EITI or Clare’s Corruption Club?

 Clare Short has won! Congratulations, Clare! Brava! Last week, Clare Short, Chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), succeeded in bullying the EITI Board members into voting to admit the ruling regime in Ethiopia into her Club.  She did it the old-fashioned way— arm-twisting, browbeating, bulldozing, rear-end kicking, a little bit of jawboning and…

Thugtatorship: The Highest Stage of African Dictatorship

Originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 02/28/2011 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alemayehu-g-mariam/thugtatorship-the-highest_b_828864.html Thugogracy in Africa If democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people, a thugogracy is a government of thieves, for thieves, by thieves. Simply stated, a thugtatorship is rule by a gang of thieves and robbers (thugs) in designer suits. It…