‘People’s power’ or ‘democracy’ (demo=people & kratos=rule) has always been a grandiose ideal pervading many an organized society, old and new. However, praxis on the ground (various systems of political governance) have had and still have difficulties achieving this sought after objective. In fact, the history of highly organized societies is anything but (democratic), at least in the original sense of the word! The more organized a society, the more hierarchical it becomes. Thereafter, the notion of people’s power recedes to the background giving way to representative political governance! This deep-rooted discordance is one obvious affliction of modern societies. A technical name exists for such incongruity in the world of psychology. Unfortunately, ‘civilized societies’ have many such discordant issues that squarely fall in the category of ‘cognitive dissonance’! Even though the phrase is frequently used to describe a psychological condition of an individual, it has recently gained currency in the description of the larger human collectives and its constructs!
One hundred years ago to the day, an experiment to install a system of genuine ‘people’s power’ was initiated in Imperial Russia. The Bolsheviks spared no effort in trying to set up ‘people’s power’ across the vast land of various nations and nationalities, in what later became the USSR (United Soviets Socialist Republic). To help achieve their project of ‘people power’, the soviets started out by classifying the general populous along class lines. The peasants and the workers were to be the vanguards of the whole movement, as they constituted the majority of citizens. In addition, an enlightened group of elites was selectively assembled to steer the radical transformation at all levels. This group became the communist party of the USSR and ultimately monopolized all representation of the people! The whole country was subjected to the doctrine of the ‘dictatorship of the proletarian’, the party being the sole proxy of the people. The experiment in the USSR was used as a template to forging development and democracy. The distilled observation is; direct people’s power was proxied to selected elites; and herein lies the problem! The rest is history!
Western democracy is also predicated on representative governance or representative politics. Here again, direct democracy (by the people) is not seriously entertained. Participatory democracy is not encouraged in the West, as it tends to undermine the role of the manipulative politicos and their dominant bosses, the 0.1%, who literally owns these countries. Admittedly and at times, smaller countries like Switzerland conduct plebiscites to decide on certain issues. Many of the so-called Western ‘democracies’ have morphed into outright plutocracies, the ‘rule of money’. See the articles on page 52 & 53. Nonetheless, the project of continuously hoodwinking the sheeple (human mass), facilitated by representative political governance, seems to be losing steam, so to speak! It is well known that all sorts of manipulations are used to discourage wide spread voting by the sheeple, lest the massive turnout pushes the whole process of representation towards direct democracy! In the west, it is ‘capital’ that has become the ultimate decider, not the demos, establishment rhetoric aside. It is the ‘deep state’ that is in charge here. No wonder ‘populist movements’ (to use the phrase of the establishment) are sprouting all over.
We believe, the western model, however hard it is pushed by global dominant interests, might not get wide reception in the countries of the periphery. Reasons abound. To start with, domestic capital is very weak and hardly independent. It also lacks broader vision, outside of its immediate interests. These and other reasons makes domestic capital a highly suspect entity in the periphery. As a result, capital might not be able to install sustained plutocracy, as it did in the North. On the other hand, ‘mafia states’, the equivalent of ‘deep states’ in the South, are fledging. The ‘mafia state’ is mostly composed of oligarchs, officials of reigning political parties, policy makers, government officials/functionaries, lumpen bourgeoisie, etc. The Arab Spring was one such reaction to the ongoing criminal arrangement of the ‘mafia state’. Resistance movements along these lines are gradually moving south to sub Saharan African countries. Kenya, Ethiopia, etc. are all facing public outcry about their entrenched ‘mafia states’, clandestinely operating behind established formal states. Moreover, the sheeple in the periphery, just like the sheeple up north, is becoming increasingly aware of the unsustainability of the modern world system. All these spell trouble to representative political governance!
In all the above, it is representative democracy and not people’s power, (i.e. the original idea of democracy) that is running the show! Very importantly, under representative politics the prevailing economic paradigms are not to be interrogated by routine elections, however much it is desired by the majority. Such things are regarded as sacrosanct, not subjected to democracy. One should wonder why countries waste time/resources by conducting regular elections that have no measureable impact on established economic dogmas! As the political activist and writer vividly put it: “If election mattered, it would have been disallowed.” Emma Goldman. Good Day!
PEOPLE & POWER
Cultural Bureau to sue Muller Real Estate over historical site demolition
The Addis Ababa Cultural and Tourism Bureau plans to file charges against Muller Commercial Real Estate for demolishing the historical Ras Abebe Aregay House located at Adwa road near Aware. Muller is planning to build a G+19 apartment complex in that location.
The Bureau told Capital that the home was listed as one of the 440 historical houses in the city’s master plan. It sits on 1,800sqm and was constructed 70 years ago, and was used as a residence for Ras Abebe Aregay and his family.
