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The Escalation of War in Ethiopia

153 points · 167 comments · mooreds

  1. hn_submit · · focus · HN ↗
    The main culprit of poverty in Africa (and other countries) is the widespread corruption. It's the destroyer of all entrepreneurial and business activity in those countries. Any business is continuously being robbed, ransomed and conned into paying "protection" money by gangs and law enforcement alike. In addition the civil servants demand payment for the most trivial licenses you need to operate your business. These all add up and make any business unprofitable because you cannot pass on those costs to customers.

    To combat corruption these countries need to educate their population of its effects plus hefty penalties, including capital punishment, to get it under control. The higher up the tree the more severe the punishment should be. Politicians and senior civil servants should always be put to death since their corruption has the greatest impact.

    1. slim · · focus · HN ↗
      You seem to think corruption is part of local culture. In reality corruption is implemented and maintained by foreign colonialists as a tactic to maintain power over local resources. It is coldly planned for in think tanks and other dark corners of foreign colonial democracies
      1. stickfigure · · focus · HN ↗
        There is always someone else to blame for your failure.
        1. tclancy · · focus · HN ↗
          Hang on now: someone breaks into my house, strip mines it for anything valuable I have, takes multiple generations of my offspring out of schooling, beats and kills any offspring that request they stop and leave and it’s my fault the kids struggle to organize? And then when they do get “free”, lacking any example or group memory for how to fairly manage things, the worst of the kids take by strength and starve the rest. That’s my fault too?
          1. throwawayfifo · · focus · HN ↗
            Nice fan fiction, but that never happened in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was never colonized.
        2. ceejayoz · · focus · HN ↗
          This one goes both ways, yeah?
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