Ethiopia The Bedtime Stories of Meles Zenawi

At the “World Economic Forum Meeting” in Ethiopia last week, dictator Meles Zenawi lectured …. My view is that there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy historically or theoretically. B...

At the “World Economic Forum Meeting” in Ethiopia last week, dictator Meles Zenawi lectured …. My view is that there is no direct relationship between economic growth and democracy historically or theoretically. But my view is that democracy is a good thing in and of itself irrespective of its impact on economic growth. And my view is that in Africa most of our countries are extremely diverse, that may be the only possibility, the only option of keeping relationships within nations sane. Democracy may be the only viable option for keeping these diverse nations together. So we need to democratize but not in order to grow. We need to democratize in order to survive as united sane nations. That’s my view. But I don’t believe in this nighttime, you know, bedtime stories and contrived arguments linking economic growth with democracy. There is no basis for it in history and in my view no basis for it it in economics. And there is no need to have this contrived argument because the case for democracy and can stand and shine on its own…