“Wonders never cease!”
Well, “not only do they never cease, but new and ever new wonders come crowding on their heels.”
The “latest wonder” is Tedros Adhanom, the foreign minister of the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-PLF), who wants to run WHO. That is the World Health Organization.
(Truth be told, I thought Adhanom was gunning for the T-TPLF prime ministership booting out Hailemariam Desalegn, that pitiful and pathetic puppet T-TPLF prime minister (PPPPM) (or is it crime (against humanity) minster?).
The T-TPLF, the ruling regime in Ethiopia, is, as everyone knows, a certified terrorist organization listed in the Global Terrorist Database.
Adhanom is a malaria researcher by profession and training. He received his doctorate in Community Health from the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2000. Five years later, Adhanom became T-TPLF health minister, a position he held until 2012 when he was elevated to foreign minister following the death of the infamous and late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi.
Adhanom is now trying to slingshot his way from a community health organization to the World Health Organization.
Adhanom’s official biography claims he is a “globally recognized researcher on Malaria” and has “been recognized for his leadership in the rapidly evolving field of global health”.
(Suffice it to say that I have reviewed Adhanom’s “research publications” on malaria and global health at what appears to be his website and I am not impressed. We can discuss his “scholarly contributions” later assuming Adhanom will not decommission the website or remove webpages following publication of this commentary, as T-TPLFers often do when compromising data on them is publicized.)
Adhanom became foreign minister even though he had little diplomatic experience. In fact, he is pretty clueless not only about international diplomacy and relations but in general. (He just does not seem to know what time it is, to speak idiomatically.)
Adhanom’s cluelessness became painfully clear when he was duped and flimflammed by a 14 year-old girl from the Land Down Under in March 2015, three years after he became foreign minister.
They say, “you can’t con a con man.”
Perhaps. But you can con a clueless con man especially if you are a 14 year-old eight grader!
I wrote about the incredible hustle job the 14 year-old eight grader did on the T-TPLF con man in my March 15, 2015 commentary, “A Tale of Tall Tales and Ethiopia’s Diplomat-in-Chief”.
Here is a short version of that incredible but true story.
In March 2015, a 14 year-old Australian girl of Ethiopian heritage came out of nowhere (maybe the Australian outback), sat with Adhanom at a press conference in Addis Ababa and offered to spend AUD$20 million prize she had won in Australia building schools in Ethiopia. (See press conference video (Amharic) HERE.)
The 14 year-old eight grader told her story at a press conference:
I won a competition of 20 million Australian dollars so I came here [to work] with the government of Ethiopia and Australia to begin my project and structures in the area and the land…
A T-TPLF foreign affairs ministry spokesman told the rest of her story:
The main thing is that she used to participate in clubs [in Australia]. One of the clubs she led worked in human affairs. In that club, she and other club members exchanged ideas about how to help others. The main idea she raised was how to give others an opportunity for learning. When people heard that (in Australia), supporters put together the award (of 20 million dollars). This happened in 2014. When she came home for a visit, as you have heard it from her, she wants to build a school in the Gara Muleta area in Harer with the award of 20 million dollars she got. She will begin her work soon with the cooperation of the responsible authorities.
How did the “Foreign Ministry” find out about the AUD$20 million awardee? The spokesman explained:
When the young lady came, we saw her documentation. She came to us through her family. Our honorable [foreign] minister learned about her and said it is necessary to speak and encourage her so that she can be a role model to other young people. So he called and talked to her. He encouraged her in a very strong way. He assured her if there is support the government can give her, she will get all the support she needs.
The problem with the “AUD$20 million prize” is that it never existed. The teenager never received such a prize. Neither the “honorable minister” nor his minions bothered to make a phone call and verify the eight grader’s story. They believed the “documentation” allegedly given to them by the eight grader. Adhanom fell for the hustle hook, line and sinker.
Abebe Gellaw, the fearless young Ethiopian journalist-in-exile, known for his relentless exposés of T-TPLF corruption, scandal, fake degrees and abuses of power published an investigative piece on the duping of Adhanom by the teenager.
Abebe contacted the elementary school principal where the alleged AUD$20 million teen awardee attended. The principal of that school “was quite mystified” and had no knowledge of any competition or prize for AUD$20 million. Abebe contacted Baden Powell College in Melbourne, Australia which allegedly organized the fundraising and the Government of Australia. Both denied any knowledge of any AUD$20 million prize.
Adhanom mounted a pathetic counter-offensive on his Facebook page on March 7, 2015 once he figured out he had been had, been took, been bamboozled and led astray. He wrote with feigned magnanimity:
As you know the young lady is a growing child. I hope you will agree with me that children are innocent and without malice. If they make a mistake it originates from innocence not maliciousness. Because of this, I prefer to believe what children tell me. If it is a mistake to trust children, I prefer to make that mistake. Therefore, I still prefer to believe the young lady. We should not write inappropriate things and hurt the young lady. Her planned project is blessed. I am strongly confident her project will be successful. The main thing now is to encourage and support [the young lady] her.
The fact that a 14 year-old eight grader could make a sucker out of the “foreign minister of Ethiopia” was shocking and mind-boggling.
I felt bad for Adhanom because he would have been better off buying the Brooklyn Bridge. (Perhaps I can belatedly recommend purchase of Trump University (of Scamming) to Adhanom. That way every T-TPLF ignoramus could be awarded a doctorate in any field for a small flat fee.)
Under Adhanom’s watch: T-TPLF diplomacy
Adhanom’s record as T-TPLF health and foreign minister is festooned with ineptitude, cluelessness and inanity.
The man who was bamboozled by a 14 year-old eight grader is now in charge of the Nile Dam negotiations with Egypt.
The Egyptians must think negotiating with Adhanom is “like taking candy from a baby.”
I wonder if the Egyptians had offered to sell Adhanom the Brooklyn Bridge. The make-believe Renaissance Dam for the Brooklyn Bridge sounds like a square deal to me.
I have followed Adhanom’s diplomatic escapades and pranks for a while now.
I have cringed (eek!) watching his videotaped speeches and shaken my head in disbelief reading his statements to the press.
Adhanom’s shallowness and cluelessness in matters of foreign policy and diplomacy are simply incredible.
His public speeches and statements generally lack not only substance and coherence, but are simply nonsensical. In July 2015, Adhanom said Ethiopia is a democracy with one hundred percent of the vote! (Of course, so did Obama. Two “nonsenses” don’t make one bit of sense!)
Adhanom’s diplomatic speeches are chock full of platitudes, clichés, buzzwords and hokum. He has a distinct proclivity to frame complex issues in worn out and left over phrases from the days of student activism of his late boss, thugmaster Meles Zenawi.
Adhanom manifests little understanding of international diplomacy and appears to lack even an elementary understanding of international law, treaties and conventions.
In 2013, Adhanom and PPPPM Desalegn pulled the race card and went on a wild goose chase accusing the International Criminal Court (ICC) of “race hunting” and conspiring to “destabilize Africa”. Their essential claim was that some white judges and prosecutors in The Hague were hunting down black African leaders and charging them with crimes against humanity.
