Devolutionary Refractions: The 21st Century’s Delusional ‘Democracy’

What is gone wrong with democracy? 

Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why it run into trouble? What can be done to revive it? (The Economist, 2015)

Devolutionary Refractions:

The 21^st Century’s Delusional ‘Democracy’

Public Lecture, CCIX, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Abstract

  Ivan Krastev challenge us by saying, you believe that the government is not sufficiently transparent. You are mistaken transparency hurts democracy. If we reflect on the most important concepts in political science vocabulary (democracy, liberalism, authoritarianism, transparency, etc.), it is apparent that they are used with so many different meanings that it is easy to prove contradictory theses simultaneously. This is a source of renewable energy in the humanities, but it is considered dangerous by some, or even contaminated. Hence, repeated attempts distil the language of the humanities so that in the patiently anticipated future it will become a substitute for formal logic notation. At pivotal moments in the past, altering the rules of the political has been a defining trait of the organised left, able to project a new social order out of latent concerns, as well as develop the means to alter the grammar of politics. If democracy means rule by the people for the people, it has broken down (Amin, 2012). Democracy is going through a difficult time. Where autocrats have been driven out of office, their opponents have mostly failed to create viable regimes (The Economist, 2015).

The Chinese Communist Party has broken the democratic world’s monopoly on economic progress standards of roughly once every 30 years. China has been doubling living standards roughly every decade for the past 30 years. The Chinese elite argue that their model—tight control by the Communist Party, coupled with a relentless effort to recruit talented people into its upper ranks—is more efficient than democracy and less susceptible to gridlock. Hence, the central hypothesis is that the relative strength of political organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed. Democratisation requires a plural set of political organisations, which promote and protect rules of peaceful political participation and competition. Together, democratic institutions (plural organisations plus rules of accountability) ensure control of the state executive.

Key words: democracy, elections, economic progress, authoritarianism,

See paper here or https://www.academia.edu/25575217/Devolutionary_Tangents_-_The_21st_Century_Delusional_Democracy

Rastafarianisim, Religion & Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasse I

Rastafarianisim, Religion &

Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor 
Haile Sellasse I

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos

Ethiopian Patriots Diamond Jubilee CXVIII-II, MMXVI,

Talk @ Scouts, Addis Abeba, May 5, 2016

Above all, Haile Sellasse has created a general, warm and blind sympathy for uncivilized Ethiopia throughout civilized Christendom. In the wake of the world's grandiose Depression, with millions of white men uncertain as to the benefits of civilization, 1935 produced a peculiar Spirit of the Year in which it was felt to be a crying shame that the Machine Age seemed about to intrude upon Africa's last free, unscathed and simple people. They were ipso facto Noble Savages, and the noblest Ethiopian of them all naturally emerged as Man of the Year.”

TIME, Man of the Year, XVI, Nov 18, 1936

Summary

        Jamaica of Rastafarians received HIM Emperor Haile Sellasse’s memorable visit to Ja­maica on April 21 1966 as if it were the second coming of Christ. No other state visit has captured the triumph of hu­man spirit as this. This lecture is about religion, a set of beliefs vis-à-vis the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a super human agency or agencies, usually involving devo­tional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code gov­erning the conduct of human affairs. Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the Methodist Revival in 18th Century Wales (after John Cal­vin). They survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presby­terian Church of Wales. Wesleyanism is a movement of Protestant Christians who seek to follow the methods or theology of the eight­eenth-century evangelical reformers John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley. Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and eso­teric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his di­vine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration' or illumination. 

       So what is wrong with the Rastafarianism as a ‘religion’? Rastafarisim is an Abrahamic belief, which developed in Ja­maica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Its adherents worship him in much the same way as Jesus in his Second Advent. The father of African independence and African unity is being dully remembered by the Rastafarians, who deserve credit for this at a time when our historic leaders are being denied recognition by present generations.

See lecture here or https://www.academia.edu/25058491/Rastafarianisim_Religion_and_Jamaicas_visit_of_His_Majesty_Emperor

Messengers of Peace - African Scouts Scouting, Noble Citizenship & Youth Programme of Human Security

Messengers of Peace - African Scouts

Scouting, Noble Citizenship & Youth Programme of Human Security

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Chief Scout, Ethiopian Scouts, Professor of Public Policy, 
School of Graduate Studies, AAU

A panel lecture on Africa Scout Day

A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, Reverent

Summary

        Advances in human thought and action towards global justice and universalization of guarantees for human rights, are gathering added momentum with the motive energy contributed by unprecedented events following the end of the Cold War. Such developments notwithstanding, conflicts have displaced over 60 million people today. The Messengers of Peace initiative by some 40 million young scouts worldwide is taking on the task of human security globally. Our vision is that Scouting will be the foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Scouting will continue to offer young people responsible fun and adventure; instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical character as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law. 

