friends and foes rather than valuable discussion taking place contributing to a better institution. What do you know Ato[visitor] even went as far as listing names of critics as jealous people. Ato you should try preaching, debate is not your thing.
Wow!! What a wonderful Essay. You are magnifficent doc. I wish I could express my story just like you did. So encouraging! so brilliant!! Rock on bebe:-)
Love you!!!
Sami 1
"…and allowing to shine the dectator for longer time!"
But you are admitting two things here
1.The goverment was shining by the good results they got
2.What Dr. Eleni is trying to do will shine the goverment.
But for me i don't care who shines as long as the farmers are benefited from the result.
She is too good and sophisitcated for this ordinary forum. Many of us are at different wave legnth with her to accimilate her thoughts. However, all this boils down to the fact that, Eleni is serving a government which monopolized the economy of the country. Therefore, as part of her ambtious project, her efforts should also focus in changing that not in facilitating.
you can go round circle but the main problem in ethiopia is habasha culture. Eleni, Meles, etc part of that culture. for example; if you watch Meles giving speech, interview, always he gives example of Korea, Japan, etc. Eleni also gives example of Chicago, India, etc. people forget that ethiopia is the poorest country on the planet, don't follow GDP bla bla statistics by the west totally different from life on the ground, i have been to Burundi a country considered to be the poorest but ordinary people life far far better than in ethiopia, the poverty in ethiopia beyond imagination, why dont we learn from Mozambic a country went through wars and high level of poverty but the last ten years have improved, habesha people are arrogant for nothing, we are trying to copy US/europe direct to a country farming method still medieval ages. ethnic counting, education background, language skills etc comes to nothing, at the end of the day "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"
Free market works in free societies where there is freedom of speech, association and in general democratic gov.In Ethiopia there is no gov except looter and melese gangsters. Unless you want to be part of the looters it will not work. YOU ARE WELCOMED WHEN GOV BY THE PPLE AND FOR THE PPLE in place! Don't waste you time, get out, let the Ethiopian get their freedom.. We all know that you know what Tigre's are doing. Get live!!
Original lucy,
If you think being in a show with donkey
in anyway says about her lif are totally wrong. Even famous Millionaires Holly woods stars goes through hell just to make the movie , and be famous . What is special about her? She knows the idiots like you will be lost with her movie. But I really do not think she can disseat another human being with a brain in the head. …PBS TV show ,.every conference in Europe with her picture with you and the poor farmer …You do not even know that is the major game ..
You do not even know how Bankers in America live in USA , ( not to forget she is a loser ) ,
Do you think they can afford to hire the maids, guards , shoe polisher and cook (you) every other month Europe and America ., A Tv show , dinner with president and an attain( she call it fame) …You must be one of day dreams who only visualize that America and Europe were a Heaven.
I do not hate her , but I hate her evil sprit for not having any human consciousness.
I am not your Dear by any means and you are not the original Lucy ….Mrs. Zenawi.
Dody [Visitor]
"Free market works in free societies where there is freedom of speech, association and in general democratic gov"
Free manrket only works in democratice society is not any more true, there is a single party systme with non of the democratic freedoms and a vibrant free market economy in China.
You are a tribalist in an urgent need to reform.
I think we should judge ECX as a non political institution on its own merits without connecting it to our old political rivalry.
Dear Eleni,
I have great respect for you. I admire you from the bottom of my heart.
You must be a very nice person the fact you opened up yourself to the public.
I completely disagree with you. I do not even give you a chance. Your project will never benefit Ethiopian. When I say this it is not because I hate you or I hate the government but this is from my life experience and from my most recent knowledge on economy and free market economy and you theory from agriculture to industry society and to post industrial society, very sad, Ethiopians who have clue may say to you but you are leading the country to another forseen crisis by following colonial development path because what you are saying is just what the world banks says. We have read and we have seen all the theories from the time of Aristotle, Platu, Karl Marx, to the most recent economic and free market neoliberal theorist like Adam smith, Francis Fukuyama, and Thomas Friedman.