It was all a BIG lie.
I defended the ICC in my commentary, “The International Criminal Court on an African Safari?”
Adhanom and Desalegn were phrase mongering as usual when they came up with their “race hunting” catchphrase. The fact of the matter is that of the 19 ICC judges, only 9 come from Western and Eastern Europe. There are 4 judges from Africa and the rest come from Asia and Latin America.
The ICC prosecutor was not out to lynch black African presidents.
For crying out loud, the chief ICC prosecutor Fatou B. Bensouda is a Gambian (African) lawyer. She was the Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC since 2004.
An African woman “racing hunting” innocent African men in leadership positions and trying to lynch them? What a crock of s _ _t!
The notorious American bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks. His response: “Because that’s where the money is!”
The ICC prosecutor went after criminals against humanity in Africa under the Rome Statute (which applies to such crimes committed after 2002) because that is where the majority of the criminals against humanity are today.
Adhanom tried to coordinate a mass walk out of the Rome Statue at a special meeting of the African Union (AU) in October 2013 during the debate over the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at the ICC.
Adhanom demonized the ICC and demanded charges against Kenyatta and Ruto be dropped or else.
In his “Opening Remarks” at the special meeting Adhanom declared:
[T]he [International Criminal] Court has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans. This unfair and unjust treatment is totally unacceptable and that is why we have been expressing our serious concerns against the ICC…. [O]ur request to the Court to allow the President of Kenya and his Deputy to choose the sessions they wish to attend in accordance with their constitutional obligations and duties has not received a positive response… We do not want this simplistic suspect/victim approach destabilize Kenya and our region… We should not allow the ICC to continue to treat Africa and Africans in a condescending manner.
In his “Closing Remarks”, Adhanom was jubilant:
[W]e have rejected the double standard that the ICC is applying in dispensing international justice. [W]e have once again clearly and unambiguously expressed our serious disappointment against the ICC and its selective approach vis a vis Africa. Particularly, we are deeply troubled by the fact that a sitting Head of State and his Deputy are for the first time being tried in an international court, which infringes on the sovereignty of Kenya…
“Infringes on the sovereignty”? Does that mean African presidents are above the law and are immune from ALL legal accountability?
Adhanom’s “race hunting” narrative was all a lie.
Adhanom lied when he argued that the ICC “has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans.”
Adhanom lied when he claimed the ICC has treated “Africa and Africans in a condescending manner.”
In his “race hunting” caper, Adhanom trivialized the heinous crimes committed by Kenyatta and Ruto in which nearly 2 thousand innocent Kenyans were slaughtered and over 600 thousand displaced. (See the 155-page ICC charges of murder, deportation or forcible transfer, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts (article 7(l)(k) against Kenyatta/Ruto and others HERE.)
I have followed the William Ruto/Uhuru Kenyatta ICC “trial” assiduously. I read the trial transcripts on a regular basis. I have been a member of the ICC Forum (Human Rights International Criminal Law) at UCLA since 2013.
In the end, the Adhanom conspiracy worked. The Kenyatta/Ruto trials were fixed.
The ICC dropped charges against Kenyatta in December 2014.
Ruto was acquitted last month for “insufficiency of evidence”. One of the judges declared it a mistrial because of a “troubling incidence of witness interference and intolerable political meddling”.
I got a bad feeling when the trials were postponed time and again. I could smell a rat in the repeated delays. It became clear to me a year before Kenyatta walked out of the ICC with his middle finger pointing to the sky and his back to the ICC that the outcome would be rigged.
Adhanom must be proud of his efforts to save two of the most notorious criminals against humanity in the 21st century.
The man who made Africa safe for the plague of crimes against humanity is now trying to save the world from the bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plagues as a WHO Czar.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Persecution of Ethiopian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia
Adhanom was clueless and callous during the persecution of Ethiopian migrant workers and refugees in Saudi Arabia in November 2013. That month thousands of Ethiopian domestic workers and migrants weer brutalized, tortured and humiliated by the Saudi Arabian regime, police and vigilantes.
Adhanom said he did not know Ethiopian domestic workers and migrants were being deported from Saudi Arabia until the Saudis began deporting them! Clueless!?
Adhanom delivered an obsequious apology to the very regime that was committing crimes against humanity on Ethiopians. It was sickening. Adhanom said, “Ethiopia would like to express its respect for the decision of the Saudi Authorities and the policy of deporting illegal migrants.” He also said what is happening to Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia “may be accepted when nations are at war to deport like this in a very rapid fashion people may understand, but not in peaceful situation.”
The dude is crazy clueless. Article 7 (d) and Article 8 (vii) of the Rome Statute classify “deportation or forcible transfer of population” as a crime against humanity during war time.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF abductions and kidnappings
In July 2014, Tedros Adhanom, with the aid of his security forces, committed the crime of extraordinary rendition by causing the abduction of Andaragatchew Tsege, a British national of Ethiopian origin and General Secretary of the Ethiopian opposition group known as Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy.
The practice of extraordinary rendition constitutes a violation of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and article 7 of the ICCPR” (United Nations Economic and Social Council, Situation of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, E/CN.4/2006/120, 15 February 2006, para. 55). To the “honorable foreign minister”, international law means nothing.
(I wonder if Adhanom knows the World Health Organization’s standards for the physical and mental health of prisoners prohibit extraordinary renditions. I wonder also if he will insist the T-TPLF uphold those standards if he becomes WHO Czar.)
Adhanom publicly mocked Andaragatchew Tsege following his abduction by suggesting that the TPLF government has provided him with a laptop to finish writing his book and “was shown around the various development projects underway in the country.”
Andaragatchew is denied the right to counsel but given a laptop to write a book. I can only guess the “book” is the coerced confession of Andaragatchew which the T-TPLF seeks to use for legal purposes in their monkey courts or to humiliate him politically.
This month Andaragatchew’s 9 year-old daughter Menabe sued the British Foreign Office over the mishandling of her father’s case. Menabe said, “After two years he is finally going to get a lawyer but I don’t think it’s going to actually help my dad. The government needs to demand he comes back – they should have done it ages ago.”
She also said of the British Government, “I think they would try harder if my father was a white Englishman.”
Out of the mouth of babes, the truth is spoken.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Persecution of Ethiopians in South Africa
For the past three years, Ethiopian refugees in South Africa have faced extreme violence and persecution at the hands of vigilantes and thugs in South Africa. Tedros Adhanom has failed to take any action with the Government of South Africa to stop the violence that continues to be committed on Ethiopians and refused to demand the arrest and prosecution of the criminal perpetrators. He has chosen to remain silent. I can understand why he is indifferent; he may even get a measure of perverse pleasure from their persecution.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Visit of President Obama to Ethiopia
My regular readers know that I am no longer in Obama’s cheerleading section. Though I have lost respect for Barack Obama the man for calling the T-TPLF “a democratically elected government”, I respect the constitutional office Barack Obama occupies.