        It is to train young people in noble citizenship, service, and leadership to serve communities and families with its quality, values-based programmes. We envision Scouting entering its second century as an influential, value-based enlightening movement focused on achieving its mission, attracting and retaining more and more young people coming from broader segments of society; in all cultures; as dynamic, innovative Movement with adequate resources and democratic decision making processes where organization, management and communication are effective at all levels. In this regards, scouts will engage in brave and direct action taking the bull by the horn in training and civic education on stemming human insecurity and domestication of international instruments, build coalition to ensure human security capacity building is undertaken by civil societies. They will promote integrated humanitarian and development projects, including income generating and self-reliance activities, education and infrastructure development; establishing human security research capacity, develop durable solutions and comprehensive response strategies to human insecurity.

Key words: messengers of peace, citizenship, youth development, empowerment, peace

See paper here

Official Premier of ‘TISM’

Official Premier of ‘TISM’

– Sheraton Addis, 16 May 2016, a Review

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos

Sheraton Addis, Addis Abeba, May 16, 2016

          I was invited to see the premier of TISM, the brainchild of Kalkidan Getahun (Kal), a romantic story film by Bekal Productions, focused on a poorly understood human condition – autism. TISM, directed by  Sophonyas Taddese has brought up the spirited love story of a couple against a backdrop of human trafficking, violence against young girls, even, humorously, the diasporic flamboyant café demeanor of Daniel Gebeyehu and the dedication of a few heroines that face autism with candor.

 Autism is a complex brain condition, encompassing a broad range of symptoms. These can include discomfort around other people, hypersensitivity to sounds, touch, tastes, smells and light and obsessive interests. Autism affects different people in different ways. Some autistics score above average on intelligence tests but struggle to communicate verbally and make compulsively repetitive movements. Others have a healthy vocabulary but pitiable motor control, which can make writing by hand or using a fork difficult. The autism of a particularly high-functioning person might be almost imperceptible, manifesting itself only subtly in an obsessive interest with subjects (Israel’s army uses autistic volunteers to interpret complicated satellite images). The causes of autism are not well understood. Researchers believe that autism begins developing early in life. Although parents sometimes notice their babies behaving oddly before the age of one, symptoms do not always appear until later.

   The up-&-coming-star-studded TISM has brought forth an intellectual prowess to a human condition with a cherished inkling that the arenas of human narratives do not have to be simply witty, heartrending, amorous or polemical. In her seminal work, Kal decorously envisioned it to be all at once witty, excruciating, emotional and quixotic in context and content, bringing numerous façades of import, sequentially and concurrently to the dramaturgical scene. Plain absurdity of the Casanova style diaspora, Daniel Gebeyehu, comes with the passionate but hidden love story of a quintessentially beautiful Netsanet Aytenfisu (Lishan) and the grand autistic impersonator and great actor, Elias Wosenyeleh (Surafel), with (Misrak) Kalkidan Getaneh’s mix of heightened nobleness, grief and sensation, climaxing in the interminably tender flash of amour and courtship.

       Kal’s anecdotes depict a line of shadowy realism of an autistic condition in a heightened emotion of Surafel’s aptitude to fall in love with Lishan. In this literary immaculateness of a cerebral state, Kal’s script emerges as a lead narrative in recounting the condition of children in need of succor. TISM proves once again that such parables are futile unless they illuminate hominid Samaritan-ness. This film shows us that compassion rings in the ear of the deaf and glows the eyes of the blind and the limits to great deeds are only defined by the trajectory of how far our imagination can fly to. This is a-must-see film for all families.

Costantinos, May 16, 2016

Structural Transformation in Africa: Policy, Strategy, Process & Structure Ethiopia Case Study

Structural Transformation in Africa:

Policy, Strategy, Process & Structure

Ethiopia Case Study

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXXXIX, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business and Economics, AAU

Abstract

This lecture evaluates achievements and challenges of the industrial development strategy of Ethiopia. During the study, the researcher undertook a literature review and collected primary data from government officials and secondary data from national reports. The discourse in the literature and findings of different empirical studies were reviewed and triangulated with the content of the interviews that were held with key informants. Three major obstacles must be overcome in order to make industrial policy in developing countries more successful: bad economic advice, development agencies and private consultancies, which say that they have identified the best practice and can provide you with a golden ticket to economic prosperity and the allure of FDI. The success of industrial policy in developing countries will be greatly enhanced by recognition of the wealth latent in their own national value chains and of their right and responsibility to limit foreign presence when it infringes on their capacity to build an economy, which serves their populations’ needs (Janoo, 2016:1).