Initially the famous athlete Kenenissa Bekele bought the house from Ras Abebe family. Then he later sold it to Access Real Estate. Then Access Real Estate sold it to Muller for 14 million birr.
Before the demolition Italians rented the house from Muller and used it as a restaurant.
Abebe Abera, a legal expert at the Bureau said Muller Real Estate was warned not to demolish the house.
“We received comments from people in the middle of the demolition and we wrote a letter telling Muller to cease and desist but they completely destroyed the place. As a cultural bureau we are responsible for protecting heritages and we have sent documents to Yeka Police to sue Muller,” he said.
Mulegeta Tesfakiros, founder of Muller Real Estate said the company passed through legal procedures before they demolished the house.
No procedure was overlooked before we began the demolition. We got approval for the construction and demolition of the house from the concerned bodies. We also received approval from the city which said the old house was not on the list of historical heritage sites.
“However, after we demolished the house the Wereda officials told us that the house actually was on the list of historical heritages when we began building the new apartment, so we received mixed messages” Mulugeta told Capital.
Under the current heritage proclamation in Ethiopia if somebody illegally demolishes a heritage site they may face up to 10 years imprisonment plus a fine.
Apart from the demolished house there are two old Ras Abebe Aregay homes found in Addis Ababa located in Arada Sub City.
Ras Abebe Aregay was a major leader of the resistance in Shewa against the Italians during the fascist occupation, and leader of the largest anti-occupation force in Ethiopia. Abebe Aregay was the grandchild of Menelik II’s loyal General Ras Gobena Dachi. As Balambaras Abebe Aregay, he had been commander of Addis Ababa’s metropolitan police before the 1936 occupation of the capital. After the Emperor’s departure and the Italian occupation, the then Balambaras Abebe Aregay was proclaimed a son of Lij Iyasu at Amba Aradam as “Emperor Meleke Tsehai” in 1938, and was given the title of Ras. However the young claimant died of an illness soon after, and Abebe Aregai returned to supporting the restoration of Emperor Haile Selassie. Emperor Haile Selassie again granted him the title of Ras legitimately, and he was among the guerilla leaders that escorted the Emperor back into Addis Ababa on Liberation Day, May 5, 1941. Ras Abebe served as governor general of Shewa, governor general of Tigrai, Minister of Defense, Minister of the Interior, Crown Councilor and Senator at various times. He was killed during the Imperial Guard coup attempt of 1960 and was buried at Debre Libanos Monastery.
Insurers ask for separate body to regulate sector
The Association of Ethiopian Insurers has asked the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), for permission to stop supervising the insurance industry and that a new body be formed to follow up with the insurance sector, according to sources.
The issue was also raised during the second East African Financial Summit held at ECA a week ago. During that discussion insurance experts claimed the sector was not being given adequate attention because NBE, which regulates the financial industry, focuses on banks.
An expert, who once led a private insurance company, told Capital that the central bank does not fully understand the insurance industry. “This has affected the growth of the insurance sector, which contributes an insignificant percentage to Ethiopia’s GDP,” he said.
“Regulating the insurance industry without the central bank is required for insurance businesses to grow,” an expert explained.
Experts said that during the Imperial Era insurance was regulated by the Ministry of Trade.
The proposed regulatory body would be a commission or other supervisory entity that can more fully understand and respond to the demand of the insurance industry.
According to experts, in other parts of the world the insurance industry is not regulated by central banks, instead separate entities are responsible for managing the sector.
The insurance penetration in Ethiopia is very small and its share of the GDP is about 0.5 percent. Meseret Bezabih, CEO of United Insurance Company and President of the Insurers Association, told Capital that the association submitted its proposal to the central bank about a month ago to discuss the fate of the insurance industry.
“We just put the agenda up for discussion and we are now waiting for a meeting,” she added.
Since the market reopened after the downfall of the Derg regime the private insurance sector has been regulated under proclamation 86/1994 and NBE is responsible for overseeing it.
Currently there are one state owned and 16 private insurance companies in the country. They have 492 branches and 53.5 percent are located in the capital.
The total capital of the 17 insurance companies is over 3.6 billion birr, private insurance companies have 76 percent of this amount. In the 2016/17 financial year the insurance industry’s written premiums stood at 7.4 billion birr and general insurance grabbed almost 95 percent of that total.
NBE is responsible for supervising the financial sector as a whole including insurance, banks and micro finances. “If the new proposal is accepted it would be overlooked by a separate body responsible to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation,” an expert said.
CFA head talks investment management
President and CEO of CFA Institute, Paul Smith, visited Addis Ababa and met with potential and former students during an orientation session held at the Intercontinental Hotel. CFA currently provides courses on investment management.
