I wonder Where They Learned This Stuff

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi with Stevie Harper

I note in the Globe & Mail that the Canadian Government is “deeply concerned” by a report that Ethiopia is using aid money to routinely reward supporters and to punish those who fail to support it.

 A Human Rights Watch investigation came to the conclusion that Ethiopia is abusing the foreign aid it receives. Farmers who fail to support the ruling party are denied access to fertilizer, seeds, loans and other agricultural aid.

It is also reported that the government is using the foreign aid program to purge the civil service of anyone with an independent political view.

I don’t really understand why any Canadian is shocked by all this. It sounds like the way Harper delivered the infrastructure money earlier this year. Conservative ridings got well in excess of what ridings who voted for other parties got.

And here in Saskatchewan I know plenty of smart and effective civil servants who lost their jobs when Brad Wall’s right wingers took over from the NDP just because the new governments wanted to put their own people into power, to pay off political favours and to get rid of anyone who might have a connection to the previous political party no matter how well they did their jobs.
Canadians never seem to be put off by these practices. It sounds like old style Canadian politics. And we put up with it.  I do understand that the practice is repugnant but I don’t know why the Conservative government would be pissed about it. The practice is directly from Harper's own rule book.