Source Economic Report on Africa, 2013

The findings of the study showed that the strategy has resulted in good growth of the industry sector, brought remarkable improvements, and contributed to the development of the national economy. Nevertheless, the study leads to the conclusion that the strategy is not effective in bringing structural change in the economy. Moreover, if structural change is desired in a manner that allows industry to take the lead in the economy, Ethiopia still needs to invest in a number of areas for the realization of this goal. Investments to increase the agricultural productivity, enhancing forward and back ward linkages of the manufacturing sector, tapping into the mining sector, linking research and development works and improving the overall business and investment climate are recommended to enhance the effectiveness of the Industrial development strategy. Credit and capital markets are vital to industrialisation. The lecture is based on Misgana Tekle’s 2015 AAU MPA thesis

Key words: industrial policy, industrial strategy, technology, capital, management know how

See article here

In Search of African Cognoscenti: Politics of schadenfreude – agent provocateurs’ argumentum ad hominem

In Search of African Cognoscenti:

Politics of schadenfreude – agent provocateurs’ argumentum ad hominem

Youth Leadership Conference- Hawassa, SNNPR

Public Lecture, CX, MMXIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD,

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU,

Summary

     Whether through legitimate elections or machinations, one-party states dominate Africa since independence, which have exhibited an enhanced degree of coercive power, resulting in a pervasive military ethos leading to the emergence of oligarchies through a long and painful process of ideological schooling, coups and counter coups. Practices such as free elections, the formatting of political parties, free and open public discourse are all concepts that need to be installed in the minds of ‘politicians’. Such a scene produces desperate and noxious regime-haters that defy logic, blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on Africa, by creating chaos in distant communities.

     Non-ideological conflicts among kibbutzim ‘African’ are also rampant despite the ‘political freedom’ in their asylum nations, they behave so because they are brought up in milieus, where certain dysfunctionalism is the norm! Supported by the West, they advocate violence in the edition of the Arab Spring that has now brewed an ominous talk of an Islamist Fall and Salafi Winter. Western onslaught of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc… has only resulted in total disarray for the life and livelihood of their citizens. Europe is harvesting a deluge of refugees it helped create.

    Agencies of noxious regime-haters and activities to which they are often tied to, tend to be flustered and, at times, flustering. Their media thrive on fostering chaos and engender needless convolution and strife. Thus, as promoters of fake plural politics, they often do not efficiently realize the potential of the ideas they promote. The volume of their intrusions is not even nearly proportional to their impact raises the issue of whether their rhetoric in question was fundamentally constrained at the moment of their conception by the very chaotic structures that ground their articulation. Within such anarchy, ideas of pluralism may be artificially deflated by particular subterfuges of decrepit pecuniary exiles that wish to stall entire social transformation processes, until they are in charge.

Key words: dysfunctional politicians, cognoscenti, regime change

Pernicious people cloaked as politicians and rights activists defy reason and

derive carnality from sadomasochism, ecstatically oblivious of their deleterious violence-ridden mission. Whether it is ruthlessness or just plain idiocy, such reckless ‘agent provocateurs’ that augur their discourse on argumentum ad hominem find it tantalizing to waste the intellect of cognoscenti as their emotive cesspool

Great minds discuss ideas,

 Average ones debate events & Ssmall ones chew over people…

(Eleanor Roosevelt)

see paper here

A youthful ‘joie-de-vivre’

Civic Protest Alliances against Venality:

Quo Vadis ‘Political’ Ethiopia

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXV, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

     Large student demonstrations in the 1970s demanded land to the tiller and the equality of nations & nationalities. The ideological baggage that informed the era and that continues to ‘enlighten’ politics heretofore is important to note in at least three ways: the ubiquity of imperious economic policy, the stress on political organization, and the national question. Half a century later, HRW (2016) states, a human rights crisis is taking place in Ethiopia, triggered by the Addis Ababa Master Plan. While the political state and its security apparatus are intact, Lefort (2016) asserts, ‘Since the spring of 2014, it has been shaken by a rising tide of popular discontent. A Front that was righteous, disinterested, devoted as it was during the armed struggle, ready to listen and to serve, is now accused of having succumbed to an unholy trinity: corruption, bad governance & unaccountability. The Prime Minster has apologised for the havoc wrecked by protests (BBC, 2016). Is this the beginning of the end of the omnipresent state and the rise of political openness?

       While the prime role of the state is advancing the economy, it must focus on major infrastructure, streamline the discretionary rule of its officials, eliminate monopolies and economic distortions that facilitate them and improve accountability. Leadership, political will and public support are essential to stemming any threats to stability. The causes and not just the consequences of these threats have to be addressed with urgency. The first requisite of good governance as a precursor of pluralism is a spirit of tolerance that requires political and policy differences to be resolved in a spirit of respect for the views of citizens. The state’s legitimacy stems or should transpire from an acceptance of the fairness and transparency of its procedures for choices to state offices and policymaking. Its sustainability depends on public confidence as well as the confidence in the fairness of its governing. Ethiopia can pursue its good governance transition goals consistently in varying contexts, but do so without resorting to a self-defeating, overly scripted and stage-managed political ploy? The protests and the apologies herald a new era of openness, albeit at a very high price.