To make myself clear I am in the new movement of antiglobization which take a momentum in North America. Here is what I think:
I have read the recent article of Dr. Eleni. It is sad her writing has stemmed from issues surrounding her ethnicity which obliged her to tell the public about her ethnic identity. Her concern about her ethnic and her work is an indicator of the ethnic tension in Ethiopia whether we like it or not. The fact that a person like Dr Eleni has faced those types of prejudices because her name sounds a Tigrean name is an Ethiopian pathology which calls all Ethiopians for some sort of consciousness since no one must be discriminated by falsely built in bias and prejudice. The other issues which I want to raise here is Dr. Eleni's free market and Prof. Minga's free market.
I personally have not known to what ethnic group Dr. Eleni belonged before her writing. I only had a personal perception that she may be Tigrean because her name sounded more of Tigrigna. I am sure other people may categorize her as Tigrean and she may have been target for her would be name. I understand Dr Eleni's wrote that letter to declare herself she is not Tigrean because she has felt she has been targeted. However, even Tigreans are not supposed to be an object of biased and prejudiced accusation and discrimination . The government's few main actors are from Tigray does not make any Ethiopian to discriminate Tigrean automatically and indiscriminately. As such no Ethiopian in particular and no human being in general must be discriminated on the basis of ethnic, race, religion, creed, gender, political affiliation, tribe, color, disability. I know in Ethiopia we have all sort of discrimination because we are still back-ward. I know many Ethiopians think they are whites and discriminate others as blacks. However, all these discrimination because of our ignorance must come to an end in the 21st century.
I have had doubt about Dr. Eleni's big market project. My doubt was that her big market project may be something which she has copied ( free market) from World Bank, IMF, USA and UK free market models of the liberal or neoliberal capitalism free market economy. I feared that she is copying that. But I have hoped that she might have developed her own in the context of Ethiopian way of life. Now my fear hypothesis is true. She is the Messiah of WB, IMF, USA, UK
free market economy. When she said leave the market alone, she sounded like Thomas Friedman, Francis Fukuyma, Jeffrey Sachs, and Adam Smith. These guys are the prime mover of free market economy. They say market is self-regulating and governments must stay out of the free market sphere.
The aforementioned neoliberalist have believed that the market is like an individual human being. The market is a private sphere which must be left alone without any government interference. Free market means the liberalization and integration of national market to into a global free market to form a global market economy which is a vivid globalization in action.. Governments must denationalize all government enterprise. They must devalue their currency, cut their expenditure on public services like health care, education, housing, economic welfare, social welfare.
In free market, there is no human right or labour right. Free market is run by ethically irresponsible multinational corporation and advocated by elite capitalists of western governments called electronic herds. The electronic herds are the free market capitalist elites which includes high profile capitalists government officers like George Bush, Obama, … and economic journalists like Thomas Friedman who is believed to have given the official definition of free market economy and globalization. The electronic herds expand free market hegemony either by coercion or by consent to the other world. This free market expansion is called double movement according to Karl Polanyi double movement theory.
Thomas Friedman says free market is the American way. He says free market is a natural process which no one can avoid. According to him, those who consent to embrace free market will be rewarded with investment. Those who resist free market either they will be struck unilaterally and military by the USA to accept free market or sanctioned. The benefits and burdens associated which come along free market are natural and no one is responsible. So multinational companies invest in the denationalized states and exploit the local people cheap labour. local resources and practically reduce nations to free market grounds.
According to Thomas Friedman, culture, religion, ethnicity, tribes,.. are enemies of free market economy. For free market economy to be triumphant,
all these must be removed ideologically. These can be realized by having capitalist western shadow governments which are NGOS. There are two types of NGOS. NGOS which are there to facilitate free market ground for investors which works with WB , IMF. These are mercenaries. The other
NGOS are those which are pro poor like fair trade social movement NGOS. For example, Oxfam, Global witness, Africa partnership-Canada, Caritas international, fair trade,..
In recent years, findings showed that free market actors who have outsourced, and off-shored their multination corporation have been accused of forced labour, child labour, blood market profits, drug dealing, human trafficking, social dumping, labour flexibility and insecurity, and environmental effects. This unethical free market practices have become a great concern to the internationational community. In response to that the UN adopted global compact package an initiative to make free market actors to practices free market with guidelines of international labour organisation ( ILO) labour standandards. This has been so far a voluntary initiative without any law enforcement or monitoring. 2500 multinational companies registered from 90 countries. However, 500 hundred of them agreed voluntary to follow the global compact guidelines. 2000 or more of them are still doing their business as usual. Findings showed that the UN global compact package has failed to bring any effect like every other UN initiative in the past five years of its first phase of implementation. The victims of all these ethically, environmentally irresponsible multinational corporations are Africans, South Americans, Asians mostly, but the effect includes even in the homes of the free market like USA [1].
