Cheers to Meles's Economic Intellect

Dear Editor,

I am no fan of Meles Zenawi. In fact, his speeches and writings often leave me with more questions than answers. Perhaps more importantly, his administration owes me the return of my identity, albeit a damaged one, robbed from me since the early 1990s.

Still, credit is due to him in light of the recent G20 Summit in London. That an Ethiopian leader features in this highly-coveted gathering is a diplomatic coup reminiscent of the days when Ethiopian diplomacy was at its very best: the Haile Selassie era. His well-articulated explanations on the current economic turmoil - not to mention his long-standing stance against market fundamentalism - to prominent media outlets, such as The Financial Times and Channel 4, is a testimony that our 'white blue-eyed' cousins (to paraphrase Brazilian President Lula) do not have a monopoly on matters of intelligence.

Two cheers to Meles.

Michael Seifu

Meles, Stiglitz Worlds Apart

Dear Editor,

I found the news story headlined, “Meles; Vindicated?” [Volume 9, Number 466, April 5, 2009] extremely amazing. The reporter seems to paint a picture of Meles as the best economist of our time.
 

I tried to find out the novel ideas that made the reporter so fascinated to dub Meles a guru of the Noble Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. Unfortunately, after reading the whole story, I did not discover anything novel that makes me share the reporter’s view. What I found was that the ideas Meles raised were either reiterated by many other economists, or had  been implemented by his own administration for a long period of time, and found non-productive.
 

The ideas, now associated with him, have been raised by many economists, particularly after the failure of the Washington Consensus became public. The World Bank even advocated for sometime that the role of a government in the economy was crucial. The Bank took this position after making a thorough evaluation of the great performance of East Asian countries.
 

Meles and Stiglitz are wide apart because Meles is an ardent leftist, who preaches liberal economics for the sake of external legitimacy; Stiglitz, on the other hand, is a liberal thinker, who criticizes orthodox economics, and advocates for fair trade. He does not oppose the idea of free trade, or liberal economics. He rather argues for fair trade which can come through a global institution that controls unfair trade among nations.
 

Meles’s argument about the impact of the global financial crisis on Ethiopia is myopic. There is no doubt that the global crisis will affect Ethiopia. Governments will protect their economy if things continue to fall apart. Agricultural products will be protected, and EU for sure will cancel the Every Thing but Arms (EBA) scheme because some centre right politicians are now leading the polls.

If these politicians come to power, they will certainly make laws on remittance. Western Union in Holland asks for the source of your money and to whom you are sending it to. If the economy cannot improve, new laws that hurt poor countries, including a cut in aid, will come. Ethiopia will definitely be affected.

 Fasil Agegnehu

Holland

Be Honest About Ethiopia

Dear Editors
 

One of your readers, Wondirad Seifu, wrote a note published in the “Letters to the Editor” column of this newspaper headlined, “Economic Growth Seems Overstated”, [Volume 9 Number 458, February 8, 2009] and challenged the accuracy of the inflated figure in Gross Domestic Products (GDP) reported in the January 25, 2009, issue of Fortune. He also tried to straighten the inflated figures and elaborated on the concept of GDP. Unfortunately, he did not succeed on both fronts.

K. G.

Sacramento, California

Dagmawi L.

Actioning Obama’s Change

Dear Editor

Change has been a hallmark of Barack Obama’s election campaign. Now, it is time to make it a reality on the ground. Obama’s first change was the closing down and the Guantanamo prison within a year or so, which has effectively been carried out, to the thrill of millions of people.

Again, this is indeed a reflection of his commitment to bring about change. Obama must sanction as many more changes in the future.
 

Together with this dedicated new staff and the American people, he will undoubtedly make “change” synonymous with the United States.
 

This is not an imagined ideal, but a fact that we all cherish to see realized after Bush’s eight years of boring administration. With vision, commitment and determination, Obama will achieve in the coming 100 days what his predecessor had failed to achieve in a couple of years.

Saeed Ahmed Siraj  Al-Kharj
Saudi Arabia