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> From the controversial construction of Africa’s largest dam in the rugged hinterland just shy of the Sudanese border, to Addis Ababa’s alleged displacement of
by justboxing 9y ago
> From the controversial construction of Africa’s largest dam in the rugged hinterland just shy of the Sudanese border, to Addis Ababa’s alleged displacement of tens of thousands of villagers in order to lease their prime Nile-side land to foreign agribusinesses, an uneasy pall hangs over the entire area.
Who are these "foreign agribusinesses"? Is it western corporations like "gourmet coffee" producers and such, or something more elementary / basic like wheat, rice, grain producers?
And who is leading the prime Nile-side land to them? The government (which might be corrupt) or is it greedy individuals who are destroying their ecosystem at the cost of their fellow dwellers?
> Just reporting there means navigating a complicated minefield of checkpoints, informants, and terrified interviewees.
Why?
- pasbesoin 9y agoAt a guess, China. Natural resources (including agricultural products -- not so "natural", I guess) are what China is getting in return for its carefully selective but large and wide-spread investment. Googling a bit: This article doesn't clarify who the investors are, but it does also/further describe the situation: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/ethiopia-villagisation-violence-land-grab https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/ethiopia-villa... I find it more than a bit... "ironic", that "Western" concerns are pushing "communes" -- which sound more than a bit like "communism", but appear to have a different construction, here; people aren't left on the land but are told to form "communes", um... somewhere else. But, they are pushing this "commune-ism" to the same ultimate effect: Pursuing their own interests, while screwing the people affected. More: https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/15/such-brutal-crackdown/killings-and-arrests-response-ethiopias-oromo-protests https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/15/such-brutal-crackdown/... Again, talk of a "Master Plan" but not of who and what, ultimately, is behind it. Ethiopia has been pursuing a lot of tech to control and monitor media and Internet access. For some years, now. To my limited knowledge, they were one of the first/leaders in African states doing so. Sound kind of familiar?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mc32 9y agoIf you care to look, it's by and large South Asian and East Asian "from India, Turkey, Pakistan, China and Sudan as well as Saudi Arabia, have leased Ethiopian land."[1] [1]https://ig.ft.com/sites/land-rush-investment/ethiopia/?mhq5j=e6 https://ig.ft.com/sites/land-rush-investment/ethiopia/?mhq5j...
- justboxing 9y agoWow. I did not know that. India and China alone account for nearly 1/2 the world population. Don't think this leasing of land can be 'undone' any time soon...
- pm90 9y agoAnd yet, India and China produce all the food they need (even if India has a horrible record of distributing that food to those who need it). I'm not sure why the Ethiopian govt. has allowed this to happen. Smells a lot like corruption.
- Synaesthesia 9y agoThere were horrible famines in India, under British rule. Ever since independence there hasn’t been one major famine in India.
- pm90 9y agoThe horrible famines during British times were also caused by distribution problems and not solely due to lack of grains/foodstuffs. Amartya Sen won the Nobel Prize for showing that. While its true that there hasn't been a catastrophic famine in India, it still suffers from widespread hunger and undernourishment of its children.
- Spooky23 9y agoThat’s the new colonialism.