"A man of his generation—the generation that casts off foreign rule, or overthrows a bloody dictatorship—does not often turn out to be a model democrat. He put on a good act in the 1990s during the post-Berlin Wall euphoria, but his stupid war with Eritrea cost him domestic support, and then his real instincts took over. Awful decisions, especially when war with Eritrea began in 1998, cost thousands of lives. But on the life-and-death issue of creating a viable economy for his nation, he got it just about right, arguably saving millions of lives. If we want to avoid Kaplan’s world, other quasi-democratic states around the continent would do well to take note of Meles' victories as well as his mistakes."
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Michael Moran, "The Man who saved Ethiopia", Slate, Aug. 21, 2012.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Meles_Zenawi
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Meles Zenawi
Meles Zenawi (Ge'ez: መለስ ዜናዊ አስረስ Mäläs Zenawi Äsräs; 8 May 1955 – 20 August 2012) was the Prime Minister of Ethiopia from 1995 to 2012.
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