Concept Garage

At the heart of Ethiopia’s contemporary political and socio-economic deadlock lies destruction of a social fabric, a social fabric that has over the years remained resilient to numerous internal and external socio-economic and political shock. The war with Eritrea, recurrent drought, poverty, malnutrition, the AIDS pandemic and most importantly the May 2005 election, economic recession and the most recent war with Somalia and the Ogaden were so vivid signals that they were detected even by indifferent Washington’s tentacles and the western media. Despite what goes on inside the country and the looming catastrophe at the background it is the attitude of the international community which is indeed perplexing. What’s incredibly is inept is also Washington’s continued misinterpretation of the resilience of Ethiopia’s social system, attributing this systemic strength as the strength of the ruling party EPRDF, as the strength of the incumbent dictator Meles Zenawi in particular.