According to recent findings, it has been read that the proponents of free market economy like Jeffrey Sachs, Francis Fukuyma, Adam Smith have admitted that their free market ideology has failed to delivered the desired outcome in the world and it has plunged many country from poverty to another higher level of poverty [2].
The frame work of the free market is WB'S , IMF'S developments blue print path which is tied up with the Washington Consensus SAP ( structure adjustment package). The package either directly or indirectly forces developing countries governments to surrender their currency, national enterprise, their resources to the electronic herd investors.
This has been work in progress since the 1980s.
Now neoliberal free market has failed. WB, IMF, USA, UK governments admitted. Now there is another new package and still the failed Washington Consensus tied into it and still the WB, IMF development path packaged without any change except an outside change of the cover. The new version of neoliberal ideology is inclusive liberalism or social neoliberal. Neoliberal rejected social rights. Neoliberal based itself on civil rights. Inclusive liberalism is sweet from outside, it is like a book with an attractive cover, but inside it is all the same stuff of Washington Consensus and WB, IMF stuff repacked and put in a new box
The missions of inclusive liberalism are social inclusive strategy and poverty reduction strategy programme. In contrast to neoliberal, inclusive liberalism pretends to respect culture, religion and other social institutions as if accepted but participation is not allowed. One just have to accept the prescriptions of inclusive liberalism. Still the benefits and burden which come along inclusive liberalism cannot be questioned one has to accept them by default.
At this point in time, there are three prominent social movements in North America among many. T.H. Marshal's social citizenship movement which struggles for the instatement of the welfare state, Karl Polanyi's double movement which struggles for the welfare state and market regulation, and the fair trade movement and also ILO
While neoliberal is already tested in many countries and completely failed and even now replaced by inclusive liberalism. Meles Zenawi and Dr. Eleni are campaigning to implement an old, failed, discarded ideology neoliberal free market economy. Meles is removing our people from their lands and giving out the land to multinational companies from everywhere. Argentina did it long ago, and failed miserably with a devastating effect and many other country did and got nothing from it except few elites benefitted by selling everything to get the much needed hard currency. We Ethiopians must have learnt from other countries. We are so behind and even repeat mistakes done by other countries 20 years ago.
I know now Dr. Eleni is a neoliberalist and the daughter of WB, IMF. I am not surprised at all. All I can say Dr. Eleni's free market will not liberate Ethiopians from poverty. There is no anything new in it. I am sure this may sound something exotic to Ethiopians, but it is just capitalism in action. I am sure Dr. Eleni may end up an Ethiopian billioner or Trillioner, but not to majority poor Ethiopians.
Professor Minga Negash applauds the start of the free market and he wish to see more liberalization. He also wishes to see labour and human rights in Tandem working. That has never happened anywhere. Labour rights, and human rights are not a part and parcel of neoliberal free marked democracy. They do not go together. Neoliberal free market democracy does not recognize social and political rights. Neoliberal free market democracy adheres only to civil rights which is more of individual rights. Otherwise, if neoliberal democracy free market was built in with social rights, the welfare state may not have been required to surrender their national enterprises to multinational corporations. I think Ethiopia needs its own ideology since the country is unique and it is the most agrarian nation. Neoliberal or inclusive liberalism are the same colonial packages repackaged many times in different boxes. For instances WB,IMF have never changed any of their laws from the colonial era, the most controversial article, article 4 /10 of WB did not change. Thus able citizens of Ethiopia need to design an ideology made in Ethiopia than copying from and recopying carbon copies and imposing on the poor people to no avail. We need one in context of our background values. We do not have to wear what others wear. We can still wear Ethiopian attires and do good work.
This copying of things from place of work or books read is not going to be much help for our people. We need something workable and locally available. We cannot afford to import everything. Yes there are many things which we must import, but we are importing only things which have been thrown away long time ago and we are not copying technologies. We are copying other people's ideas.
Gezaee Hailemichael
[1] Onur K. Globalisation and human rights. 1st ed., Ottawa. 2009.