When Adhanom’s foreign ministry rolled out a 99-cent polypropylene welcome door mat to receive the President of the United States and gave him a Mickey Mouse honor guard review, I was not a happy camper.
For all the billions American taxpayers have doled out to the T-TPLF over the years, the best Adhanom could do was a 99-cent polypropylene welcome door mat. At the time, I wrote, “Donald Trump said, ‘America needs to be respected again because the rest of the world has lost respect for America.’” I thought that iconic moment represented the T-TPLF’s flip of the bird to American tax payers.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF diplomatic missions go bust
In January 2016, Adhanom announced to the T-TPLF rubber stamp parliament, “One of the biggest challenges is that we are suffering from hard currency shortage especially for the execution of diplomatic missions in most of our embassies and consular offices.” In other words, due to cash flow problems, T-TPLF diplomatic missions are sitting on their duffs twiddling their thumbs. As everyone knows, the so-called “diplomatic missions” are havens for illiterate T-TPLF supporters who spend most of their time escorting T-TPLF bosses and their wives/mistresses around the shopping malls than doing diplomatic work. We know that!
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF trying to infiltrate the Voice of America
In November 2015, Tedros Adhanom got me fuming!
On the evening of September 26, 2015, Adhanom and his sidekick T-TPLF ambassador to the U.S. Girma Birru, “sneaked” under cover of darkness during the weekend into the headquarters of the Voice of America for a secret meeting with selected reporters and staff of VOA Amharic Service (AS) and another VOA service.
I was apoplectically outraged when I learned the details of the secret weekend night meeting. (Read all about it HERE.) For years, I have defended the VOA AS against T-TPLF attacks; and I am proud of that!
I have severely criticized those who have tried to intimidate VOA AS reporters in public places.
Adhanom and Birru tried to arm-twist VOA reporters. They did not succeed. I can say without reservation that the vast majority of VOA Amharic Service reporters are consummate professionals. I disagree with VOA Amharic Service on quite a few things, but I have had no reason to doubt their professional integrity. The VOA has subsequently announced that it will take appropriate measure to make sure there is no repeat of the Adhanom/Birru caper.
Under Adhanom’s watch: The health sector in Ethiopia
The statistics on health care services in Ethiopia are grim and heartbreaking. I first wrote about health care in Ethiopia in my October 2009 commentary, “Mothers of Ethiopia, Mother Ethiopia”.
According to a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Ethiopia’s population was estimated to be 77 million. To serve this population, there were 1,936 physicians (1 doctor for 39,772 persons); 93 dentists (1: 828,000); 15,544 nurses and midwives (1: 4,985), 1,343 pharmacists (1: 57,334) and 18,652 community health workers (1: 4,128). Total expenditure on health as a percentage of gross domestic product was 5.9 per cent. General government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditure on health was 58.4 per cent, and private expenditures covered the balance of 41.6 percent. Hospital beds per 10,000 population was less than 25. Per capita expenditure on health was US$ 3 at an average exchange rate. WHO’s minimum standard is 20 physicians per 100,000 population, and 100 nurses per 100,000 population.
In October 2010, in a five-part series entitled, “Mothers of Ethiopia,” investigative journalist Hanna Ingber Win painted a portrait of a country that is the epicenter — the ground zero– of Africa’s maternal and child health crises. Win wrote, “In Ethiopia, the maternal health statistics suggest that the nation’s health care system needs an overhaul. Less than six percent of women have access to a health professional while giving birth, according to Ethiopia’s 2005 Demographic and Health Survey. The maternal mortality rate is one of the worst in the world. For every 100,000 live births, 673 women die giving birth, according to the survey.”
In March 2007, the late Meles Zenawi at a health conference said, “We don’t need doctors in Ethiopia….Let the doctors leave to wherever they want.”
At the time, I condemned Meles Zenawi for making such a callous statement. I argued, “No effort must be spared to retain Ethiopian doctors in order for them to serve in the country, particularly in the rural areas. It is also an obvious fact that the flight of Ethiopian doctors necessarily means the importation of expensive foreign ones or the vast majority of Ethiopians will continue to die from preventable diseases and lack of basic health services.”
The fact of the matter is that
Medical personnel in Ethiopia receive low wages, for this reason, the majority of them often seek out second jobs to make ends meet. This has resulted to frequent absenteeism in medical staff. The management is reluctant to challenge the physicians over their frequent absences from work as well as their tendencies to take long breaks and arrive late at work. Lower level workers have followed the same behaviour as the physicians, leading to high absenteeism and low productivity at all levels.
According to a 2010 Foreign Policy report, “there are more Ethiopian physicians practicing in Chicago today than in all of Ethiopia, a country of 80 million and Africa’s second-most populous country.”
The T-TPLF health minister in 2013 “complained there are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in his own country.”
The latest (January 2015) “WHO Statistical Profile” on Ethiopia is filled with bogus statistics. The report identifies its data sources as follows: “Source: Country statistics and global health estimates by WHO and UN partners”. In other words, the data came from the T-TPLF statistics office (the same office that has been churning out bogus “double-digit growth for 10 years”, which I proved beyond a shadow of doubt to be a lie, damned lie and statislie).
The 2015 WHO report alleges life expectancy at birth for both sexes in Ethiopia increased by 13 years over the period of 2000-2012. In the comparable WHO region, the average increase was 7 years in the same period. How is that possible? The T-TPLF cooks the numbers to make itself look good, fully confident no Ethiopian or others will dig deep into their bogus databases and expose their statistical frauds.
The WHO claims (based on T-TPLF provided data) life expectancy in Ethiopia increased from 48 in 1990 to 64 in 2012. The under 5 mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) declined from 205 in 1990 to 64 in 2013. HIV/AIDS incidence rate per 100,000 population declined from 148 in 2001 to 51 in 2012.
In a 2014 report (based exclusively on WHO data) entitled, “Ethiopia The Health System”, WHO reported the following data on the health workforce and available medical equipment:
Physicians density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.027; in 2009 was 0.025.
Dentistry personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.001; 2006-2013, no data reported.
Nursing and midwifery personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.220; in 2009 was 0.253
Pharmaceutical personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.019; in 2009 was 0.031.
Psychiatrists working in mental health sector per 100,000 in 2011 was 0.04.
Total density per million population computed tomography units (CT Scans) in 2010 was 0.25; in 2013 it was 0.36.
Total density per million population radio therapy (cancer radiation therapy) in 2010 was 0.02; in 2013 was 0.02.
In 2008, Ethiopia had a population of 82 million. To serve that population, there “were a total of 149 hospitals in the country; 40 belong to the private sector, while 100 are State owned and 9 are supported by non-governmental organisations.”
In February 2015, Adhanom announced that certain Middle Eastern investors were going to build a resort for “medical tourism” in the capital. Adhanom exhorted Qatari businessmen to “participate in Ethiopia’s efforts to make itself a nucleus of medical tourism in Africa.”
