Institutional injustice

Dear Editor,
Thank you for bringing the issue of industrial malfunction in today’s Ethiopia to your esteemed readers (Face to face with institutional injustice, Nov. 2012). However, you have argued that the special attention Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn has given to the animal husbandry and meat export business, if your sources are to be trusted, has two shortcomings. I agree with the first, but your second argument is somehow short of details and lacks a good argumentative stand. Nearly a decade ago the late PM Meles Zenawi gave the horticulture/floriculture sector all that this country has as a nation: a fertile land, a generous access to government money, tax break and what have you. The result is an industry that is now one of the three biggest foreign currency earners to the nation. Having been aware of the sector’s immense contribution, the government of Ethiopia has recently made available close to 50, 000 hct of land in various parts of the country for the sector.

Bisrat Alemayehu
Addis Ababa

Hopes will die last

Dear Editor,

I found your lead article of the October edition of your magazine rather interesting. (Hopes ignited die last than shattered soon, Oct. 2012).  Following the death of your late PM, Meles Zenawi, your country is undergoing through an exciting period. My expat colleagues and I were very relieved to witness that unlike the doomsday reporting by the media and think-thank organizations such as the International Crisis Group (ICG), the first phase of transition went as smooth as anyone wishes it to be. Your country has a lot going for it. Although it was unfortunate to lose its leader at such a critical period, however sad that may be, party officials who are in charge of running the country must put their differences aside and work hard for the betterment of the country and its people at large. News about the alleged split within the party comes as bad news to the business sector as stability is the only winning point the country has to attract foreign direct investment, no matter how small.  

Obituary of the late PM

Dear Editor,

Allow me to express my genuine appreciation to you and your team at Addis Standard magazine.  Having said so, your obituary on the late PM Meles Zenawi (Obituary – the late PM Meles Zenawi Sep. 2012) deserves the most appreciation for its professional, easy to read and well balanced assessment of the life of the late PM Meles Zenawi. However, I was deeply disappointed to see the article lacks backing its argument with some statistics, particularly economic statistics, of the achievements and/or failures of the late PM since he took power in 1991.  I hope your next assessment of his legacy will include some of the hard to avoid economic evidence registered during the reign of the late PM.

Haile Arefe Begeta

4 killo