Making a living and career out of poverty: The misfortune of charity for tyranny in the name of the poor, what is Bill Gate thinking?

by Teshome Debalke

The truth hurts but, somebody must tell it

No wonders many African countries in general and Ethiopia in particular is the center of gravity when it comes to charity. She became the symbol of a damping ground for every conceivable financial and material charity, thanks to Woyane and its stooges that mastered the art of beggary. 

The self-righteous Donors must have been delighted to find partners that satisfy their unchecked ego not to see the flaws of tyranny outside their terrain.  They keep feeding the monsters that kept the people poor and expect something good to come out.

For an attentive observer poverty is undoubtedly the result of tyrannical rule and the associated corruption and cronyism that comes with it. In fact, many well meaning and ‘educated’ people (whatever it means these days) seem to fall short of seeing the cause of poverty-treating the symptom instead of the cause.

The recent series of articles by Keffyalew Gebremedhin with a title- ‘Bill Gates vows to defeat hunger and diseases in Ethiopia: Could entrenched political interests allow him?’ reinforces the case. The author puts more light on our collective failure to agree on the causes of poverty and our willingness to outsource the solution to foreigners. Instead of confronting tyranny as the primary cause of poverty and the spread of hunger and diseases as proven to be we entertain the Gates of the world to come up with the solutions for us.

In fact, no one has proven better the causes of the poverty than the present ruling regime by making poverty an international commodity and begging an official policy. Thus, why would a regime allow defeating hunger and disease to dry up its major source of income/corruption? The regime goes further; threatening donors to dole more money and food passing-on the responsibility on them while it is in business to make money. It’s gotten so bad the regime prided accomplishments are what the donors did with their own money.

The Copenhagen climate conference few years ago illustrates how bad the African tyrants led by Melse Zenawi of Ethiopia made poverty a commodity to finance their cling to power. They became environmentalist overnight to cash in-blaming climate change by Western industries as the cause of hunger and poverty.

Melse that represented the pack of wolves happened to rule over a country with the second largest water resource in the world. But yet, he finds climate change as an excuse to cover up his incompetency and corruption. Never mind the pack of Wolves embezzled ten times more money than what they are trying to extort from industrial countries.

After playing cat and mouse for 21 years the Melse regime forgot climate change as a cause of drought and came up with yet another formula. This time foreign investors will solve the problem by harvesting the abandons of waters available to grow food. It is not to feed the people that need it but the Arabs that are willing to pay big foreign exchange for it. The latest excuse is another cash cow for the regime that made a habit of making up stories to fatten its pocket book.

In a way we can’t blame regime like TPLF led by Melse Zenawi. He along his comrades doesn’t know any other way. They never worked for a living in their lifetime as the product of charity. They cut their teeth in Marxist political philosophy that thought them people are commodities to their ends. They spent most of their adult life playing victims never for anything just and democratic. Their survival depended on the’ financial and intellectual entitlements of their enablers that afforded them to play ‘us against them’ to survive. 

 Therefore, they have no choice but to stick with the only thing they know that got them and sustained them where they are today. On the Donors side, the recent visit of Bill Gate of Microsoft Corporation and Melinda & Gate Foundation explains what is wrong with the ‘gullible’, often misguided, in some cases malicious Donors. When the richest man in the world that made it big in the free society travels to praise a little tyrant that chained the people in to poverty it reviles more about Bill Gate than the tyrant. The double standard can’t be overlooked or ignored.

The Institutionalization of poverty to the liking of a regime would never be financed in any self-respecting country the do-gooders flock from. A tyrant that can’t tell the difference between his pocketbook and the public’s would never be considered for employment in Microsoft Corporation let alone to be a partner in solving the people’s problem he caused.  It shows the low expectation the Gates of the world have towards people under tyranny while it reviles their lack of knowledge about the dynamics of tyranny they entertain.

By any standard, it is wrong when a man that worth more than the wealth of a nation he came to ‘help’ seat with the ruling tyrant that kept the people poor by depriving them the means and ways out of poverty.  Bill Gate would never consider entertaining a regime if it was located in his home country that made it possible for him to help instead of being helped.  These self contradictions can’t be a simple oversight for a person of Gate’s caliber. Then what went wrong?

The question of why the do-gooders throw good money after bad regimes remained unanswered for the last century. Unlike others, businesspeople like Bill Gate that we thought understood the value of good governance that made him what he become should know better. Instead, he continued in the same old tradition of pampering tyranny thus, chocking off the potential of the people to be like him.

In general, we can safely say Western donors are ignorant about the mechanism of tyranny. Political correctness not to confront it head-on is partly to blame. But, aside political consideration and ignorance the sophistication of the established Western fund-raisers Gates encounter on behalf of tyrants plays bigger role not to see the horror of tyranny. They obscure the reality and the true nature of regimes.  They often align with the institutions of tyranny and hire local elites to sugarcoat the truth to protect the flow of money to their own benefits.

 These conflicts of interest are hidden from the fund providers to continue handing over their good money to bad regimes & associates that made a carrier out of poverty. Lest take as an example of Bill Gate financing the Ethiopian Agriculture Transformation Agency. From the outset it looks like good thing is happening but the agency is the spring board of the land grab in the last few years. In the middle of it all are the regime cronies cashing in the land grab and the associated spin off. Guna Trading House and its ‘Sister Companies’ along their ‘foreign’ partners like Saudi Star Agricultural Development PLC are all over the place.

In reality Bill Gate is financing the expansion of the ruling regime TPLF’s companies while he is doing humanitarian work because the regime neglected its core responsibility running lucrative business. In America the same offense could put Bill Gate and the rest in major legal trouble for financing the ruling party to expand its business interest. The Foreign Corrupt Practice Act preciously deals with such activities where foreign officials take advantage of their positions to run a lucrative business and involving American citizens.