I wondered if Adhanom was negotiating with the Qatari investors for “medical tourism” or “sex tourism”.
Adhanom’s legacy: International aid to improve health care
The USAID’s Office of the Inspector General Audit of USAID/Ethiopia’s HIV Care and Treatment Activities (AUDIT REPORT NO. 4-663-14-006-P MAY 23, 2014) paints a portrait of ongoing corruption, incompetence, delays, cost-overruns, lack of oversight, cooking the numbers, mismanagement and indifference in its programs in Ethiopia. Among the heartbreaking findings are:
Several significant activities Tetra Tech conducted were outside its scope of work.
Commodity storage conditions were not good, and inventory was poorly documented. We found mouse droppings near food commodities paid for by USAID.
Internal controls did not prevent or detect ineligible costs.
Data for FBP [Food By Prescription] were not reliable. The quality of data gathered for nutritional counseling and number of patients receiving supplemental food was not good.
The task orders for the first five health centers stated that all should have been completed on or before August 8, 2013. However, as of November 2013, only one center was fully constructed, and USAID/Ethiopia estimated that one more would be completed by December 31, 2013.
The main reason the health centers would not be operational until long after construction was completed was because delegations of responsibility were not well defined between the Ethiopian Government and USAID/Ethiopia.
The mission significantly reduced the number of health centers it would construct and renovate… because the EHIP budget was reduced and Tetra Tech designs were significantly over budget… Although the USAID contracting officer instructed Tetra Tech on June 29, 2011, to modify the design to meet the budget of $250,000 to $300,000 per health center, the average cost for the first five health centers was $756,431 each, and the COR told auditors that future health centers could cost more.
New Health Centers Did Not Address Community Needs. Despite planning to build larger health centers, the centers’ size and functionality did not always meet the needs of the communities where they were being built.
Excluding renovations at health centers that were not structurally sound eliminated the most needed improvements. For example, Meshenti Clinic in Amhara used a mud and stick building with an unfinished roof because the Ethiopian Government cut off funding for the project after constructing only two of the three buildings. The clinic also lacked running water because its water tank had been cracked for more than a year without being repaired. The staff said they sometimes treat 80 to 100 patients a day. Their activities include preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This clinic should be a prime candidate for renovation, but it would be excluded because it would involve building a new structure.
The USAID’s Office of the Inspector General Audit of USAID/ETHIOPIA’S PEPFAR-FUNDED ACTIVITIES FOR PREVENTION OF TRANSMISSION OF HIV (AUDIT REPORT NO. 4-663-12-007-P APRIL 23, 2012) presented similar findings:
People living with HIV and AIDS were counted incorrectly… Mission officials wanted to take credit for the numbers of people being reached.
The numbers of people from targeted populations reported as having attended education sessions under the sexual transmission prevention indicators are overstated because they included “untargeted populations” as defined by OGAC guidance.
Despite these [Automated Directives System (ADS) 203.3.5] requirements, the audit found errors and inconsistencies with data that USAID/Ethiopia reported to external parties… [A]uditors found significant problems with the underlying information. Specific examples are listed below…
The Executive Council of the African Union (AU) has endorsed Adhanom’s bid to become WHO Czar.
Adhanom says, “If elected I plan to work with regions to create blueprints to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide a global mandate to achieve universal health coverage and provide access to safe and effective medicines and vaccines for all”. (Phrases scarfed off of WHO webpages.)
That means Adhanom will bring to the WHO the same “blueprints” he used to revolutionize health care in Ethiopia! If only things could be solved by phrase mongering and spewing platitudes and cliches.
Margaret Chan of China who is the current director general of the WHO will be leaving in 2017. Can Adhanom fill her shoes?
Adhanom “trying to get the hell out of T-TPLF Dodge”?
My general impression is that Adhanom is sick and tired of the T-TPLF crap. He wants to make a clean break from the T-TPLF.
I have reason to believe that Adhanom thinks he is a cut above the other T-TPLF guys; and most likely, in a class by himself. Meles felt the same way.
Just like Meles, Adhanom may be right in thinking he is better than his comrades.
Adhanom may be using Meles’ playbook. The late thugmaster got himself appointed to all kinds of international gigs: climate change convention, G20 and other summits, Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa, etc.
I do not believe there is another T-TPLF leader today who has the audacity to go for a big job like WHO Director General.
It takes chutzpah to go for the top world health job even though one manifestly lacks the qualifications and experience, mental fortitude, judgement or savvy for the job. (But I admit it: I am biased. I think a pig with lipstick at the end of the day is just a pig. By the same token, to me a thug in a designer suit with academic acronyms after his name, at the end of the day, is still a thug. So there!)
Let me repeat that I am reasonably confident in saying that Adhanom is sick and tired of all the T-TPLF shenanigans and horsefeathers. He sees the T-TPLF ship sinking slowly. Why not jump now?
My adaptation on the old saw is this: “When the going gets tough, the smart-tough skip town, or abandon ship.”
There it is! Adhanom setting it up for the final exit.
Ciao! Good bye! Ma-Salama! Au Revoir! Sayonara! I’m outta here, T-TPLF chumps!
My personal opinion is that Adhanom’s appointment to the top WHO job would be a travesty and a colossal disservice to the cause of preserving world health.
I believe John Steinbeck wrote in the Grapes of Wrath, “I hate catching spiders. Still, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
Adhanom has got to do what Adhanom has got to do. I can’t blame a man for jumping ship to save his skin.
I have nothing personal against Adhanom. I “know” the man only from his public statements and from statements of those who claim to know or have known him.
I think Adhanom sees the WHO job as his Pontius Pilate moment. He snags the top WHO job and washes his hands of T-TPLF crimes and declare: “I am innocent of the blood the T-TPLF has shed. It is their responsibility. I am going away to save the world (at least the World Health Organization). I am outta here!”
If Adhanom manages to pull off the WHO top job, he can skip town and live in style and high on the hog leaving the other TPLF thugs holding the bag.
Good for him! That would be pretty slick.
If he pulls it off, my kudos to Slick Teddy.
I do not know how the other T-TPLF bosses view Adhanom’s potential getaway as they are stuck holding the crimes against humanity bag.
My view is that the T-TPLF leaders and their cronies and followers are the most cruel, hateful, spiteful, vengeful, malicious, resentful and ruthless gang of thugs that walked the earth.
Put simply, the T-TPLF is like “crabs in a basket.” Figure that one out!
I would not be surprised if “they” have a plan underway to torpedo Adhanom’s bid for the top WHO job. That is just the way they are. They will not wince as they cannibalize each other. They can’t help something that is genetically coded in them, I am sorry to say!
To be fair, I can also appreciate the frustration and possible envy of other T-TPLF bosses watching Adhanom making a clean getaway flipping them the bird with a little na-na, na-na, boo-boo ( I am better than you. I got away with murder.)
Well, it is what it is.
