[2017]

ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR

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Having joined the Open University and aided by a great deal of luck, I eventually found myself in a totally different league; doing the job – the most important in my life - I might earlier have dreamed of. It started with a life changing decision made several thousand miles away from the OU:

9196 OU15 - Ethiopia -- The Decision - the decision which changed my life
9149 OU16 - Ethiopia – The Dinner Party - and the extraordinary dinner which led to this development

As a result of those decisions, in a matter of a few hours I moved from the obscurity of academic life to the international stage inhabited by diplomats and national leaders:

9157 OU17 - Ethiopia - The Minister of Defence - Seeye Abraha who was the driving force behind the decision
9037 My Favourite Character: U3A Creative Writing Expansion - somewhat later I expanded my description of Seeye as a creative writing project

The decision led to a very different type of business education, with the highest powered audience possible!

9194 OU18 - Ethiopia - Approval - though the decision had to be ratified by the Open University and the UK government which was funding it
0389 Project Spec - including the formal specification demanded by the ODA (Overseas Development Agency) through which the funds were to be channeled

The business of teaching was, though, to be very different. We were charged, by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO), who were the real UK supporters, with bringing the Marxist government, of a third world country with a population of 60 million, to social democracy!

9135 OU19 - Ethiopia -- FCO Briefing - and indeed before I went out for my first visit I asked the FCO for a detailed brief
0318 Initial Brief to Team - which I pased on to my team
9111 OU20 - Ethiopia -- My First Visit - and then the real work started

It was a country, and a government, which was totally unlike anything I had ever experienced.

9122 OU22 - Ethiopia- The Triumvirate - not least, in the aftermath of the civil war the country was being run by a junta - the three leaders of the rebellion - who were our new students
9108 OU23 - Ethiopia -- History - though the country had a history longer than that of most western nations
9177 OU25 - Ethiopia -- Dance Culture [9177T*] - including development of a fascinating dance culture
9164 OU24 - Ethiopia – The Tigrayan Family in Government [9164T*] - above all, the government was made up of such a close knit group of individuals that it seemed to operate more as a family

My life then changed up yet another gear when I found myself acting as the - sole - link between the new Ethiopian government and the Western ambassador group!

9105 OU26 - Ethiopia -- Go-Between - out of the blue I was soon trusted by the junta to be almost their only contact with the outside world
0388 Report to Ambassador - and this is just one example of how this worked

But my main workload there was still based on the very high level business education we were conducting.

9197 OU28 - Ethiopia -- Tutorials - where the basis of our work in Addis was extensive face-to-face tutorials supporting the OU's normal printed teaching material
0311 Tutorial Timetable - and this gives an indication of the patter these followed
9190 OU21 - Ethiopia -- Student Groups - where we ran a number of groups, from the most junior high-flyers in the aid agencies to the ultimate group which covered the junta itself
0323 Six Monthly Report - we, of course, had to report progress to the various UK government bodies
0327 Minutes of the OU Team - as well as to our own internal OUBS team
0358 Teaching with Lipsey - although most of our teaching used OUBS material, we extended some of the teaching to subjects such as - here - Economics
0369 Tutor Report - and each tutor had to give a full report after each visit
0375 Stylistic Advice to President - and occasionally I had to go beyond my brief!

The revolutionary actions of the new government provided an exciting background to our day to day work.

9115 OU38 - Ethiopia -- Terraforming (9115T*) - as exemplified by the work on terracing the whole of Tigray province

But the most exciting times came when my interventions, on behalf of the ambassador group, at the very highest level affected the lives of literally millions. Two of these were especially important:
9146 OU27 - Ethiopia - Civil War Again - where I was at the heart of the processes setting the terms of engagement between something like 100,000 troops fighting in the field
9161 OU29 - Ethiopia -- The New Famine - and, later, as part of the rescue of starving farmers

All the while living in a very strange, almost colonial, environment.

9156 OU30 - Ethiopia - Guesthouse - in our own - ex-ministerial - mansion
0309 Domestic Arrangements - and with its own set of strange procedures

When my work as go-between finished, I moved on to explore the possibilities for commercial links. These were ultimately unsuccessfully - but were still fascinating while they lasted. The mainly revolved around the mining company RTZ:

9103 OU31 - Ethiopia – RTZ
9986 Short Story - Every Man Has His Price - and this later expansion also highlights one of my unexpected decisions - to turn down a £100 million 'sweetener' as the President and Minister of Defence - the key decision-makers RTZ needed - were my friends!
0356 RTZ Tax - and this report highlights some of the corruption widespread elsewhere
0361 RTZ Meeting - the minutes of the key face-to-face meeting with RTZ
9107 OU32 - Ethiopia -- Commercial Development and Eritrea - this though describes my other ventures on behalf of the Minister of Defence, including possible the biggest hydro-electric project ever!
0307 Multinationals - where this is one such report I prepared for Seeye Abraha
0316 Overseas Partners - and this was another

All my work there culminated in the symbolic graduation ceremony, graduating just about the most powerful group of students ever!

9169 OU34 - Ethiopia -- Graduation
0349 Honorary Doctorate though this hid the unwelcome machinations of the new British ambassador where a political intervention by him stopped this award which had been approved by Senate

0368 EU Proposal but this follow-on for a, wider-based, Certificate was eventually funded

It is not clear, even to me, what my role was in terms of the intelligence services. I never definitively knew whether I was just a small cog in the FCO operations or was a high powered double agent.

9167 OU35 - Ethiopia – SIS/MI6
0374 - SIS 2 – Secret Intelligence Services - Ethiopia - though I had previously had some indirect contacts in other areas

My role, as the intermediary between the Ethiopian government and the western ambassadors, largely came to an end in 1992. In any case, in 1994, even my part in the OUBS Ethiopian project ultimately came to an inglorious end:

0336 Ethiopian Resignation

Whilst I was working there we took what proved to be our best holiday ever:

9171 OU36 - Ethiopia - Visiting with the Aid Agencies
9166 OU37 - Ethiopia – With the Aid Agencies Part 2
9151 - Ethiopia - Axum
9150 - Ethiopia – To Bihar Dar  
9127 - Ethiopia – Lalibella
9101 - Ethiopia – Gondar 

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