[2] Society must be protected; Karl Polanyi's double movement, taken
26/08/2009, available at http://goliath.ecnext.com,
I'm tired of listening to this B@#$%.
She ain't doing anything good for the people. It's just empty promises and broken dreams.
Thank you Dr. Elleni for your explanation in a crisp english that ECX is real. I learned from your detailed report that the key problem of food scarcity in Ethiopia(25%) is due to lack of a channel like ECX to minimize the hurdles of buying and selling. The tradition will be widely adopted as dependability and profitability factors of the ECX show positive results. The design looks carefully crafted and with less politicizing of its duty, ECX can easily encompass the trading affairs of the country. This will definitely pave the way for those who want to share the burden if ECX becomes over sized. I like the analogy of why the term monopoly doesn't work in this particular situation. Thank you for one of the very few promising contributions; a major gift for Ethiopia.
Best wishes.
I am surprised to read some comments that are more of personal attack than positive critic on the subject. People like "Jegna" can't even read through what the Dr. has written. She said the functionality of ECX is neutral while at the same time respecting the rule of the country that is the state.
And there are others who don't want anybody do anything unless somehow miraculously the current 'Tigrean' government yields power or unless there emerges a perfect utopian system however long it takes. This to me is a joke. C'mon people! It tells how these kinds of people have been destroying the fiber of the country. Change comes through the cruel reality of repeated failures. I leave the role of defending herself to her, but the reason Dr. Eleni closely studied all the prevailing global exchange markets is inorder to apply to the Ethiopian market with a minimal failure. Then still there is no guaranty for a 100% success because this has never been done in Ethiopia before. It is high time we praise people who try and do something even at the price of making a comfortable living out of it. They deserve it.
The other things which I would like to add:
There are two exceptions to all the failures of liberal or neoliberal democracy which the one you mentioned, indusrial society. China , India, Vietnam. However, it has been found that China a nation which was known as the most egalitarian in the world has become the most unequal.
According to Jini coefficient index of disparity, China and India are becoming the most unqual society ranking after USA. USA jini coefficient is 0.8, China .4, and India 0.6, the highest Jini coefficient is 1. Most India now recorded as the fast growing country even faster than the USA, and India requires 70 more years to be where USA is. India has now more people sleeping on the streets than ever before. In the small city of cutta, 200,000 people are homeless and sleep on the streets. There has never been such grime poverty in India before. However, this does not mean there are no rich in India. Actually there few riches which has never been seen before in India. If that is what you want to the Ethiopia people, may be.
Since you stated clearly that you want to modernize Ethiopia from agriculural society to industrial society, you did not mention but may be to post indusrial society.
You are 100% copying the colonial map of development for third world countries. The colonialist did not have any different idea from your idea. They never wished to kill people. They believed Africans are must be modernized.According to them, to be modernized, they have to accept the European way which is the civilized way. As such nations which were conquered had to zero themselves by throwing away their cultures, customs, beliefs and accept the European way of life and even culture and faith and that is missionaries were send for reconnaissance before the colonial main actors. The missionaries facilitated the conquest. The fact that Europeans wered defeated by Ethiopians were not for no reason. Their missionaries were rejected by Menelick and others so that they did not have foot holds.
World Bank, IMF, UN, WTO… all the other Bretton wood financial and other institutions were set up on those premises to safeguard European and American interest forever. These institutions operate on the premises of the colonial tenets. They did not even amend any of thier bylaws. I did not need to tutor you since I believe you know that all. WB, IMB… other Bretton wood institutions used to support apartheid in South Africa. They funded white South African regime while the whole world opposed them. Article 4/10 of the world bank which allows them to do that still remains unchanged. WB, IMF,… still have not accepted human right based development approach reccmmended by NGOS. Probably you did not resign from WB, IMF,… but how many economists resigned from WB, IMF protesting against WB, IMF…?
Now it seems you have all their booklets and you are copying them and imposing them on our poor people. You are snatching the people thier property. This is shameful. The so called Prime Minister is selling the land of our ancestors to venture capitalist and you are harrassing our people with him to surrender and to do business according to the guideliens you have copied from where you were working.
I am very sad my people are held hostage now. It will be a matter of time people will reject capitalism the same way ther shunned communism.
it does not matter where you studied and for how long you have worked. You have fallen to the trap. And you think we all are ignorant and you are telling us you want to modernize us from agricultural society to industrial society. I had several symbosiums about this whole summer this. If my paricipants tell them about you, they may get shocked by you. North Americans are working hard to reverse capitalism almost in many Universities I know but you are teaching Ethiopianns to embrace to he most hated and failed ideology of colonialism.
