Sir Bob Geldof Defending the indefensible
10 March, 2010 | By Alem Mamo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
alliance, launching a coordinated political and military operation against
the regime in Addis Ababa. In 1991, the civil war came to an abrupt
conclusion and as a result EPLF declared Eritrea’s independence from
Ethiopia while TPLF abandoned its program of succession from
Ethiopia, preferring to form a central government ruling the entire
country instead of just one province of Tigray.
The tragic famine of 1984-85 understandably pierced the consciousness
of all citizens of the world, prompting a massive fundraising
mobilization that managed to collect millions of dollars from around the
world in a very short period of time. In the spirit of human solidarity,
people of all ages pitched in to assist their fellow human beings in a far
away land. Here in Canada, for example, school children launched a ‘30
hour famine’ campaign, donating their allowances and cost of food for
thirty hours, which they could have spent otherwise. It was a
demonstration of remarkable human solidarity and connectedness in a
time of suffering and anguish.
Obviously, in circumstances such as the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia our
collective response is driven by emotional instinct and urgency with a
single purpose of saving lives. Which certainly is a natural and genuine
reaction from the point of an individual citizen. Understandably, under
such tragic circumstances of emergency, donor individuals are not
preoccupied with the details of aid delivery, accounting or transparency.
Their primary objective is to reach out to their fellow human beings and
do ‘something.’ Hence, they offer whatever they can hoping and
believing their donations will be delivered fully to those who desperately
need it. Clearly, the full responsibility of transparency and accountability
ultimately lies on the shoulders of those who are on the ‘front lines’ of
aid delivery and management both from donor and receiving countries.
Unfortunately, this is where things get murky and perplexing because to
our surprise there are spectacular failures by aid agencies and
organizers of aid efforts to carefully account for and monitor the
spending. Particularly, questions such as how is the accounting and
transparency of aid delivery monitored? What are the mechanisms used
to prevent aid money intended to save lives potentially being used to
purchase weapons used to slaughter innocent civilians? These and other
relevant questions have been often avoided and even ignored in the
process of emergency food aid delivery in a conflict situation. While
such emergency aid certainly did save countless lives, there is also a
growing body of evidence that it is also prone to abuse and could be
diverted for non-humanitarian purposes. Particularly for the purpose of
purchasing military hardware and building of a repressive political
machine, such as the one built by the TPLF to brutalise the people of
Ethiopia for the last 18 years.
The recent investigative report by Martin Plaut of the BBC has hit a
nerve among all parties involved in the food aid delivery of the 1984-85
famine in Ethiopia. The angry reaction from Sir Bob Geldof, in
particular, was surprising and most certainly unwarranted. I could only
guess why Sir Bob Geldof could react with such fury, as if he had
every detail of the accounting work regarding how the Band Aid money
was spent. I think the reason why Sir Bob Geldof and other aid
agencies reacted with a loud fury is simple: in the past no one dared to
question or challenge the authenticity of the emergency aid delivery
mechanism and its transparency. As a result, the likes of Sir Bob Geldof
and NGOs built the unquestionable saintly image whose mission is
saving the world and, therefore, their work is above scrutiny. Perhaps
even no one is qualified to question them.
The investigative report of Mr. Plaut may have startled those who were
moved by the images of 1984-85 famine because they never imagined
money they donated to feed a starving child could be used to buy
weapons. The fact is that, for the majority of Ethiopians and others
who know the political and military dynamics of the last 30 years in
Ethiopia, the news is not some spectacular discovery. In fact, since the
coming of the TPLF as the government, the majority of the Ethiopian
people, some publically and others in a quiet whisper, will speak of the
ruthlessness of TPLF and how far this organization is willing to go in
order to control the helm of power, even if it means starving citizens to
death.
To put things into perspective, when the famine hit northern Ethiopia,
the TPLF as an organization was less than 9 years old; an infant in any
political and military measure. However, TPLF’s political and military
growth rate began to dramatically accelerate during and immediately
following the 1984- 85 famine. The nourishment of TPLF as a political
and military organization came on the back of tens of thousands of
starving children, men and women. In effect this catastrophic famine
became political, military, propaganda, financial and diplomatic gold
mine for the TPLF.