I believe every human being (even the ones I loathe) has the right to aspire for the best they can achieve. Just like the old US Army slogan, “Be all you can be.” A wo/man has got the right to be all s/he can be.
I oppose Adhanom’s candidacy for the top WHO job just like I opposed Gayle E. Smith’s confirmation to head USAID.
I believe Adhanom will be very bad news at WHO. But I realize that it is all about global bureaucratic politics and political correctness. The powers that be gotta have a black African face in that position. Why not Adhanom? They just need to meet their quota. It is the wrong man at the right time.
If Adhanom snags the top WHO job in 2017, well, he would have outsmarted, outfoxed, outmaneuvered and out-capered all of the other TPLF thugs just like the late crafty thugmaster Meles Zenawi did. There is something to be said for that even though begrudgingly.
If he snags it, I will congratulate him. After all, noblesse oblige, if you know what I mean!
They say, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Or is it Director General of WHO?
P.S. Does anyone know if the WHO is located in Dr. Seuss’ Whoville?
Ethiopia: Guess Who is Coming to WHO in 2017?
Posted in Al Mariam's Commentaries By almariam On June 5, 2016Well, “not only do they never cease, but new and ever new wonders come crowding on their heels.”
The “latest wonder” is Tedros Adhanom, the foreign minister of the Thugtatorship of the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (T-PLF), who wants to run WHO. That is the World Health Organization.
(Truth be told, I thought Adhanom was gunning for the T-TPLF prime ministership booting out Hailemariam Desalegn, that pitiful and pathetic puppet T-TPLF prime minister (PPPPM) (or is it crime (against humanity) minster?).
The T-TPLF, the ruling regime in Ethiopia, is, as everyone knows, a certified terrorist organization listed in the Global Terrorist Database.
Adhanom is a malaria researcher by profession and training. He received his doctorate in Community Health from the University of Nottingham (UK) in 2000. Five years later, Adhanom became T-TPLF health minister, a position he held until 2012 when he was elevated to foreign minister following the death of the infamous and late T-TPLF thugmaster Meles Zenawi.
Adhanom is now trying to slingshot his way from a community health organization to the World Health Organization.
Adhanom’s official biography claims he is a “globally recognized researcher on Malaria” and has “been recognized for his leadership in the rapidly evolving field of global health”.
(Suffice it to say that I have reviewed Adhanom’s “research publications” on malaria and global health at what appears to be his website and I am not impressed. We can discuss his “scholarly contributions” later assuming Adhanom will not decommission the website or remove webpages following publication of this commentary, as T-TPLFers often do when compromising data on them is publicized.)
Adhanom became foreign minister even though he had little diplomatic experience. In fact, he is pretty clueless not only about international diplomacy and relations but in general. (He just does not seem to know what time it is, to speak idiomatically.)
Adhanom’s cluelessness became painfully clear when he was duped and flimflammed by a 14 year-old girl from the Land Down Under in March 2015, three years after he became foreign minister.
They say, “you can’t con a con man.”
Perhaps. But you can con a clueless con man especially if you are a 14 year-old eight grader!
I wrote about the incredible hustle job the 14 year-old eight grader did on the T-TPLF con man in my March 15, 2015 commentary, “A Tale of Tall Tales and Ethiopia’s Diplomat-in-Chief”.
Here is a short version of that incredible but true story.
In March 2015, a 14 year-old Australian girl of Ethiopian heritage came out of nowhere (maybe the Australian outback), sat with Adhanom at a press conference in Addis Ababa and offered to spend AUD$20 million prize she had won in Australia building schools in Ethiopia. (See press conference video (Amharic) HERE.)
The 14 year-old eight grader told her story at a press conference:
A T-TPLF foreign affairs ministry spokesman told the rest of her story:
How did the “Foreign Ministry” find out about the AUD$20 million awardee? The spokesman explained:
The problem with the “AUD$20 million prize” is that it never existed. The teenager never received such a prize. Neither the “honorable minister” nor his minions bothered to make a phone call and verify the eight grader’s story. They believed the “documentation” allegedly given to them by the eight grader. Adhanom fell for the hustle hook, line and sinker.
Abebe Gellaw, the fearless young Ethiopian journalist-in-exile, known for his relentless exposés of T-TPLF corruption, scandal, fake degrees and abuses of power published an investigative piece on the duping of Adhanom by the teenager.
Abebe contacted the elementary school principal where the alleged AUD$20 million teen awardee attended. The principal of that school “was quite mystified” and had no knowledge of any competition or prize for AUD$20 million. Abebe contacted Baden Powell College in Melbourne, Australia which allegedly organized the fundraising and the Government of Australia. Both denied any knowledge of any AUD$20 million prize.
Adhanom mounted a pathetic counter-offensive on his Facebook page on March 7, 2015 once he figured out he had been had, been took, been bamboozled and led astray. He wrote with feigned magnanimity:
The fact that a 14 year-old eight grader could make a sucker out of the “foreign minister of Ethiopia” was shocking and mind-boggling.
I felt bad for Adhanom because he would have been better off buying the Brooklyn Bridge. (Perhaps I can belatedly recommend purchase of Trump University (of Scamming) to Adhanom. That way every T-TPLF ignoramus could be awarded a doctorate in any field for a small flat fee.)
Under Adhanom’s watch: T-TPLF diplomacy
Adhanom’s record as T-TPLF health and foreign minister is festooned with ineptitude, cluelessness and inanity.
The man who was bamboozled by a 14 year-old eight grader is now in charge of the Nile Dam negotiations with Egypt.
The Egyptians must think negotiating with Adhanom is “like taking candy from a baby.”
I wonder if the Egyptians had offered to sell Adhanom the Brooklyn Bridge. The make-believe Renaissance Dam for the Brooklyn Bridge sounds like a square deal to me.
I have followed Adhanom’s diplomatic escapades and pranks for a while now.
I have cringed (eek!) watching his videotaped speeches and shaken my head in disbelief reading his statements to the press.
Adhanom’s shallowness and cluelessness in matters of foreign policy and diplomacy are simply incredible.
His public speeches and statements generally lack not only substance and coherence, but are simply nonsensical. In July 2015, Adhanom said Ethiopia is a democracy with one hundred percent of the vote! (Of course, so did Obama. Two “nonsenses” don’t make one bit of sense!)
Adhanom’s diplomatic speeches are chock full of platitudes, clichés, buzzwords and hokum. He has a distinct proclivity to frame complex issues in worn out and left over phrases from the days of student activism of his late boss, thugmaster Meles Zenawi.
Adhanom manifests little understanding of international diplomacy and appears to lack even an elementary understanding of international law, treaties and conventions.
In 2013, Adhanom and PPPPM Desalegn pulled the race card and went on a wild goose chase accusing the International Criminal Court (ICC) of “race hunting” and conspiring to “destabilize Africa”. Their essential claim was that some white judges and prosecutors in The Hague were hunting down black African leaders and charging them with crimes against humanity.
It was all a BIG lie.
I defended the ICC in my commentary, “The International Criminal Court on an African Safari?”