I pray GOD helps to think about it so that you do not rob the digntiy of your people to make money.
why do you keep explaining yourself. The more i read about you, the more i suspect that you are a puppet of Meles and his party. If you are really there helping the poor and making the market better for the poor and stop rambling and get to work
God bless you Dr. Gabre-Madhin. We need more people like you in Ethiopia.
Don't listen to those who have a critique mind.
Don't listen to these losers who are probably are doing nothing to better themselves and their country; rather spent all their diaspora years sitting around sipping coffee with pinky raised and gossiping with like minded people. Go make yourself an expert of some sort, take that back home and contribute to your country. ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS. What have you done to criticize others? weregna!
thanks DR Elleni,
you are the right person in the right time to our beloved country.
but I want say something to those
so called educated Ethiopians living in abroad and always commenting nonsense about politics or other
come and do something and let us together develop our country.
GOD bless AFRICA111
bravo DR ELLENI,
My msg re Dr. Eleni is helping to shine the dectator!
Your comment back""…and allowing to shine the dectator for longer time!"
But you are admitting two things here
1.The goverment was shining by the good results they got
2.What Dr. Eleni is trying to do will shine the goverment.
But for me i don't care who shines as long as the farmers are benefited from the result. "
Timo: If Eleni shines and put an effort to cover up the true color is what I have a problem with!
Ethiopia will not gain from her work unless there is an accountable govenment!
That is fact and the only way to accountable government is free speech free election true democracy! If any one works with dectator to further to stay in power and coused more division it is disadvantage! Eleni may be do not know who she is working with…
When Meles is passing a law that is going to disadvantage anyone from running to be a leader and play in court to advantage only his party then you work hard for wrong couase that is what you are missing.
I thanked her for her hard work even though I do not know she is doing it to cover the wrongs for Meles or out of love for her country to benefit her country…
At the end of the day she should be liable for not standing up for all Ethiopians!
Anyone who vote with dectator is from camp of Dectator and I have not respect for them in that sence!
If you shine to show their true color it is good thing, but if you shine something to trick others to accept what it is not then you are part of the bad people… or yoiu are betrader!
alemawo®k [Visitor]
I think it is you who doesn't' get it my friend. How can the ECX functionality be neutral all aspects of it is ultimately dictated by government? What laws are you talking about? How is the government qualified to certify the commodities and dictate prices? You are the one living in la la land if you think this system will give equal opportunity to all participants…..wait a minute that has already NOT happened. When the government physically seized and sold other peoples coffee, was that an example of neutrality you were talking about? I didn't attack her personal life just her mandate. She told us to go read about it so I did and noticed that flaw so I pointed it out.
I do have rights to express myself. Okay? if you do not like what I wrote you can skip it. You do not have to call names. I am not going to react according to you.
How do you know I am a puppet of Meles? if I were, let me tell you I am not affraid of you. I would tell you right here. Okay? you must behave? if you do not tell me where you are and I will come right to your face and displine you so that you can respct other people. Okay? I have a right to express myself 100 times, no one on earth will take way or stop me from doing that.
Good day!
I am appaled to read comments from idiots like Gezaee. He doesn't sound like he is talking about Ethiopia. He must have lived in a place where honey and milk are plaenty and he doesn't want any body to touch it. Look, Ethiopia may have proportionally the same street dwellers as India does. What about the Gini Index? If you take the 80% rural farming community, how many of them are povery stricken? India is 0.6(get your math correct, China is only 0.4, it can't be second to US), don't you think the disparity in Ethiopia is 0.9, to say the least. Turning Ethiopia into India may be an improvement. You also said Dr. Elleni is talking like the Missionaries who brought colonialism to Africa. What kind of colonialism are you scared of in this 21st century? Don't you think learning from the inner works of capitalism is beneficial for increasing the level of growth to a certain degree where you can implement science and technology? There are so many countries to learn from and it is to the advantage of Ethiopia to curve some kind of working theory from it. As I read your article you don't have an alternative idea, rather you want to isolate the country from all sorts of global interactions. That must be your own small dream world. Nobody will buy it.
