Donors to withhold $375 mln from Ethiopia

.
Will Ethiopia find a way to find other creative ways to recover this money? How?
The sum was for direct budgetary support to the gov't and will be routed via other organization in order to reach the population. Will this just enrich the employees of the NGOs and other groups that will receive the amount ? How will they channel this money to have a positive effects on the lives of the poor?

How will the gov't supplement the dip in its budget due to this withholding? What are the options?
- Maybe increase the level ofeconomical relationships it has with China, Brazil, Venezuela and othet non-western counties that have the capacity to replace the role the west played?
- Intensify the already increasing FDI and privatization phenomenon?
- Collect taxes in very efficient ways?
- Work even harder to increase the amount of exports?
- etc...

If the above alternatives and much more, some of which are new and others existing, are successfull, this whole measure by the west might just be a blessing in disguise.

We will just have to wait and see.

for more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2943431.htm

Great reporting by VOA or not?

.
While doing their job and residing in the US, 5 journalists are charged with treason and genocide in Ethiopia.

http://www.ethiomedia.com/fastpress/voa_charged.html
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-12-22-voa32.cfm

AND ALSO a must read for some background on the VOA.

"...VOA appointed a new Service Chief chosen from the ranks of the existing Amharic staff. A former EPRP member, the new Service Chief waged a war not only against Mengistu but, according to officials of the EPRDF government, the Eritrean government, and VOA staff, he aggressively pursued a more narrow partisan agenda. Programming began to reflect his increasingly anti-TPLF and anti EPLF/Eritrean independence bias. Second, five senior Amharic staff, all US-educated, often in dispute over the partisan direction of programming, left the Service! This exodus of highly qualified and experienced staff should have alerted VOA upper management of the gravity of problems within that service. The Service Chief recruited former employees of Ethiopia’s nefarious Ministry of Information, recent émigrés to the United States, to replace them..."

"...VOA Deputy Director Heil’s assessment of the Service was, even in those strong terms, understated. The work environment was appalling. The Horn of Africa service was polarised by ethnic tensions, personal animosities and political intrigues that surpassed Machiavelli. These hostilities were unabashedly articulated in day-to-day discourse..."

Full Article: http://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/articles/articles/may-99/Annette%20.C%20Sheckler.htm