Key words: Ethiopia, Oromia, authoritarianism, protests, good governance, pluralism, democracy

At the pinnacle of authoritarianism in Africa, social turmoil reigned when publics fell apart; when sheer anarchy spread; where the best, lost conviction, while the worst acted with brutal intensity and impunity. As the political space gets intricately turbulent, societies became permanently fluid and the task of avoiding distress becomes queerly indefinite. The mystified elite had grown insensitive to change, but the cost of ignorance is indeed too ghastly to contemplate.

See lecture here

Capacity Assessment for Ending Gender Based Violence in Ethiopian Schools

Capacity Assessment for

Ending Gender Based Violence in

Ethiopian Schools

Public Lecture - Respublica Literaria CXVIII, MMXVI

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies,

College of Business & Economics, AAU

Abstract

         The overall aim was to undertake the development of the nationwide capacity assessment on GBV in schools. Furthermore, the study assessed and identified good practices in addressing GBV in schools together with the major challenges and gaps. The focus of the present study was on Secondary and TVET levels. The study has reviewed and documented the progress made in the area of GBV. It has examined all stakeholders’ interventions and identifies the capacity gaps of duty bearers (Woreda Education Officials, Parents Teachers Association, school clubs, Parents) and those of right holders (girls and boys) within the context of GBV. It has identified and shared information on a selected set of promising interventions and good practices that are considered prime candidates for scaling up in the area of education in collaboration with other sectors. It has explored issues, factors and conditions that promote or constrain scaling up of appropriate strategies and models and identified and reviewed both systems-wide changes and reforms needed for the education sector as well as targeted interventions dealing with specific constraints to GBV.

           Based on the findings of the study drawn from desk review and field research, the following major gaps have been identified in the response and prevention capacity of all involved stakeholders in the fight against SRGBV. These are lack of adequate policies/laws/regulations to effectively deal with SRGBV. This is the case both at national level, district and school levels. There are problems of awareness among the community and officials at different levels and even among students as to the adverse impact of SRGBV on victims. There are capacity problems mainly in terms of providing the required services and support to victims as well as in efforts geared towards prevention and limited collaboration among the various stakeholders. The recommendations augur on key elements of an advocacy campaign to promote against GBV in schools and strategic recommendations for future interventions that will contribute to minimize the GBV in schools.

           Key words: SRGBV, school girls, GBV, TVET,

See paper here

Rastafarianisim, Religion & Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasse I

Rastafarianisim, Religion &

Jamaica’s visit of His Majesty Emperor Haile Sellasse I

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos

Ethiopian Patriots Diamond Jubilee CXVIII-II, MMXVI,

Talk @ Ethiopian Scouts, Addis Abeba, May 5, 2016

Above all, Haile Sellasse has created a general, warm and blind sympathy for uncivilized Ethiopia throughout civilized Christendom. In the wake of the world's grandiose Depression, with millions of white men uncertain as to the benefits of civilization, 1935 produced a peculiar Spirit of the Year in which it was felt to be a crying shame that the Machine Age seemed about to intrude upon Africa's last free, unscathed and simple people. They were ipso facto Noble Savages, and the noblest Ethiopian of them all naturally emerged as Man of the Year.”

TIME, Man of the Year, XVI, Nov 18, 1936

Summary

         Jamaica of Rastafarians received HIM Emperor Haile Sellasse’s memorable visit to Ja­maica on April 21 1966 as if it were the second coming of Christ. No other state visit has captured the triumph of hu­man spirit as this. This lecture is about religion, a set of beliefs vis-à-vis the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devo­tional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code gov­erning the conduct of human affairs.

        Calvinistic Methodists were born out of the Methodist Revival in 18th Century Wales (after John Cal­vin). They survive as a body of Christians now forming the Presby­terian Church of Wales. Wesleyanism is a movement of Protestant Christians who seek to follow the methods or theology of the eight­eenth-century evangelical reformers John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley. Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and eso­teric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his di­vine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration' or illumination.

       So what is wrong with the Rastafarianism as a ‘religion’? Rastafarisim is an Abrahamic belief, which developed in Ja­maica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Its adherents worship him in much the same way as Jesus in his Second Advent. 

   The father of African independence and African unity is being dully remembered by the Rastafarians, who deserve credit for this at a time when our historic leaders are being denied recognition by present generations. 

See talk here