Thank you very much.
I'd like to welcome you. I appreciate the chance to ask you some questions.
The question that always occurs to me in discussions like this is, how do you explain the extent of western support? It's not just Canada we're talking about. We're talking about U.S. aid, DFID, and German aid. A number of western governments have all decided to put a great deal of emphasis on their support for the Government of Ethiopia. Yet we hear such a contradictory account. If I may say so, it's not just from you.
I'll just say to members that I would be happy to share an article that appeared in the The New York Review of Books this week called “Cruel Ethiopia”, which is further documentation of the circumstances in the country at the moment.
I wondered if I could get from you gentlemen your explanation as to why there's such a contradiction between the apparent repression in Ethiopia and yet the really massive amounts of foreign assistance the country has received--in the billions--over the last several years.