I have been participating in the 11th International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy, which is an annual even organized by the Ethiopian Economics Association (EEA). This year’s conference was held between 18-20th of July 2013.
In the conference researches conducted in a range of issues regarding different aspects of the Ethiopian Economy are presented and discussed up on. This year’s conference brought together 70 papers presented in three days time. This number is lower than the papers presented in the previous year’s conference by 20. This is due to the reduction of presentations in a session from 4 to 3 in an effort to save more time for discussions.
I will say more about the current status of the association and the conference in an article for Zone9 soon (for my take on last year’s conference and on the association, click here). But I wanted to say something I couldn’t save until I am well composed.
The world cares about children, follow the links to assert that (Alok Mishra, Angus, Abi Wallis, The Molecule, Eric Natkin, Stephanie Adams, Jennifer Abney, Ali Gilby, and Jason). These nine tweeps probably didn’t knew what #EEA13 stood for.
Most important point I want to share; the Ethiopian government is obsessed with controlling every gathering of people of any kind. Maintaining independence from the regime’s interference is not an easy task for leadership of an association. I understand it must have been and will continue to be very demanding for the leadership of EEA to at least maintain the independence from the regime’s interference for the time being (freedom of the association to select papers with strong findings against the regime to be presented in the conference and be part of publications is long gone). EEA is not a free institution, but isn’t a puppet either, at least not yet. Looking at trends, I’m deeply worried!
Dear regime hands, stay away from my association. I beg you not to push me to the extreme.
yebat2yekotun 