I think in our society there is a an issue at the individual level. The individual has not interest to read and educate himself and weigh in on all existing ideas before passing a judgment or even making a comment. One must always ask the question "Do I have a strong evidence for my belief?". This wa of thinking and analyzing issues will help in any kind of business, family etc…issues. It is a way of making sound decision. I have had a discussion with a close friend regarding Dr. Gerbremedhin, and my friend insisted that one, the Dr. was tigre and two she was a collaborator. I asked, how do you know? She said, everyone knows etc…absolute nonsense. And of course when we read the article about the life of the Dr. it was clear what was a fact and what was a fiction. Step forward and expand your knowledge…I refuse to engage in an empty heresay conversation, it is a waste of time, give be the hard facts then we can chat..Dr. should focus on the needs of her supporters, forget the losers.
Gezzae H.:
What you are saying and what ECX is set out to accomplish are two different things. How is ECX connected to large corporations and the IMF and the WB? And the US does not practice free market, there is a lot of protectionism, and subsidies. When you state that you are an anti globalization advocate, I feel you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are areas that globalization is expoiting the very poor of societies at the same time there are areas that require globalization to benefit communiteis….
what makes you think she reads your comments? or would she even care about what you have to say? show some respect for authority and allow those who are expert (other than blogging) do what they do best. And don't write a book here. If she reads all that, she won't have time to do anything else. By the way (with all due respects) am I the only one who finds Dr E. sexy? She's got it goin' on brain and beauty. True Ethiopian! Blessings
Dear… it should be "Brava… Dr Eleni… see, it is va for a girl and vo for a dude…
And let me say again… what a name… Comment from: Shegaw - Yayew Hulu Yidenekal [Visitor]
You asked,
- does Ethiopia needs to have your famous "Exchange" to progress from an agrarian economy to industry based economy? Why not experiment with the introduction of more tractors and other industrial agriculture?
I know you asked her, but in case she ignors you like I advised her, let me say it in two words, market efficiency. Yes all those tractors and other stuff you said will be good to. But with out a better way to trade, the farmer will be once again at the mercy of the volture delalas. This does not only protect the farmer but also guarantees they get paid. Other forms of trade will continue guaranteeing income in futures trades, forward contracts and so on.
Why fight this? The future is here… today!
Start with coffee and Seseme and the future is open and endless. I understand you have this confused a bit with the Tplf/Meles thing. Again, I shall tell you and others untill removed from power, Ethiopia must not stop progress on the account of the leadership that we do not like…
And let me mention to you during the Derg era, the farmer never got his worth. I am not saying this will solve our poverty instantly, but… puuulease people, give it time. This will work and become more efficient as the Tplf regime exits. Ok?
Well, you are one of a kind and so much info…
But what in havens name is this?
Comment from: Gezaee H
" I know in Ethiopia we have all sort of discrimination because we are still back-ward. I know many Ethiopians think they are whites and discriminate others as blacks."
From your comment I am inclined to state you are the one who is back-ward in your thinking. I for one do not know any Ethiopian who thinks he or she is white. Every one has their bias, you hate what I like, I hate what you like… Ethiopians do not hate based on color. Our thing is Ethnicism. Get it right. And, most of your argument was borderline, for a lack of a better word, copy and paste at that.
You really did copy and paste most of the stuff didn't you? You seem to be rumbling without knowledge of what you are talking about. We, as well as other nations learn from the West,East and anyone who has better knowledge. We learned Chemistry, Algebra and so on from the capitalists and Socialists. We take what is good, we leave the rest. We take the Commodity Market and leave out the no regulation part. I for one, am opposed to a free reign given to those unscruplious traders on the so called free market as I was sckeptical about socialism. Greed. Greed is the factor that destroyes good intent both in capitalism and socialism. I will admit without regulation, the free market will be eaten up by greed as did socialism.
Dear, there is nothing free in the free market system. We all pay for the errors of the Bush and the Greenspans Economic policies. I see nothing wrong in globalization so long as the concerned nations regulate to a certain extent. You have your views… so do the rest of us but to come out blatantly and state a comodity exchange will not work is borderline idiotic. We see it working all over the world. Again, I do agree the free market system at present has proven to be a burden but so did the collective Socialist system.
