Foreign aid is not a cure-all for Africa according to experts and leaders from Africa who spoke at a recent conference in New York City. Rather, they suggest foreign aid is only part of the panacea alongside a more holistic dose of self-reliance, good governance, entrepreneurship and transcendent spiritual values.
Read More(OPINION) The goal of aid is to end situations that lead to aid. It is estimated that the West has given $1.2 trillion in aid and development assistance to Africa since 1990 according to Greg Mills in the book “Expensive Poverty.” Much of that aid came from the U.S. But sadly the foreign aid has had little or no impact on bettering the lives of poor Africans.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The schism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, one of the most ancient and largest churches in the world, is another symptomatic evidence of the twin threats that Ethiopia is currently facing, namely ethnocentrism that results from fusing ethnicity with politics and religious extremism that results from fusing ethnicity with religion.
Read More(OPINION) Desta Heliso, an Ethiopian-British lecturer on early African Christianity, used to believe in Western intervention in Africa. Today he does not. Here’s why.
Read More(ANALYSIS) It’s now clear that the Biden administration wants to oust Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. This is extraordinary and would exacerbate many of the region’s challenges, including religious extremism. While Ahmed has made mistakes, they are incomparable to the persecution, repression and suffering caused by past regimes.
Read More(OPINION) A viral video of His Holiness Abuna Mathias, a Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC), describing barbaric killings of civilians in Tigray has prompted heightened concern in the international community about human rights abuses, while many Ethiopians remain cautious and skeptical about whether disinformation campaigns driven by anti-government activists, geopolitical forces, “Ethiopia analysts” and media outlets are influencing Western communities and governments.
Read More(ANALYSIS) In the current crisis in northern Ethiopia, religion is used as a tool to misinform the international community, Ethiopian scholar Desta Heliso writes. The resulting diplomatic tensions are endangering not just the future of Ethiopia’s 110 million people, but peace in the whole Horn of Africa.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Recent global headlines sparked by a former BBC reporter claimed that 750 Orthodox Christians were killed in northern Ethiopia, but there is not evidence of these deaths. Moreover, international media has mischaracterized the recent crisis in Ethiopia and ignored decades of history that’s pitted federal armed forces against the powerful, well-funded Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Read More(ANALYSIS) External forces from the Middle East are exploiting ethnic tensions and threatening peace between Muslims and Christians in Ethiopia.
Read More(OPINION) Forces in Ethiopia and abroad are currently capitalizing on the appalling murder of the musician and political activist Hachalu Hundessa, which led to violent ethnic-based clashes that killed nearly 200 people this month. Political groups in Africa’s second-most-populous country have consistently paraded distorted and, at times, wholly inaccurate narratives about the democratic values Hundessa stood for.
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