Adhanom and Desalegn were phrase mongering as usual when they came up with their “race hunting” catchphrase. The fact of the matter is that of the 19 ICC judges, only 9 come from Western and Eastern Europe. There are 4 judges from Africa and the rest come from Asia and Latin America.
The ICC prosecutor was not out to lynch black African presidents.
For crying out loud, the chief ICC prosecutor Fatou B. Bensouda is a Gambian (African) lawyer. She was the Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC since 2004.
An African woman “racing hunting” innocent African men in leadership positions and trying to lynch them? What a crock of s _ _t!
The notorious American bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks. His response: “Because that’s where the money is!”
The ICC prosecutor went after criminals against humanity in Africa under the Rome Statute (which applies to such crimes committed after 2002) because that is where the majority of the criminals against humanity are today.
Adhanom tried to coordinate a mass walk out of the Rome Statue at a special meeting of the African Union (AU) in October 2013 during the debate over the trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at the ICC.
Adhanom demonized the ICC and demanded charges against Kenyatta and Ruto be dropped or else.
In his “Opening Remarks” at the special meeting Adhanom declared:
In his “Closing Remarks”, Adhanom was jubilant:
“Infringes on the sovereignty”? Does that mean African presidents are above the law and are immune from ALL legal accountability?
Adhanom’s “race hunting” narrative was all a lie.
Adhanom lied when he argued that the ICC “has transformed itself into a political instrument targeting Africa and Africans.”
Adhanom lied when he claimed the ICC has treated “Africa and Africans in a condescending manner.”
In his “race hunting” caper, Adhanom trivialized the heinous crimes committed by Kenyatta and Ruto in which nearly 2 thousand innocent Kenyans were slaughtered and over 600 thousand displaced. (See the 155-page ICC charges of murder, deportation or forcible transfer, rape, persecution and other inhumane acts (article 7(l)(k) against Kenyatta/Ruto and others HERE.)
I have followed the William Ruto/Uhuru Kenyatta ICC “trial” assiduously. I read the trial transcripts on a regular basis. I have been a member of the ICC Forum (Human Rights International Criminal Law) at UCLA since 2013.
In the end, the Adhanom conspiracy worked. The Kenyatta/Ruto trials were fixed.
The ICC dropped charges against Kenyatta in December 2014.
Ruto was acquitted last month for “insufficiency of evidence”. One of the judges declared it a mistrial because of a “troubling incidence of witness interference and intolerable political meddling”.
I got a bad feeling when the trials were postponed time and again. I could smell a rat in the repeated delays. It became clear to me a year before Kenyatta walked out of the ICC with his middle finger pointing to the sky and his back to the ICC that the outcome would be rigged.
Adhanom must be proud of his efforts to save two of the most notorious criminals against humanity in the 21st century.
The man who made Africa safe for the plague of crimes against humanity is now trying to save the world from the bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plagues as a WHO Czar.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Persecution of Ethiopian domestic workers in Saudi Arabia
Adhanom was clueless and callous during the persecution of Ethiopian migrant workers and refugees in Saudi Arabia in November 2013. That month thousands of Ethiopian domestic workers and migrants weer brutalized, tortured and humiliated by the Saudi Arabian regime, police and vigilantes.
Adhanom said he did not know Ethiopian domestic workers and migrants were being deported from Saudi Arabia until the Saudis began deporting them! Clueless!?
Adhanom delivered an obsequious apology to the very regime that was committing crimes against humanity on Ethiopians. It was sickening. Adhanom said, “Ethiopia would like to express its respect for the decision of the Saudi Authorities and the policy of deporting illegal migrants.” He also said what is happening to Ethiopians in Saudi Arabia “may be accepted when nations are at war to deport like this in a very rapid fashion people may understand, but not in peaceful situation.”
The dude is crazy clueless. Article 7 (d) and Article 8 (vii) of the Rome Statute classify “deportation or forcible transfer of population” as a crime against humanity during war time.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF abductions and kidnappings
In July 2014, Tedros Adhanom, with the aid of his security forces, committed the crime of extraordinary rendition by causing the abduction of Andaragatchew Tsege, a British national of Ethiopian origin and General Secretary of the Ethiopian opposition group known as Ginbot 7 Movement for Justice, Freedom and Democracy.
The practice of extraordinary rendition constitutes a violation of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and article 7 of the ICCPR” (United Nations Economic and Social Council, Situation of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, E/CN.4/2006/120, 15 February 2006, para. 55). To the “honorable foreign minister”, international law means nothing.
(I wonder if Adhanom knows the World Health Organization’s standards for the physical and mental health of prisoners prohibit extraordinary renditions. I wonder also if he will insist the T-TPLF uphold those standards if he becomes WHO Czar.)
Adhanom publicly mocked Andaragatchew Tsege following his abduction by suggesting that the TPLF government has provided him with a laptop to finish writing his book and “was shown around the various development projects underway in the country.”
Andaragatchew is denied the right to counsel but given a laptop to write a book. I can only guess the “book” is the coerced confession of Andaragatchew which the T-TPLF seeks to use for legal purposes in their monkey courts or to humiliate him politically.
This month Andaragatchew’s 9 year-old daughter Menabe sued the British Foreign Office over the mishandling of her father’s case. Menabe said, “After two years he is finally going to get a lawyer but I don’t think it’s going to actually help my dad. The government needs to demand he comes back – they should have done it ages ago.”
She also said of the British Government, “I think they would try harder if my father was a white Englishman.”
Out of the mouth of babes, the truth is spoken.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Persecution of Ethiopians in South Africa
For the past three years, Ethiopian refugees in South Africa have faced extreme violence and persecution at the hands of vigilantes and thugs in South Africa. Tedros Adhanom has failed to take any action with the Government of South Africa to stop the violence that continues to be committed on Ethiopians and refused to demand the arrest and prosecution of the criminal perpetrators. He has chosen to remain silent. I can understand why he is indifferent; he may even get a measure of perverse pleasure from their persecution.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: Visit of President Obama to Ethiopia
My regular readers know that I am no longer in Obama’s cheerleading section. Though I have lost respect for Barack Obama the man for calling the T-TPLF “a democratically elected government”, I respect the constitutional office Barack Obama occupies.
When Adhanom’s foreign ministry rolled out a 99-cent polypropylene welcome door mat to receive the President of the United States and gave him a Mickey Mouse honor guard review, I was not a happy camper.
For all the billions American taxpayers have doled out to the T-TPLF over the years, the best Adhanom could do was a 99-cent polypropylene welcome door mat. At the time, I wrote, “Donald Trump said, ‘America needs to be respected again because the rest of the world has lost respect for America.’” I thought that iconic moment represented the T-TPLF’s flip of the bird to American tax payers.