Like I said we take what is good and leave out the bad… there is no clear cut way in Economics. Remeber no one has a crystal ball, no one can predict the out come of any economic policy. Economics is more of a forcasting that can go wrong at times. Ok?
Please read the following where she doesn't deny ECX is owned by the government but the functionality is designed to work independently with limited consultationswith the concerned ministries of the government. And the other very important thing she said was the fact that in the initial stages the government is the only unit that can absorb the inevitable loses due to unforeseen risks. She also stated that in the long run,
when it becomes profitable, the non-profit status will be attracting more investors and thus the possibility that the ownership may gradually turn fully into public interests.
Do you get it? I don't hate the current government to the level of wishing it has nothing to do with what looks like a major transformation in the country. I understand the current policy against coffee hoarders may have affected many people like you or those you may know, but the restructuring is necessary if the the over umbitius interest of few traders is affecting the economy. If the outcome of the government measure proves to be a failure, then as usual it should be revised, but untill then no one knows. So what I am saying is, we need to be looking into details and the reality of the situation before we attack those who not only help themselves, but also look for ways to help others, the destitute. Follow my favorite saying: "The devil is in the details"
" I should mention that the start-up cost of our Exchange is in the order of US$ 24 million which, because of its public ownership and non-profit nature, was able to be financed by donor partners such as the USAID, World Bank, UNDP, WFP, Canada, and others.
And now, for what really matters, what about control? To begin, it is important to understand that, although government-owned, the Exchange is not a part of government. It is not an agency or department of any particular state organ. It is established, by law, as an autonomous commercial enterprise having its own legal status. A parallel example might be Ethiopian Airlines, although the corporate governance of the Exchange is unique. Our establishing law extends the concept of demutualization further to separating ownership, membership, and management. Thus, by law, the Exchange is managed by professionals that cannot be appointed from within government or come from the trading community. The Exchange has its own salary structure and its employees are not part of the civil service. In fact, at present, the Exchange has an internationally recruited management team of 10 professionals, financed by external donors, as a management on loan program, to ensure that the Exchange is run professionally and to transfer needed skills. Again, unlike any other publicly-owned enterprise in Ethiopia, the Board of Directors is composed in almost equal part of representatives of the owner (state) and the private members of the Exchange as well as the CEO as a non-voting director. The Exchange's CEO is appointed by and reports to this Board of Directors. Thus, without any doubt in the law or in practice, the Exchange is managed independently of any government organ and is aservice-
providing entity to the private market actors. There is no interference or intervention in any aspect of day to day ECX operations, whether it is the warehousing and quality inspection, the dissemination of price information nationally and internationally (which relies mainly on the systems that ECX itself has developed), the financial systems, or the trading sessions. One could say, and many of our private sector members have quickly realized once it was explained, that the ownership-membershipgovernance model described above essentially gives a free pass to our private members, who can gain private profit from the exchange at minimal cost, without investing in the expensive assets, and still have a big say in the management of the entity.
At the same time, like in any country, no market can exist in a vacuum outside the reach of policy or the laws of the land. Thus, our Exchange regularly consults with appropriate line Ministries on the direction of policies, regarding changes to domestic or external trade policies, tax, or macro policies. This is no different than in South Africa, the US, India or elsewhere. For example, in 2008, when domestic inflation got out of hand, the Indian government banned rice and wheat trading on the Exchange and imposed an export ban. This has nothing to do with who owns their exchanges (in fact it is a combination of public and private investors). Similarly, the US has recently initiated a crackdown on
excessive speculation in the commodity markets (oil) and imprisoned or fined several market actors such as Bernie Madoff who violated laws in the financial market. In addition to the laws and policies that govern a market in any country, all exchanges also have their own internal Rules that govern how the market is organized and how the market actors must behave. The Rule books of the Chicago and New York commodity exchanges are thick volumes with thousands of pages developed over 160 years with detailed instructions on how to govern their market. We also have our Rules of the Exchange that, like in the US, Argentina, Brazil, India or elsewhere, have to be approved by our regulatory body, the newly established Commodity Exchange Authority. This Authority is a government body which has the mandate of overseeing that our Exchange itself and our Members are in compliance with our law and with the other laws of the country and with our Rules. Having been set up alongside our Exchange, the Authority has been in active partnership to build its capacity through training with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on which it is modeled. In any country with a serious market, government regulators like SEC and CFTC in the US, or FMC and SEBI in India, have a significant and constant presence. So a market is not a free market because it is operates outside of laws or rules. It is in fact the presence of these laws and rules that ensures that the integrity of the free market, or the principle
of market competition, is maintained.
