ETHIOPIA & PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR
9197 OU28 - Ethiopia -- Tutorials
It is always a joy to teach students in small groups, and those in Ethiopia were rarely more than five or six in number. In such small groups it is possible to give individual attention and the pace can go several times faster than in larger groups. The students learn more, and teachers enjoy more. Even better, the teachers themselves learn more, by interaction with such small groups.
In Ethiopia I certainly learned a considerable amount from the students. Not least, almost uniquely for OUBS students, they were approaching everything from a Marxist perspective. This threw a totally new light on the material in the MBA, which by then was becoming somewhat hackneyed.
I well remember Seeye's group, when we got involved in economics which was their favourite subject, asked me to define what was the central tenet of Western economics; especially, most recently, of monetarist economics. The immediate answer was that, to my surprise, I didn't really know. It was not something we – in the West – even considered. We just accepted the ‘market’ as a fact of life. They, on the other hand, were very clear about what Marxist economics had said on this topic; it was about improving the lot of the people. This was a very seductive idea, and would have been found seductive even in the West -- had people known about Marxist economics.
After an hour or more of debate I eventually had to admit to them that the central tenet of Western economics probably was greed. It was, in any case, driven by the idea of maximising the amount an individual could get from the rest of society; typically as some form of ‘profit’. Accordingly I had to agree that the underlying value, which drove this, had to be some form of greed.
Their faces visibly dropped on coming to this conclusion. Remember that they were a government that had forsaken Marxism, and its version of economics, economics in order to move to social democracy and Western values -- including Western economics. It was a blow that the Western values were so base. However, Seeye quickly pulled himself together and commented "Well if it is necessary to accept this, in order to feed our people, then we will have accept it". It was a very sad comment on Western values and in particular on Western economics.
In general, the groups spent a lot of time in discussion. Such interaction is the ideal way of teaching. Here the interactions were quite fascinating, in view of their very different background. There was also a difference between the groups, partly because of their interest and responsibilities, partly because of the intellectual abilities -- thus the first group was always (as led by the President) the most high-powered. But in all cases the level of intellectual debate was very high.
Even so, it took some time to get them started on their TMA's, their Tutor Marked Assignments (the essays on which they were marked). But that is always the case. Due to the responsibility it throws on the individual to motivate themselves, it is a very difficult process to get into. Moreover, they were starting at the point where other students might already have spent two years in this mode.
For me another great bonus was that I had to teach the whole of the MBA, not just my own subjects. The arrangement was that, for every course, the chair who developed it would teach the students for half the time and I would teach them for the other half. It is true to say that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it. Thus, I learned the whole of the MBA by teaching it. I never got an MBA, and most of my colleagues didn't have MBAs -- since this was a relatively new qualification; having only become part of the popular curriculum a decade or so earlier. But, after Ethiopia, I certainly could hold my own with any MBA. Of course I later got my PhD.
The tutorials typically took place in the evening. At the weekends I ran them during the afternoons as well. This meant that I worked almost every night and was able to spend the day working on my marketing dictionary. The computer facilities out there were good, so I was able to write not just that book but others as well.
I only took one excursion during this time -- apart from the holiday with my wife -- and that was on a Sunday when no one could come to the tutorial. I went with a guide down to the Rift Valley beyond Debre Zeit. We didn't go down into the Rift Valley itself, but to the edge of it, where there were hot springs feeding a swimming pool. It was the only time in Ethiopia I actually saw baboons -- though a rather unromantically they were picking their way around a rubbish dump. It was also the only time that I saw monkeys. Apart from these, the only the local fauna I saw were birds, in particular the big eagles which used to soar over Addis and which I could watch out of my office window.
On the way back, stopping in Debre Zeit to look at the volcanic lakes there, my guide took me back to his house and I had tea with him and his wife. They had a chat bush in the back garden and -- for the only time in my life -- I tried a narcotic. The leaves look like privet, and they tasted like that. I chewed at it, but it didn't really seem to do anything for me. On the other hand Ethiopians, and others in the Middle East, used large quantities of it; since their religion forbade the taking of any other stimulants - even coffee. In the south of Ethiopia they harvested it by the bush and flew it very rapidly to Saudi Arabia. It soon goes off, so the logistics are very important.
At one stage there were big battles in the south which were driven by the money being made out of chat; and which the government was trying to obtain for itself. Eventually, they licensed a number of dealers. These then fought the battles with the illegal harvesters, and soon put paid to them. As I have said, the Ethiopian government was nothing if not pragmatic.
The guide was also one of the Amhara who had been involved with the Derg, and knew the leaders of the Derg quite well. I was able, therefore, to discuss what had happened to the Derg -- and how he felt about the new government (which of course he hated) -- with someone who was not in the new government. Needless to say, he was very anti the new leaders. Fortunately, even in Addis he was in a minority. Even the Amhara were glad for the peace which the new government had brought to them.
hits