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF diplomatic missions go bust
In January 2016, Adhanom announced to the T-TPLF rubber stamp parliament, “One of the biggest challenges is that we are suffering from hard currency shortage especially for the execution of diplomatic missions in most of our embassies and consular offices.” In other words, due to cash flow problems, T-TPLF diplomatic missions are sitting on their duffs twiddling their thumbs. As everyone knows, the so-called “diplomatic missions” are havens for illiterate T-TPLF supporters who spend most of their time escorting T-TPLF bosses and their wives/mistresses around the shopping malls than doing diplomatic work. We know that!
Under Adhanom’s Watch: T-TPLF trying to infiltrate the Voice of America
In November 2015, Tedros Adhanom got me fuming!
On the evening of September 26, 2015, Adhanom and his sidekick T-TPLF ambassador to the U.S. Girma Birru, “sneaked” under cover of darkness during the weekend into the headquarters of the Voice of America for a secret meeting with selected reporters and staff of VOA Amharic Service (AS) and another VOA service.
I was apoplectically outraged when I learned the details of the secret weekend night meeting. (Read all about it HERE.) For years, I have defended the VOA AS against T-TPLF attacks; and I am proud of that!
I have severely criticized those who have tried to intimidate VOA AS reporters in public places.
Adhanom and Birru tried to arm-twist VOA reporters. They did not succeed. I can say without reservation that the vast majority of VOA Amharic Service reporters are consummate professionals. I disagree with VOA Amharic Service on quite a few things, but I have had no reason to doubt their professional integrity. The VOA has subsequently announced that it will take appropriate measure to make sure there is no repeat of the Adhanom/Birru caper.
Under Adhanom’s watch: The health sector in Ethiopia
The statistics on health care services in Ethiopia are grim and heartbreaking. I first wrote about health care in Ethiopia in my October 2009 commentary, “Mothers of Ethiopia, Mother Ethiopia”.
According to a 2006 World Health Organization (WHO) report, Ethiopia’s population was estimated to be 77 million. To serve this population, there were 1,936 physicians (1 doctor for 39,772 persons); 93 dentists (1: 828,000); 15,544 nurses and midwives (1: 4,985), 1,343 pharmacists (1: 57,334) and 18,652 community health workers (1: 4,128). Total expenditure on health as a percentage of gross domestic product was 5.9 per cent. General government expenditure on health as a percentage of total expenditure on health was 58.4 per cent, and private expenditures covered the balance of 41.6 percent. Hospital beds per 10,000 population was less than 25. Per capita expenditure on health was US$ 3 at an average exchange rate. WHO’s minimum standard is 20 physicians per 100,000 population, and 100 nurses per 100,000 population.
In October 2010, in a five-part series entitled, “Mothers of Ethiopia,” investigative journalist Hanna Ingber Win painted a portrait of a country that is the epicenter — the ground zero– of Africa’s maternal and child health crises. Win wrote, “In Ethiopia, the maternal health statistics suggest that the nation’s health care system needs an overhaul. Less than six percent of women have access to a health professional while giving birth, according to Ethiopia’s 2005 Demographic and Health Survey. The maternal mortality rate is one of the worst in the world. For every 100,000 live births, 673 women die giving birth, according to the survey.”
In March 2007, the late Meles Zenawi at a health conference said, “We don’t need doctors in Ethiopia….Let the doctors leave to wherever they want.”
At the time, I condemned Meles Zenawi for making such a callous statement. I argued, “No effort must be spared to retain Ethiopian doctors in order for them to serve in the country, particularly in the rural areas. It is also an obvious fact that the flight of Ethiopian doctors necessarily means the importation of expensive foreign ones or the vast majority of Ethiopians will continue to die from preventable diseases and lack of basic health services.”
The fact of the matter is that
According to a 2010 Foreign Policy report, “there are more Ethiopian physicians practicing in Chicago today than in all of Ethiopia, a country of 80 million and Africa’s second-most populous country.”
The T-TPLF health minister in 2013 “complained there are more Ethiopian doctors in Chicago than in his own country.”
The latest (January 2015) “WHO Statistical Profile” on Ethiopia is filled with bogus statistics. The report identifies its data sources as follows: “Source: Country statistics and global health estimates by WHO and UN partners”. In other words, the data came from the T-TPLF statistics office (the same office that has been churning out bogus “double-digit growth for 10 years”, which I proved beyond a shadow of doubt to be a lie, damned lie and statislie).
The 2015 WHO report alleges life expectancy at birth for both sexes in Ethiopia increased by 13 years over the period of 2000-2012. In the comparable WHO region, the average increase was 7 years in the same period. How is that possible? The T-TPLF cooks the numbers to make itself look good, fully confident no Ethiopian or others will dig deep into their bogus databases and expose their statistical frauds.
The WHO claims (based on T-TPLF provided data) life expectancy in Ethiopia increased from 48 in 1990 to 64 in 2012. The under 5 mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) declined from 205 in 1990 to 64 in 2013. HIV/AIDS incidence rate per 100,000 population declined from 148 in 2001 to 51 in 2012.
In a 2014 report (based exclusively on WHO data) entitled, “Ethiopia The Health System”, WHO reported the following data on the health workforce and available medical equipment:
Physicians density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.027; in 2009 was 0.025.
Dentistry personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.001; 2006-2013, no data reported.
Nursing and midwifery personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.220; in 2009 was 0.253
Pharmaceutical personnel density (per 1000 population) in 2003 was 0.019; in 2009 was 0.031.
Psychiatrists working in mental health sector per 100,000 in 2011 was 0.04.
Total density per million population computed tomography units (CT Scans) in 2010 was 0.25; in 2013 it was 0.36.
Total density per million population radio therapy (cancer radiation therapy) in 2010 was 0.02; in 2013 was 0.02.
In 2008, Ethiopia had a population of 82 million. To serve that population, there “were a total of 149 hospitals in the country; 40 belong to the private sector, while 100 are State owned and 9 are supported by non-governmental organisations.”
In February 2015, Adhanom announced that certain Middle Eastern investors were going to build a resort for “medical tourism” in the capital. Adhanom exhorted Qatari businessmen to “participate in Ethiopia’s efforts to make itself a nucleus of medical tourism in Africa.”
I wondered if Adhanom was negotiating with the Qatari investors for “medical tourism” or “sex tourism”.
Adhanom’s legacy: International aid to improve health care
The USAID’s Office of the Inspector General Audit of USAID/Ethiopia’s HIV Care and Treatment Activities (AUDIT REPORT NO. 4-663-14-006-P MAY 23, 2014) paints a portrait of ongoing corruption, incompetence, delays, cost-overruns, lack of oversight, cooking the numbers, mismanagement and indifference in its programs in Ethiopia. Among the heartbreaking findings are:
Several significant activities Tetra Tech conducted were outside its scope of work.
Commodity storage conditions were not good, and inventory was poorly documented. We found mouse droppings near food commodities paid for by USAID.
Internal controls did not prevent or detect ineligible costs.
Data for FBP [Food By Prescription] were not reliable. The quality of data gathered for nutritional counseling and number of patients receiving supplemental food was not good.
