Foreign Aid: Dealing with Dictators

My home state of Montana shares some things in common with Ethiopia. Each location enjoys rugged mountains with many peaks over 11,000 feet. World famous rivers, the longest on each continent, originate in both places. Agriculture dominates both economies. But the similarities may end there.

Ethiopia is at least 3,000 years old. Foreign occupations have been rare and brief, so the outside world seems unable to help or hurt this ancient culture. When I visited 10 years ago, barefooted shepherd boys played together in the highlands while tending their flocks. A waterfall cascaded 1,500 feet into darkness. A kindly, middle-aged scout took his first automobile ride. The people and traditions there awoke a vibrant part of my being that I had hardly known before!

Yet starvation and disease were rampant. Many more blind people, beggars, and homeless folks lined the streets in Ethiopia than any other place I have been. According to Parade Magazine in 2009, Ethiopia was among the world’s 20 poorest nations and had one of the 20 worst dictators: Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The people and crises there awoke in me a fierce sense of justice and love for the unloved that I had rarely felt before!

Following Ethiopia’s 2005 elections, former President Jimmy Carter praised what he felt was a free and fair vote. Weeks later, poll discrepancies were common knowledge; scores of protesters were massacred; hundreds of political prisoners were taken; streets and shops were eerily vacant. I was there that frightful June, and while Mr. Carter could not have known such tragedy was around the corner, his praise likely assured many that Mr. Zenawi’s “democratic” government deserved foreign aid.

At least forty cabdrivers, lawyers, businessmen, and others decried their leader as a despot or an ex-hero lapsing into totalitarianism—three Ethiopians defended him. Armored vehicles conveyed Mr. Zenawi’s control everywhere. If the majority was right, America’s $500 million in annual aid to Ethiopia needed review if Washington was to assist only honorable and responsible parties.

On my fifteenth day in Ethiopia, a local resident and I hired a midday taxi for a 45-minute ride to the Lalibela airport, en route to the capital, Addis Ababa. The resident and driver asked questions one typically asks foreigners, but they soon digressed to American-Ethiopian relations.

Condemning U.S. “leniency” toward Mr. Zenawi’s “corrupt” government, the men boldly stated that America intrudes in Ethiopian affairs every time it offers money to Addis. “America should cut its aid to our country,” they said, certain that only the government would suffer. They hoped this might sever the lifeline of tyranny. But as such, they wondered each day whether they would return home alive.

These gentlemen were not peasants or unskilled laborers. Well-educated, they supported the local nonprofit organization, engaged provincial politics, and followed current events. They were fairly well off compared their peers. They were respected members of their community.

In June 2005, the world’s eight richest countries offered a massive debt cancellation deal to many of the poorest nations in the world, including Ethiopia. Yet while developed countries hailed this generosity, these two men denounced it, saying it would “absolutely” help only their government, not their people. Foreign aid could help their land under good leadership, they felt, but ostensible generosity would little assist them. They literally feared for their nation’s future.

As we neared the airport, the men asked how America could be so great and Ethiopia so poor. It is a difficult question to answer. They pled for help, but alone, I can only make ripples in the ocean. Dealing with dictators is hard.

In 2010 the ruling party won at least 95% of the votes. According to Human Rights Watch, “The most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it.” The organization concluded, “The question is not who won these elections, but how can donors justify business as usual with this increasingly repressive government?”

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(Originally published by Yahoo! Voices.)