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From: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Libertarians in Space
Message-ID: <252@ubvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Jul-85 11:26:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubvax.252
Posted: Mon Jul 15 11:26:07 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jul-85 16:23:30 EDT
References: <293@kontron.UUCP> <2380092@acf4.UUCP>
Reply-To: tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch)
Organization: Ungermann-Bass, Inc., Santa Clara, Ca.
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In article <2380092@acf4.UUCP> mms1646@acf4.UUCP (Michael M. Sykora) writes:
>I don't have the statistics, but here's one example:  the current
>crisis in Ethiopea.  As I understand it, the actions of the statist
>government there exacerbated the problem.
>
>						Mike Sykora

Not the actions, the nonactions.  The Ethiopian famine was predicted in
the reign of the immortal Haile Selassie ("Jah").  The Dergue, who
took control after Selassie's overthrow, never consolidated a national
authority -- nearly all Ethiopian regions had been fuedally autonomous under
Selassie.  Hence no roads, etc.., and many different tribal, "national"
groups claiming legitimacy in the vacuum, some supported by Somalia and
the US.

A regime which is nearly powerless in the countryside should not be
blamed for famine in the countryside.  And imagine if Haile Selassie
were distributing the food aid, which would be the alternative scenario.
In his entire reign, he never acknowledged that famine existed -- not
even once.

See *The Ethiopian Revolution*, by Jon Halliday and Maxine Molyneux, for
more.  The book is a little too pro-Dergue for my taste, but it explains
the problems of the new Ethiopian regime circa 1973-1980 very well.
(Verso-New Left Press, London).

For two statist regimes which did cure starvation among their people,
look at Tanzania and China.  China's success given its per capita income
makes it stand out in the World Bank statistics.

Tony Wuersch
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