The task orders for the first five health centers stated that all should have been completed on or before August 8, 2013. However, as of November 2013, only one center was fully constructed, and USAID/Ethiopia estimated that one more would be completed by December 31, 2013.
The main reason the health centers would not be operational until long after construction was completed was because delegations of responsibility were not well defined between the Ethiopian Government and USAID/Ethiopia.
The mission significantly reduced the number of health centers it would construct and renovate… because the EHIP budget was reduced and Tetra Tech designs were significantly over budget… Although the USAID contracting officer instructed Tetra Tech on June 29, 2011, to modify the design to meet the budget of $250,000 to $300,000 per health center, the average cost for the first five health centers was $756,431 each, and the COR told auditors that future health centers could cost more.
New Health Centers Did Not Address Community Needs. Despite planning to build larger health centers, the centers’ size and functionality did not always meet the needs of the communities where they were being built.
Excluding renovations at health centers that were not structurally sound eliminated the most needed improvements. For example, Meshenti Clinic in Amhara used a mud and stick building with an unfinished roof because the Ethiopian Government cut off funding for the project after constructing only two of the three buildings. The clinic also lacked running water because its water tank had been cracked for more than a year without being repaired. The staff said they sometimes treat 80 to 100 patients a day. Their activities include preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This clinic should be a prime candidate for renovation, but it would be excluded because it would involve building a new structure.
The USAID’s Office of the Inspector General Audit of USAID/ETHIOPIA’S PEPFAR-FUNDED ACTIVITIES FOR PREVENTION OF TRANSMISSION OF HIV (AUDIT REPORT NO. 4-663-12-007-P APRIL 23, 2012) presented similar findings:
People living with HIV and AIDS were counted incorrectly… Mission officials wanted to take credit for the numbers of people being reached.
The numbers of people from targeted populations reported as having attended education sessions under the sexual transmission prevention indicators are overstated because they included “untargeted populations” as defined by OGAC guidance.
Despite these [Automated Directives System (ADS) 203.3.5] requirements, the audit found errors and inconsistencies with data that USAID/Ethiopia reported to external parties… [A]uditors found significant problems with the underlying information. Specific examples are listed below…
The Executive Council of the African Union (AU) has endorsed Adhanom’s bid to become WHO Czar.
Adhanom says, “If elected I plan to work with regions to create blueprints to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which provide a global mandate to achieve universal health coverage and provide access to safe and effective medicines and vaccines for all”. (Phrases scarfed off of WHO webpages.)
That means Adhanom will bring to the WHO the same “blueprints” he used to revolutionize health care in Ethiopia! If only things could be solved by phrase mongering and spewing platitudes and cliches.
Margaret Chan of China who is the current director general of the WHO will be leaving in 2017. Can Adhanom fill her shoes?
Adhanom “trying to get the hell out of T-TPLF Dodge”?
My general impression is that Adhanom is sick and tired of the T-TPLF crap. He wants to make a clean break from the T-TPLF.
I have reason to believe that Adhanom thinks he is a cut above the other T-TPLF guys; and most likely, in a class by himself. Meles felt the same way.
Just like Meles, Adhanom may be right in thinking he is better than his comrades.
Adhanom may be using Meles’ playbook. The late thugmaster got himself appointed to all kinds of international gigs: climate change convention, G20 and other summits, Tony Blair’s Commission on Africa, etc.
I do not believe there is another T-TPLF leader today who has the audacity to go for a big job like WHO Director General.
It takes chutzpah to go for the top world health job even though one manifestly lacks the qualifications and experience, mental fortitude, judgement or savvy for the job. (But I admit it: I am biased. I think a pig with lipstick at the end of the day is just a pig. By the same token, to me a thug in a designer suit with academic acronyms after his name, at the end of the day, is still a thug. So there!)
Let me repeat that I am reasonably confident in saying that Adhanom is sick and tired of all the T-TPLF shenanigans and horsefeathers. He sees the T-TPLF ship sinking slowly. Why not jump now?
My adaptation on the old saw is this: “When the going gets tough, the smart-tough skip town, or abandon ship.”
There it is! Adhanom setting it up for the final exit.
Ciao! Good bye! Ma-Salama! Au Revoir! Sayonara! I’m outta here, T-TPLF chumps!
My personal opinion is that Adhanom’s appointment to the top WHO job would be a travesty and a colossal disservice to the cause of preserving world health.
I believe John Steinbeck wrote in the Grapes of Wrath, “I hate catching spiders. Still, a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”
Adhanom has got to do what Adhanom has got to do. I can’t blame a man for jumping ship to save his skin.
I have nothing personal against Adhanom. I “know” the man only from his public statements and from statements of those who claim to know or have known him.
I think Adhanom sees the WHO job as his Pontius Pilate moment. He snags the top WHO job and washes his hands of T-TPLF crimes and declare: “I am innocent of the blood the T-TPLF has shed. It is their responsibility. I am going away to save the world (at least the World Health Organization). I am outta here!”
If Adhanom manages to pull off the WHO top job, he can skip town and live in style and high on the hog leaving the other TPLF thugs holding the bag.
Good for him! That would be pretty slick.
If he pulls it off, my kudos to Slick Teddy.
I do not know how the other T-TPLF bosses view Adhanom’s potential getaway as they are stuck holding the crimes against humanity bag.
My view is that the T-TPLF leaders and their cronies and followers are the most cruel, hateful, spiteful, vengeful, malicious, resentful and ruthless gang of thugs that walked the earth.
Put simply, the T-TPLF is like “crabs in a basket.” Figure that one out!
I would not be surprised if “they” have a plan underway to torpedo Adhanom’s bid for the top WHO job. That is just the way they are. They will not wince as they cannibalize each other. They can’t help something that is genetically coded in them, I am sorry to say!
To be fair, I can also appreciate the frustration and possible envy of other T-TPLF bosses watching Adhanom making a clean getaway flipping them the bird with a little na-na, na-na, boo-boo ( I am better than you. I got away with murder.)
Well, it is what it is.
I believe every human being (even the ones I loathe) has the right to aspire for the best they can achieve. Just like the old US Army slogan, “Be all you can be.” A wo/man has got the right to be all s/he can be.
I oppose Adhanom’s candidacy for the top WHO job just like I opposed Gayle E. Smith’s confirmation to head USAID.
I believe Adhanom will be very bad news at WHO. But I realize that it is all about global bureaucratic politics and political correctness. The powers that be gotta have a black African face in that position. Why not Adhanom? They just need to meet their quota. It is the wrong man at the right time.
If Adhanom snags the top WHO job in 2017, well, he would have outsmarted, outfoxed, outmaneuvered and out-capered all of the other TPLF thugs just like the late crafty thugmaster Meles Zenawi did. There is something to be said for that even though begrudgingly.
If he snags it, I will congratulate him. After all, noblesse oblige, if you know what I mean!
They say, “In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.” Or is it Director General of WHO?
P.S. Does anyone know if the WHO is located in Dr. Seuss’ Whoville?
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