Written by: Telile Fikru Badecha on January 31, 2014

Reading Karl Polanyi’s brilliant work on The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time is very instructive, and it raised my curiosity to learn more about my country’s economic and political system, and its impact on social life. One of the central pieces from Polanyi’s discussion that struck me the most is the “ideas that self-regulating markets never work; their deficiencies, not only in their internal working but also in their consequences (e.g., for the poor)” (p.vii; 71-80). My country adapted a free market system in 1992 and “in line with this has promoted private investment. With the introduction of market economy, Ethiopia has implemented a number of reforms including the privatization of state owned enterprises, liberalization of foreign trade, deregulation of domestic prices, and devaluation of the exchange rate.”[1] The consequence of this ideology, as it has been true in other developing countries, has neither strengthened Ethiopia’s financial system nor promoted our economic growth. As Joseph E Stiglitz rightly puts it, “in developing countries with high levels of unemployment, the job destruction that results from trade liberalization may be more evident than the job creation…” (p.x).  Except for our politicians and their economists, not everyone is aware of the power of a free market economy and its limitations. However, we have been affected by it. The promise of free market ideology never came true. As country, Ethiopia has never been free of famine; however, few local and foreign capitalists/investors benefit from exporting the crops that are grown locally to other Middle Eastern countries. It is sad to realize that our leaders are all about market economy which misuses the land resources and cheap labor for their self-interest while the society is hurting.  In my opinion, our government is playing investment games to overshadow their corruption.  As Polanyi puts it rightly, “ Neither freedom nor peace could be institutionalized under this economy, since its purpose was to create profit and welfare, not peace and freedom” (p.263).

What worries our nation is “fear itself.” We do not have freedom of expression and freedom of the press, and in my opinion these are equally important as “fear of freedom from fear and from hunger” (p.xvi). The freedom that we have is “at the cost of justice and security” (p.263).  However, the church has been silent on the issues of peace and justice. The general tendency among Evangelical Christians is to separate the preaching of the gospel from social justice issues. Even worse, they label those who stand for justice as “politicians and/or social workers often in a negative way. Also, Evangelical Churches’ severe persecution under the Communist regime, and a partial freedom of religion under the current government, makes them less opposed to the unjust current system. Our biggest challenge among Ethiopian churches is we do not appreciate our differences. We are very much divided over the very things that are supposed to unite us. It is one thing to hold a different opinion, but it is not right to dehumanize others because someone has a different opinion on social justice or church doctrine. Our societies issues are very complex, but there is hope if our missional communities are willing to proclaim the good news of Jesus to the poor, freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners…

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Telile Fikru Badecha