Ethiopia has been making remarkable and successful efforts to fight poverty; it deserves support not censure or vilification

Introduction

The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International organizations, Representative Christopher Smith held a hearing entitled “Ethiopia After Meles: The Future of Democracy and Human Rights”, on June 20, 2013. To this hearing, he invited, among others, individuals from a designated terrorist group as well as others committed to the armed overthrow of the Government. Moreover, Representative Smith announced that he planned to try to introduce in Congress a punitive bill against the Ethiopian Government. This, he says, is intended to try to force Ethiopia to follow a certain prescribed path in its political and economic development. It might be added that this is not the first time Mr. Smith has tried to do this, and it appears he made up his own mind about the future of Ethiopia a long time ago.