Selassie stayed there only one night (p 42). Selassie had numerous ceremonial servants that were additionally wasteful (5-27). Additionally, international travel by Selassie and his government, although advantageous to export more knowledge to the world about the unrenowned country and continent, was extremely wasteful in which servants, ministers, and nobles schemed and maneuvered fiercely to coadunate themselves with the emperor (88-91). Apart from international escapades, the bureaucracy itself was inefficient, corrupt, overlapping, and wasteful (33). Selassie had numerous servants for minute details. An example of one is the servant known as His Distinguished Majesty's cuckoo' whom only bowed to the emperor at certain times of the day (47). Other unnecessary servants included door openers at every door and a pillow man who followed the short emperor around from place to place with a pillow to set beneath his feet because the all-powerful supreme ruler of the empire could not be seen as having his feet swinging from a chair like a boy (27).
It is important to first note all the lavishness and extravagancy of Selassie's character because it cues examiners into the inner quality of Selassie's psyche, which in turn was the literal heart of government in Ethiopia. The poor and starving people of Ethiopia provided Selassie with the means to furnish the prodigality and overdoing vanity of his personal life. Hence, he could never allow cuts in spending to intrude upon his accustomed lifestyle. However, Selassie was not flamboyant and outgoing in character and did not think of himself as a god as the Rastafarians (he was a devout Christian), but he did believe he deserved his proper dues as reigning emperor, which had no checks being only tempered by his own viewpoint and conscious (150). Although he was an unequivocal wasteful ruler, there is a main compounding factor that must also be taken into account.
