The Ethiopian government has been stealing Oromo people's land to sell it to foreign companies. The Oromo have now sensibly started attacking the facilities of those companies.

The business owners would like to say, "Don't blame us. It was the Ethiopian government that took their land, not us." But it is just as valid to say that the companies paid the Ethiopian government to do it.

The business owners are quoted as saying, "We can't change the world." Not true: they have already changed it, for the worse, by participating in the land-grab. The argument that "If we hadn't done this, someone else would have" does not excuse the ones who actually did it; rather it suggests that the system needs to be changed.