Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Ethiopia Calls US View "Totally Unacceptable" On Nile Dam Negotiations


BBC: Nile Dam: Ethiopia calls US view "totally unacceptable"

Ethiopia has said the US position on the controversial Nile River mega-dam project is "totally unacceptable".

The US is negotiating between Ethiopia and Egypt in the ongoing dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam that some fear could lead to war.

Ethiopia accused the US of overstepping its role as a neutral observer after the US said the dam should not be completed without an agreement.

But its foreign minister said Ethiopia would continue to attend the talks.

Upon completion, the dam will be Africa's biggest hydroelectric power plant and provide Ethiopia and some neighbours with huge amounts of electricity and energy security.

The country wants to start filling the dam in June, but countries downstream are concerned about the impact on their water supply.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Egypt is signalling to Ethiopia that they will not accept the current situation .... Egypt’s El Sisi holds military meeting amid tensions with Ethiopia (The National).

More News On The Ethiopian - Egypt Conflict Over The Nile Dam

Ethiopia says US 'undiplomatic' over Nile Dam project -- RTE
Trump tells Sisi U.S. to pursue efforts for deal over Ethiopia dam: Egypt presidency -- Reuters
Trump Calls Egyptian Leader to Discuss Nile Dam -- VOA

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Egypt has an air tight case.

This would be a good time for the UN to step in and provide aid to Ethiopia to compensate them for a go slow (slow impoundment of water) approach to make Ethiopia whole.

Anonymous said...

why the f*ck did Bloomberg just waste nearly 2 billion USD on his pet self-esteem vanity project when he could just have bankrolled Ethiopia and Egypt and avoided the first 20th century water war?

Answer: Because he doesn't care.
I have never seen a candidate with as little charisma and self-perception. He spent hundreds of millions per delegate and only could pick them up in US Samoa which has a population of what? a few hundred?

Politics and democracy in the US is at such a state that I cringe when I read "democracy effectiveness studies" that constantly portray the US as a functioning democracy. Please. What's functioning here? If running for US president is a multi-million if not billion dollar game, most people cannot afford it and are nearly effectively ruled out of the process. This is not a democracy. It's a charade.

Anonymous said...

"why the f*ck did Bloomberg just waste nearly 2 billion USD on his pet self-esteem vanity project when he could just have bankrolled Ethiopia and Egypt and avoided the first 20th century water war?"

Bloomberg got into the race for one thing. To stop Trump. Trump and Bloomberg have a feud.

What i was suggesting in Ethiopia being helped is that Ethiopia being bought off. Now "foreign aid" is very dangerous, because some is usually siphoned off and increases
corruption.

But this is what I am suggesting. Foreign aid to buy Ethiopia off. The idea is to fund projects in Ethiopia that will provide jobs immediately and improve infrastructure such as roads, dams elsewhere or something that would provide for long term economic benefit and jobs.

Now at trial you sue for damages and for pain and suffering. Now Ethiopia is not going to get the latter. But they can get 'damages' and that can be measured. The damages would be the difference in cumulative economic activity between a slow impoundment of water and a fast impoundment of water. You can calculate that.

Now the US has enough debt that it needs to pay down. So maybe Bloomberg, Gates, or the Omaha Sage could fund those projects and watch over them so that graft does not gov over 1%.

If Bloomberg puts as much into it as he did his campaign or the 10 billion he said he would give for AGW, I think it would not be unseemly to build a statue to him in Ethiopia. Hell we could give speeches about what a great guy he is and raise toasts with our beverages of choice.

That would be better than the spectre of wear. If not, war is good.

Anonymous said...

"democracy effectiveness studies"

I cannot think of a country that is middling to large that has an effective democracy.

Sweden and Norway don't count. Neither does Germany, France or Japan.

The problem with Democracy, Communism, or kingship is people.

The difference is the thresholds.

You should study the writings of that weird Russian guy, Asimov.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your reply. I was of course cynical about Bloomberg. But honestly, I don't understand.

Please explain this to me.

The logic and argument in the US goes: Work hard, work smart an you too can be a billionaire.

Then you look at one of the richest billionaires in the US (bloomberg) and he does not only lack any form of noticeable intelligence, smarts or charisma or work ethics (preparedness for debate).. what is this? Who still believes in the myth of smart billionaires or working hard?

The global and American economy are powered by sex. Bloomberg is for sure a sex offender, judging from how reacted to the NDA question. Certainly a perv who cannot even keep his mouth closed. And HE is a billionaire? Right.