The question of why the do-gooders throw good money after bad regimes remained unanswered for the last century. Unlike others, Bill Gate that we thought understood the value of good governance that made it possible for him to become who he is should know better. Instead, he continued in the same old tradition of pampering tyranny thus, chocking-off the potential of the people to be like him and slowing down democratic reform.

In general, we can safely say Western donors are ignorant about the mechanics of tyranny for the most part. Political correctness not to confront tyranny head-on is partly to blame. Low expectation of the people contributes greatly. But, the sophistication of the established Western fund-raisers Gates encounter on behalf of tyrants plays bigger role not to grasp the horror of tyranny. They obscure the reality and the true nature of regimes. They often align with the institutions of tyranny and hire local elites to sugarcoat the truth to protect the flow of money to their own benefits. 

These conflicts of interest are hidden from the fund providers to continue handing over their good money to bad regimes & associates that made a carrier out of poverty. If Bill Gate is smart enough as portrayed and put himself in the shoes of the people, he would comprehend the appalling machinery of tyranny. 

He would have quickly realized, under the same regime he, at most, would have turned out to be an obscure computer repairman of irrelevancy than what he became today. The ‘disconnect’ of intelligent peoples from reality is telling. How Gate falls for the same old and tried scum of a regime to support the institution of tyranny by handing out more good money without examining the inner working of the regime is freighting for those that are fighting to rid of tyranny and its associated cancer on the body of the public.

In the Ethiopian case, the institutionalization of poverty underwent a major transformation since TPLF came to power by the same means of luring free money from the good-willing people that want to help. The free money also attracted the worst kind of people to make good living out of it. It is obvious to see; alike where Donors come from in the receiving countries working for donors is prized profession. The wage is as good if not better by Western standard. The extra benefits are even better and the opportunity to advance one profession incomparable in the real-world.

To the regime’s credit, it did a wonderful job luring donors and taking them to the laundry without them noticing it. The regime is comfortable swindling the donors they are willing to pay for as little as garbage collection on the vicinity of the tyrant’s residence in the name of health and the environment. Looking at some of the official transfer of ‘free’ money on Aid Data, it is impossible to claim there is a ‘government’ in the country. We might as well accept the reality that the country is a massive concentration camp under the care of the international community that appointed TPLF to mange her.

Naturally, the regime’s loudmouth apologist and their surrogates couldn’t tell the difference between charity and wealth creation. We can’t blame them; after all, their livelihood depends in the industry financed by the same free money the regime pride itself to bring abroad. In fact, they are delighted to show-off the result of how much money their beloved regime begs from unsuspecting donors like Bill Gate around the world. The regime gets more charity money than its policy can produce in the real economy. It desperately must seek for more donors’ assistance to sustain itself in power.

 It couldn’t contemplate to govern the nation without begging the world in the name of ‘helping the poor’ and development. It is trapped of its own making. In essence, poverty is a very good business for many regimes to finance their rule and profit for their businesses. Therefore, the Aid economy is striving-growing fast unlike the real economy. A class of professional (merchants, development agents, consultants …) came along to run the lucrative sector that would guarantee poverty to remain as a meal ticket for those that don’t need to do much to lure more free money.

No wonder the regime and its associates are still begging 20 years later and becoming good at it while they are claiming the economy is the fastest growing in the world. In all honesty, this ‘fastest growing economy’ propaganda is getting out of hand and needs closer look by independent institutions. Coming out of the good-for-noting economist, consultants… that sold their profession for the highest bidder and the so called investors that rushed in to take advantage of the corrupt system all the way to the street cadres they continue to spew the same rubbish.

In normal circumstances ‘fastest growing economy’ entails the basic policy is set right to jump start an economy in its death bed. It requires the transformation of economic institutions and the legal system to reach the average citizen. But, what we have is a policy of financing the regime’s stay in power by all means. Charities, remittance, selling off natural resources behind closed doors are the main one. These kinds of policies only grantee the making of a ‘Banana Republic’ out of the nation by further expanding poverty for the benefit of the obvious (the regime’s cronies and loud mouths).

Unless the regime declares it either has no clue what it is doing or honest enough to tell us it is in it to fatten its pocket book running a plantation economy noting it does resembles economic development or growth in real sense. Those that tag along with the regime might as well declare they are zombies or they are in it to cash-in whatever is offered by the corrupt regime and stop lying for themselves and the world.

Before anything, the first and most important of all things to be dealt with is for the ruling party (TPLF) to come clean how much of the economy it gabbled up and the enterprises it is running since it came to power and begin to dismantle them at once. Without it noting can be done to go forward to reform the political and economic landscape. It seems no one seems to deal with the root cause of the problem. The Bill Gates of this world will do us  a big favor if they face the reality they knowingly or unknowingly are becameing accessories to crime of corruption of a regime.

But again, who is asking?

Not the irrational, racist and corrupt the ruling party’s cadres that declared Woyane or death while they are cashing in their share. Not the flyby investors that want to cash-in quick money in a corrupt system while it last-hiding behind the regime. Not the confused Diaspora that hurry in for the promised ‘gold rush’ and ask how high when the regime say jump. Not the ethnic parties that can’t see the world beyond the scope of their enclaves as if they are living in isolated island.

Not the religious institutions that couldn’t stand in union against the immorality of the regime that made the cherished Houses of Worships a playground of political cadres. Not the mute intellectuals that know the root cause of the problem but chitchat behind close doors afraid to come out of their hiding. Not the ‘oppositions’ that trip over each other to satisfy their unchecked ego on the expenses of the people than working together to establish the institutions of democracy to get rid of tyranny sooner than later.