Dear Ethiomnan,
First and foremost, I can argue only with people who do not hide themselves behind pc and behind their nickname.
Leave alone to teach me, you cannot even tell who you are since you know your fears within you. Mr. Ethioman, next time you must come with your real name to talk to me. I am using my real name. I do not converse with dummy humans.
Two things:
1. you said Ethiopians do not think they are white. Please talk about yourself. I have grown up in Ethiopia. I know very well Ethiopian. Do not be shallow and elect yourself to be representating of 80 million people.
Is it not Ethiopians who call other Ethiopians baria? what are you talking about? please do not be very lier? if you want to convince about this, come with your real name next time otherwise you do not qualify to talk me. As I said I do not talk with cowards and creepy people.
Second, you said I copied and paste? that is what you think Ethioman. That is your bias, presumptuous, prejudices and your backwardness and false, you are witness yourself for your backwardness because you are telling things which you cannot prove in anyway. All is a figment of your imagination. I have no your quality. To write my opinion I do not have to copy and paste. I am not like you. I never copy. I read and understand and use my brain.
You said, i am idiot, I am not going to repeat that. you better take it for youself. I am not going to reduce myself to your level. You are only exposing yourself. It is you who is copying.
To make you feel better, ECX will never work. Ethiopians will reject it sooner later. it is not Ethiopian; it is a copy copy and past from Symtra Sen, an Indian economist who was working for certain NGOS, ILO.
Ethiopians have no marketing problem. You want to cook for them? kkkkkk? our people will cook their bread themselves? What Ethiopia need is technology, not capitalism alien market. you just want to make money out of the poor people.
You do not deserve my response because you are dummy human hiding behind your pc and your screen name.
1. You said Ethiopians do not think they are white. KAHAK, you can tell that to somebody else. You are a lier brother. Since you deny the truth. It is not worth talking to you about it. Who calls other Ethiopians baria? are not the fairly light skinned Ethiopians white who call other Ethiopians baria? you must be the most lier, dishonest person. You are only exposing how lier you are.
2. I do not copy like you. You said and I copy and paste, that is the figment of your imagination. You can conjure as you wish. Backwards are people who deny the real facts on the ground in Ethiopia and pretend they do not know and accuse people for things they cannot prove.
3. you state that I am an idiot. I am not going to repeat that. You are just exposing yourslef who you are.There is a saying in Tigrignea, gebreaas ya negareia, which means someone who does it is who says it. Or somewho who does it and say it.
4. Ethiopia has no marketing problem. Ethiopia has innovation and production problem. Ethiopians do not need a middle man to sell their products. If you have the brain and capacity, your ECX must have invested in production, innovation, rearch development than investing in forcing poor people to be their middle man. Why you do not invest in coffee, sesame, wheat, barley, … production than investing the to sell produces from hte poor farmer. Why you did not invest in the production? instead of giving the land to Arabs, Indians, all sort of foreigners? why you did not invest in those areas instead of investing to snatch from the poor ? shame on you? what are you going to sell? go out and do the farm, and then market your produce than holding hostage the poor people
response to Alemawork,
I do not believe technology and science are the creation of capitalism. Actually capitalism abuses science and technology by using for mass destruction and for making blood profit. Who said if one doe not follow capitalism cannot have technology and science?
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of nazret.com. The views are solely that of the author. Become a blogger of nazret.com, the #1 Rated Ethiopian Website according to Alexa. Contact us for details
«_alemayehu g_ mariam _» «_ali mohammed_» _education_ «_human rights_» _usaid_ agriculture «alemayehu g_ mariam» birtukan china clinton «commodity exchange» dc9 economics economy ecx «eskinder nega» inflation «meles zenawi» «messay kebede» «messay kebede» mideksa murder wikileaks «yilma bekele»
«_alemayehu g_ mariam _» «_ali mohammed_» _education_ «_human rights_» _usaid_ agriculture «alemayehu g_ mariam» birtukan china clinton «commodity exchange» dc9 economics economy ecx «eskinder nega» inflation «meles zenawi» «messay kebede» «messay kebede» mideksa murder wikileaks «yilma bekele»