Capitalism is on the verge of collapsing if you have front men like Bloomberg and people like Sanders and his young followers HOWLING at a chance to get to Bloomberg's throat. We are -that- close from a change you haven't seen before.

If another billionaire messes up like Bloomberg, I hope some guy gets up, grabs the mic and just pushes those guys to the abyss. Why wait and accept all this nonsense and lies? All the NDAs, all the corruption? To me it's obvious people like Bloomberg ARE the sickness in our system. If Bloomberg would have shown to be intelligent I would have been "oh right, that guy certainly is another league, he surely deserves this wealth".. but he is not only not smarter than me or anyone else, he seems to be -much, much- more incompetent.

People who have seen this will see one part of the emperor's clothes vanish. It won't take much more is my opinion. If the middle and lower middle class get squeezed more, war will break out in the streets. Because being poor is one thing, injustice in it all, and the corruptness and this filth that Bloomberg and his NDAs represent, that is a whole nother thing.

Anonymous said...

Just think of all the scandals the rich are involved in in the US (the oldest democracy, where democracy index is ranked almost at top LOL)

Weinstein
Epstein
Both Clintons
Bloomberg
Trump
Warren
Biden

ALL the media scandals. from CNN to MSNC to WAPO.. and who owns the media.. people who are running for office.. bloomberg owns Bloomberg News obviously and ORDERS them not to report on him AND THEY GO ALONG!! Jeff Bezos owns WaPo and thinks about running for President the cycle after next. CNN's CEO Zucker also considered a run this time around while completely throwing out any regard for ethical practices in reporting. Look at the lawsuits.. it's not even a news organisation anymore.

ALL OF THEM! ALL are corrupt, ALL made their money in shady ways.

HOW is this a democracy? Please explain slowly, so I can understand. How come the US democracy, where it's basically corruption 24/7 is supposedly a functioning democracy? Because you go to ballots? Iranians go to Ballots. They at least come to terms with the charade. YOU wave flags and wear pins while participating in all this nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Start with Bloomberg's biography. Compare it to Thomas Friedman's biography. Look into what was state of the art, when Bloomberg started out. Thomas and Mike went to school and learned their trades well enough. They had work ethic. Both have an IQ somewhere from 90 to 140. They are not dumb. Both became successful and now are full of much hubris. Neither one thinks critically anymore. Friedman certainly does not use the tools f his trade, economics, before opining in the pages of the NYT. His arguments almost certainly would be fewer and far in between to use the tools of his trade and most people would not understand them. IMO he is a formerly smart man, who shoots from the hip and couldn't hit the broadside of a bar.

In my experience most economists do not comment in your regular blogs. At most they stay 3 days and move on, because most people do not speak their language.


Bloomberg made his money initially by creating a 'killer app' when only corporations (mostly) had computers. He knew enough coding had the proper business training, and the enough business experience to create. Now he has enough money to be on cruise control at 35,000. From that lofty perch he has the hubris to think he knows everything. He has gotten complacent and has basically stopped learning. But he is or was of normal intelligence and once upon a time was learned enough and had work ethic.


Money does not stick forever. Heard of the Fuggers? They used to be the richest family 5 centuries ago and then they lost it. What you need is people to sell them stuff to get that money. That is a good way to go about it.

Maybe some enterprising real estate agent could sell Bloomberg a 500 million dollar property in the South Pacific that starts draining his bank account. After all the weather in Bermuda cannot always be good and Bermuda must be getting crowded.

Anonymous said...

"Just think of all the scandals the rich are involved in in the US (the oldest democracy, where democracy index is ranked almost at top LOL)"

Compare apples to apples and apples to oranges.

You need a proper scale to be able to make comparisons.


1) The oldest Democracy would go to Iceland or the Isle of Man. Please get your history right.

2) Weinstein got his just deserts. He sis int a hospital now,m but he is circling the drain.

3) Trump? What scandal?

4) Epstein did not take it with him and it has not gone to his relatives. Fat Lady hasn't sung; lwyers will take a long time.
But Epstein did not win.

5) Bloomberg does not have a scandal. Name it.


6) Note they are all Democrats. The cabal is protecting its own.

Both Clintons
Warren
Biden

This cabal has been has been aided by the cabal in Moscow.

Also note how the cabal protected Epstein. Between the British gov (& crown) and the Democrats, Epstein was protected. Not only did Bill Clinton talk about grabbing that pussy, but he actually grabbed it and it was underage. Then he went to work using his 3rd leg and cigars. Bill has a work ethic don't you know.