Starved of democracy and then starved to death

Three Famines. Starvation and Politics

IN LATE 1984, 400,000 bottles of whisky were imported to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the ‘revolution’ that had brought Mengistu Haile Mariam to power in Ethiopia.

This could have been one more story of political self-indulgence, but Ethiopia in late 1984 was not another impoverished state with selfish leaders. It was in a major famine that scourged the country, killing one million people and leaving millions impoverished and displaced. Mengistu was drinking Scotch while his people died.