Politically, TPLF asserted itself as a player on the international stage
dealing with international aid groups and gaining recognition by the
agencies as a viable force qualified to participate in the process of aid
delivery, and in the process gaining access to international diplomats
and heads of NGOs and charitable organizations. Before the famine,
TPLF was little known in the international arena. Militarily, TPLF
incorporated the food aid operation as part-and-parcel of its military
strategy. By claiming that the Ethiopian government was hampering the
aid delivery, TPLF frequently appealed to the international community to
pressure the Ethiopian government for a safe relief passage so that it
could use such arrangements to regroup and launch military operations.
Propaganda-wise, the TPLF portrayed itself as a strong political group,
capable of delivering food aid and collaborating with other stakeholders.
Furthermore, the famine provided a propaganda niche for TPLF to
admonish its opponent (the military regime) and claim that the famine
was partially a result of a repressive political and economic policy of the
military regime, which it clearly was.
Obviously, the most valuable fortune TPLF extracted from the famine
was the financial wealth that it managed to access during the famine
and in the subsequent years. As stated above, exploiting the international
focus on the famine, TPLF began to assert itself as a reliable and
trustworthy partner. Hence aid agencies decided to hand large sums of
money so that the TPLF could purchase and distribute local grain to the
starving people. In truth, this was in fact a jackpot for TPLF. A little
known organization up until the famine was now basking in the glory of
dealing with international aid agencies.
In the chaos and urgency of humanitarian catastrophe, aid agencies
pumped a huge sum of money directly to the TPLF. This from the part
of aid agencies, I believe, was a genuine effort to find a quick and
practical channel to assist the needy. However, it was also naïve and to
a certain extent lacks a long sighted reflection of responsibility, and it
was simply driven by raw emotion, rather than a systematic and
deliberate mechanism that promises not to do harm in the short and long
term.
For almost two decades, the famine military complex in Ethiopia has
been the core component that shaped politics and directed military
strategy. Those who are starving are used and abused by TPLF to win
the propaganda war and to gain international recognition and legitimacy.
If there is anyone who doubts this fact he/she must be living on a
different planet. Maybe we could all agree, the world of celebrities is a
different planet and things are constructed, interpreted and analysed
differently. In reality, though, it is utterly naïve and even preposterous
to think that famine, as a phenomenon, and food aid, as a practical life
saving tool are not exploited to advance a military and political
objectives by all parties involved. The truth of the matter is that it has
been and it continues to be.
In the end, the highlight shouldn’t be about Sir Bob Geldof or any other
celebrity saint. This most certainly is about more than 80 million
Ethiopians suffering under the tyrannical rule of TPLF, partly because
of the aid money that built the political machinery of one of the most
ruthless regimes in Africa, and the Ethiopian people continue to struggle
to rid of the menace of Meles Zenawi and his gang. Any emergency aid
or development aid, therefore, should keep the principles of Do No
Harm at the forefront.
As for Sir Bob Geldof, with all due respect, his characterization of
TPLF as a ‘brilliant’ organization is a clear demonstration of the
celebrity saints’ interpretation of the real world. What if someone in
Ethiopia would have told him about the brilliance of the Real IRA or
other political organizations in Northern Ireland? I think such decisions
must be left to the Ethiopian people. To reduce a country’s
consciousness and right to a bag of wheat or high energy biscuits is
quite insulting. The people of Ethiopia deserve democracy, freedom and
justice more than a bag of wheat.
TPLF diverted the aid money to buy military hardware during the
guerrilla war. Since becoming the government, administering the entire
country, the regime has used food aid as a political weapon. In his
recent report, the former member of TPLF and the first defence
minister outlines his findings on how the government determines who
gets food aid depending on the political loyalty, voting record and
affiliation with the TPLF http://www.ethiomedia.com/course/5155.html.
This clearly indicates the fact that TPLF never stopped using food aid
for its own political and military objectives.
Finally, as the May 2010 national election approaches, people in Ethiopia
are nervously watching the political situation very carefully. Those who
know and understand the politics of Ethiopia applauded Gebremedhin
Araya and others who continue to speak up about the true nature of
TPLF. These individuals simply could have stayed with their former
comrades and enjoyed the benefit of being a cabinet minister,
Ambassador or any other high profile political position. Instead they
opted for the truth, and they deserve credit for that.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The writer could be reached at alem671@hotmail.com
10 March, 2010 | By Alem Mamo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The year was 1984. A famine of
unimaginable proportions was
ravaging the northern region of
Ethiopia. Besides the famine, that
part of Ethiopia was also in the
midst of a multi dimensional bloody
civil war that took so many lives and
destroyed infrastructure. The
fighting parties were the Tigray
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)
alliance, launching a coordinated political and military operation against
the regime in Addis Ababa. In 1991, the civil war came to an abrupt
conclusion and as a result EPLF declared Eritrea’s independence from
Ethiopia while TPLF abandoned its program of succession from
Ethiopia, preferring to form a central government ruling the entire
country instead of just one province of Tigray.
