A Young Ethiopian Activist vs. Jeffery Sachs on Poverty

Samuel Gebru, an 11th grade Ethiopian activist living in Cambridge, Mass, offers the following insightful remarks on the causes contributing to poverty in Ethiopia:

In Ethiopia today, everyone is deprived of an integral part of their economic rights: the right to own property. In American History, the Puritan pilgrims traveled from Great Britain to the "New World" because of various factors, amongst which included religious freedom and the desire to own land. Land is a measurement of wealth in most countries. However, Ethiopia's Constitution which was authored by, amongst others, Meles Zenawi states that:
 
"Every Ethiopian citizen has the right to the ownership of private property[...]The right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia. Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of exchange" (Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Chapter 3: Fundamental Rights and Freedoms; Part Two: Democratic Rights; Article 40: The Right to Property).
 
In this passage there are two contradicting ideas: the idea that every citizen has the right to private property, however, on the other hand this so-called private property is "exclusively vested in the State and in the peoples of Ethiopia." This clearly is a communist economic approach.
 
In communism, land is the property of the people, however, our country is the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, hence property should not be nationalized but should really be private. Many attribute this since the TPLF, the core of the ruling EPRDF coalition, was at one point a Marxist-Leninist group idolizing Albania.
 
In Ethiopia, there isn't security over land rights, in the rural population, 85% of Ethiopia, some complain that low-level cadres have evicted pastoralists or denied fertilizer due to not voting for the EPRDF or being loyal thereof. Knowing this, its hard to see how every "Ethiopian [peasant] ha[s] [the] right to obtain land without payment and [...] protection against eviction from their possession[s]" (Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Chapter 3: Fundamental Rights and Freedoms; Part Two: Democratic Rights; Article 40: The Right to Property).
 
This practice of abusing pastoralists is further supported by the US Stat Department: "During the year there continued to be credible reports from EHRCO [(Ethiopian Human Rights Council)] and opposition parties that in certain rural areas in the Oromiya region; Amhara region; and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples region; local officials used threats of land redistribution and withholding of food aid and fertilizer to garner support for the ruling coalition. There were many reports of ruling party or government harassment intended to prevent individuals from joining opposition parties or from renting property to them. There were numerous reports of more serious forms of harassment and violence directed against members of opposition parties in many areas of the country, including beatings, house burnings, and killings (see sections 1.c., 1.d., 3, and 5)" (Ethiopia: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices).
 
Furthermore, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has stated that he has "[N]ot heard of any truly convincing reason as to why we [(the government)] should privatize land ownership at this stage. I have not heard of any economic rationale for doing so. If there were to be an overwhelming economic rationale to do it and ultimately that would be the best way of securing the interests of our peasant farmer and therefore politically that would be our agenda" (I have never heard of any convincing reason as to why we should privatize land). It is interesting that the Prime Minister states that the current economic secures the best interests of the peasant farmers because according to the US State Department, the Ethiopian Government conducted forced displacements of rural families, which the government states was entirely voluntary. While the initiative might sound well-thought of: moving families from drought prone areas to fertile lands, the notion of any government forcing citizens to leave their "land" is a clear abuse of civil rights.

I discovered Mr. Gebru's thoughts on land ownership in Ethiopia after reading at wikipedia that Ethiopians cannot own land, and was shocked.

By contrast, Jeff Sachs, the celebrity economist, best-selling author, and Special Economic Advisor to the UN Secretary General, recently expressed the following opinion about Ethiopia:

"I believe that Ethiopia can maintain 10 percent per year growth for many, many years to come. Indeed double digit economic growth for the next 20 years . . . ."

Upon reading Sachs' optimism, I checked the Fraser Economic Freedom Index and the World Bank's Doing Business rankings, and both confirmed that Ethiopia is a dreadful place to do business, ranked around 102nd on both indices.  Worse yet, market reforms are slow in coming.  Ethiopia is a recovering Marxist country that has barely begun the transformation into an effective market economy.  It is suffering from one of the highest population growth rates in Africa as well as some of the worst environmental degradation - both of which would be rapidly ameliorated by economic growth.

Unfortunately Sachs is delusional in his optimism until and unless Ethiopia reforms - the Ethiopian government would be better off listening to Gebru than to Sachs.  Sachs makes no mention of the importance of these market reforms, leading the reader to assume that all is fine with the future of Ethiopia.  No nation on earth has experienced continuous growth of the kind suggested by Sachs without increasing economic freedom.

Just to check to make sure I wasn't going crazy, I checked in with an economist friend with real expertise in the developing world.  His estimation of Sachs' comment:  "Irresponsible."

Go Gebru!