26 January 2008

I was speaking today with a local government manager from another town who was in Debremarkos for a conference. He spoke to me about the many benefits he saw coming out of Meles Zenawi's presidency: an increase in the number of universities, an increase in the average educational attainment of civil servants, an increase in relative freedoms and democracy (from those experienced during the rule of the socialist-inspired Military Coordinating Committee known as the Derg), and higher levels of foreign investment. When asked about Ethiopia's biggest obstacle to greater benefits, he highlighted corruption. When I asked for examples, he gave two, one of which was a classic case of fund embezzlement by a corrupt local official. As a second example, interestingly, he described the preference given to the children of rich and powerful families in university admissions. "Pretend you are child of powerful family. I am child of not powerful family. I have maybe 3.6 grade. You have only 3. But you will be chosen over me." It somehow sounded vaguely familiar…