The tragic famine of 1984-85 understandably pierced the consciousness
of all citizens of the world, prompting a massive fundraising
mobilization that managed to collect millions of dollars from around the
world in a very short period of time. In the spirit of human solidarity,
people of all ages pitched in to assist their fellow human beings in a far
away land. Here in Canada, for example, school children launched a ‘30
hour famine’ campaign, donating their allowances and cost of food for
thirty hours, which they could have spent otherwise. It was a
demonstration of remarkable human solidarity and connectedness in a
time of suffering and anguish.
Obviously, in circumstances such as the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia our
collective response is driven by emotional instinct and urgency with a
single purpose of saving lives. Which certainly is a natural and genuine
reaction from the point of an individual citizen. Understandably, under
such tragic circumstances of emergency, donor individuals are not
preoccupied with the details of aid delivery, accounting or transparency.
Their primary objective is to reach out to their fellow human beings and
do ‘something.’ Hence, they offer whatever they can hoping and
believing their donations will be delivered fully to those who desperately
need it. Clearly, the full responsibility of transparency and accountability
ultimately lies on the shoulders of those who are on the ‘front lines’ of
aid delivery and management both from donor and receiving countries.
Unfortunately, this is where things get murky and perplexing because to
our surprise there are spectacular failures by aid agencies and
organizers of aid efforts to carefully account for and monitor the
spending. Particularly, questions such as how is the accounting and
transparency of aid delivery monitored? What are the mechanisms used
to prevent aid money intended to save lives potentially being used to
purchase weapons used to slaughter innocent civilians? These and other
relevant questions have been often avoided and even ignored in the
process of emergency food aid delivery in a conflict situation. While
such emergency aid certainly did save countless lives, there is also a
growing body of evidence that it is also prone to abuse and could be
diverted for non-humanitarian purposes. Particularly for the purpose of
purchasing military hardware and building of a repressive political
machine, such as the one built by the TPLF to brutalise the people of
Ethiopia for the last 18 years.
The recent investigative report by Martin Plaut of the BBC has hit a
nerve among all parties involved in the food aid delivery of the 1984-85
famine in Ethiopia. The angry reaction from Sir Bob Geldof, in
particular, was surprising and most certainly unwarranted. I could only
guess why Sir Bob Geldof could react with such fury, as if he had
every detail of the accounting work regarding how the Band Aid money
was spent. I think the reason why Sir Bob Geldof and other aid
agencies reacted with a loud fury is simple: in the past no one dared to
question or challenge the authenticity of the emergency aid delivery
mechanism and its transparency. As a result, the likes of Sir Bob Geldof
and NGOs built the unquestionable saintly image whose mission is
saving the world and, therefore, their work is above scrutiny. Perhaps
even no one is qualified to question them.
The investigative report of Mr. Plaut may have startled those who were
moved by the images of 1984-85 famine because they never imagined
money they donated to feed a starving child could be used to buy
weapons. The fact is that, for the majority of Ethiopians and others
who know the political and military dynamics of the last 30 years in
Ethiopia, the news is not some spectacular discovery. In fact, since the
coming of the TPLF as the government, the majority of the Ethiopian
people, some publically and others in a quiet whisper, will speak of the
ruthlessness of TPLF and how far this organization is willing to go in
order to control the helm of power, even if it means starving citizens to
death.
To put things into perspective, when the famine hit northern Ethiopia,
the TPLF as an organization was less than 9 years old; an infant in any
political and military measure. However, TPLF’s political and military
growth rate began to dramatically accelerate during and immediately
following the 1984- 85 famine. The nourishment of TPLF as a political
and military organization came on the back of tens of thousands of
starving children, men and women. In effect this catastrophic famine
became political, military, propaganda, financial and diplomatic gold
mine for the TPLF.
