First, Why is Africa Poor? George Ayittey, the renowned Ghanaian economist and president of the Free Africa Foundation swears that “Africa is poor because she is not free”. Like Ayittey, Robert Guest, business editor for The Economist, in his book The Shackled Continent (2004), declares that “Africans are poor because they are poorly governed.” He argues that…
Originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 12/27/2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ethiopian-groundhog-year_b_801384.html Groundhog Year in Prison Nation In December 2008, I wrote a weekly column entitled “Groundhog Year in Prison Nation” summarizing some of my weekly columns for that year. I used the “groundhog year” analogy following the title of the motion picture “Groundhog Day” in which a…
Originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 10/31/2010 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/ethiopia-education-unbann_b_776758.html Distance Learning in Ethiopia Un-Banned? Last week, it was quietly announced that the official wholesale ban on distance learning educational programs in Ethiopia has been lifted. In August 2010, the ban was imposed out of the blue “because of quality concerns”. According to one report[1], following…