Politically, TPLF asserted itself as a player on the international stage
dealing with international aid groups and gaining recognition by the
agencies as a viable force qualified to participate in the process of aid
delivery, and in the process gaining access to international diplomats
and heads of NGOs and charitable organizations. Before the famine,
TPLF was little known in the international arena. Militarily, TPLF
incorporated the food aid operation as part-and-parcel of its military
strategy. By claiming that the Ethiopian government was hampering the
aid delivery, TPLF frequently appealed to the international community to
pressure the Ethiopian government for a safe relief passage so that it
could use such arrangements to regroup and launch military operations.
Propaganda-wise, the TPLF portrayed itself as a strong political group,
capable of delivering food aid and collaborating with other stakeholders.
Furthermore, the famine provided a propaganda niche for TPLF to
admonish its opponent (the military regime) and claim that the famine
was partially a result of a repressive political and economic policy of the
military regime, which it clearly was.
Obviously, the most valuable fortune TPLF extracted from the famine
was the financial wealth that it managed to access during the famine
and in the subsequent years. As stated above, exploiting the international
focus on the famine, TPLF began to assert itself as a reliable and
trustworthy partner. Hence aid agencies decided to hand large sums of
money so that the TPLF could purchase and distribute local grain to the
starving people. In truth, this was in fact a jackpot for TPLF. A little
known organization up until the famine was now basking in the glory of
dealing with international aid agencies.
In the chaos and urgency of humanitarian catastrophe, aid agencies
pumped a huge sum of money directly to the TPLF. This from the part
of aid agencies, I believe, was a genuine effort to find a quick and
practical channel to assist the needy. However, it was also naïve and to
a certain extent lacks a long sighted reflection of responsibility, and it
was simply driven by raw emotion, rather than a systematic and
deliberate mechanism that promises not to do harm in the short and long
term.
For almost two decades, the famine military complex in Ethiopia has
been the core component that shaped politics and directed military
strategy. Those who are starving are used and abused by TPLF to win
the propaganda war and to gain international recognition and legitimacy.
If there is anyone who doubts this fact he/she must be living on a
different planet. Maybe we could all agree, the world of celebrities is a
different planet and things are constructed, interpreted and analysed
differently. In reality, though, it is utterly naïve and even preposterous
to think that famine, as a phenomenon, and food aid, as a practical life
saving tool are not exploited to advance a military and political
objectives by all parties involved. The truth of the matter is that it has
been and it continues to be.
In the end, the highlight shouldn’t be about Sir Bob Geldof or any other
celebrity saint. This most certainly is about more than 80 million
Ethiopians suffering under the tyrannical rule of TPLF, partly because
of the aid money that built the political machinery of one of the most
ruthless regimes in Africa, and the Ethiopian people continue to struggle
to rid of the menace of Meles Zenawi and his gang. Any emergency aid
or development aid, therefore, should keep the principles of Do No
Harm at the forefront.
As for Sir Bob Geldof, with all due respect, his characterization of
TPLF as a ‘brilliant’ organization is a clear demonstration of the
celebrity saints’ interpretation of the real world. What if someone in
Ethiopia would have told him about the brilliance of the Real IRA or
other political organizations in Northern Ireland? I think such decisions
must be left to the Ethiopian people. To reduce a country’s
consciousness and right to a bag of wheat or high energy biscuits is
quite insulting. The people of Ethiopia deserve democracy, freedom and
justice more than a bag of wheat.
TPLF diverted the aid money to buy military hardware during the
guerrilla war. Since becoming the government, administering the entire
country, the regime has used food aid as a political weapon. In his
recent report, the former member of TPLF and the first defence
minister outlines his findings on how the government determines who
gets food aid depending on the political loyalty, voting record and
affiliation with the TPLF http://www.ethiomedia.com/course/5155.html.
This clearly indicates the fact that TPLF never stopped using food aid
for its own political and military objectives.
Finally, as the May 2010 national election approaches, people in Ethiopia
are nervously watching the political situation very carefully. Those who
know and understand the politics of Ethiopia applauded Gebremedhin
Araya and others who continue to speak up about the true nature of
TPLF. These individuals simply could have stayed with their former
comrades and enjoyed the benefit of being a cabinet minister,
Ambassador or any other high profile political position. Instead they
opted for the truth, and they deserve credit for that.
-------------------------------------------------------------
The writer could be reached at alem671@hotmail.com
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