Ethiopia in the news

I've had quite a few interesting, Ethiopia-related media pieces forwarded to me in recent weeks. For example, an article from the French newspaper Le Monde, "Boomtown Ethiopia - Can Former Poster Child Nation Become A Model For African Growth?" (translated into English here), and an Economist article that takes a critical look at Ethiopia's state-controlled development policies. Also, the video of  an Ethiopian-born graduate delivering the Valedictorian speech at Morehouse College, sharing the podium with President Obama. Another is a radio piece produced by a Seattle student whose mother left Ethiopia during the civil unrest of the 1980s. Then there's this great blog that covers "Politics and Religion in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa." A search for "Ethiopia" brings up coverage of negotiations between Ethiopia and the neighboring countries with whom it shares the Nile River.

NPR and other news outlets have also been reporting on concern and controversy around the major hydroelectric dam projects underway here, one of which - the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam - will be "Africa's largest" and promises to generate over 5,000 megawatts of electricity when completed in about five more years. Among the issues are concern in Egypt over availability of vital water farther down the Nile, the displacement of people for the construction, the push for public funding of the projects, and detention of journalists for reporting on these issues. This CNN video from last year gives good background and images.

In Ethiopia, the dams are being celebrated as essential steps toward economic development, and the government is understandably sensitive about this criticism. The website of Ethiopia's Embassy in London is a great source of information from the government's perspective; it includes a link to "A Week in the Horn" a Ministry of Foreign Affairs weekly publication and "Ethiopia's Grand Renaissance," a special section from the May-June 2012 issue of Foreign Affairs.

Lurking in the background of all this news coverage are the challenges of accommodating a rapidly growing population (both in the capital city and across the country), extending the benefits of development to the poorest people, and protecting the environment along the way.

Commemorations

Despite lots of publicity, as many as 15,000 reported visitors, and frequent roadblocks for passing dignitaries, there hasn't seemed much for the public to see or do to participate in the big African Union 50th Anniversary commemoration. At the same time, smaller events and programs are being offered around the city. For example, I went to a modest "African Aesthetic Exhibition" at the Institute for Ethiopian Studies (which was a nice chance to see part of the Addis Ababa University campus). I also caught part of two programs at the Alliance Ethio-franciase: the end of a symposium on panafricanism, and the beginning of a reggae concert. My guess is that there was more programming offered than was widely publicized in a timely or otherwise effective manner. Like many things here, that capacity and habit is still emerging.  

Tuesday, May 28th, is Derg Downfall Day in Ethiopia. The Derg is the socialist regime that rose to power in 1974, deposed Emperor Haile Selassie, and went on to rule the country until 1994 when it was driven from power. The Derg period is characterized by misguided resettlement and land redistribution policies (policies that worsened the devastating droughts of the mid-1980s), by near constant internal rebellion and external war, and by brutal suppression of opposition. I found this website a good summary of the history. I also recommend Beneath the Lion's Gaze for a vivid and heart-wrenching literary account of the Derg period. No one I've asked has known of any special commemorative events. It will be interesting if the bustle of life here is different in any noticeable way.

A city under construction

Something that struck me right away in this city is the construction. Everywhere one looks, buildings are going up and roads are being put in. One big project that affects the core of the city is a partially- elevated rail line that is being built to alleviate traffic and to provide much needed mass transit.
The people I meet all talk about how much and how fast Addis is growing and changing. A good example of this growth and change is my neighborhood. 

The "A" marks the college.

Located on the southeast edge of the city, Hope University College is between two neighborhoods, Lebu and Jomo. (This is considered the remote suburbs by many Addis residents and most taxi drivers, all of whom like to exclaim about how "far away" I live. I also saw four hyenas on the road in front of the college last weekend.)

View of some of the Jomo condominiums.

Lebu (recently very rural) is being transformed by the construction of luxury apartment/condo buildings and some fancy villas. Jomo is a large cluster of public housing. These five-story towers have been the topic of much discussion and debate among our little group of on-campus residents. Some see them as akin to "projects" in American inner cities, while others see them as a reasonable and even desirable solution to the HUGE (and unmet) demand for housing in this city. While not "attractive," they certainly seem safe, and they definitely provide shelter and support vibrant communities. Either way, we all agree that they could use some more open space (for gardens and recreation) and much better services - especially trash collection! 

One aspect of all the construction that fascinates me is the ubiquitous use of eucalyptus poles for scaffolding. The poles are brought in by the truckload and then deposited in piles of various sizes at depots throughout the city. The dominant building materials are concrete and cinder blocks. Each concrete floor is poured onto forms held up by these wooden poles, and the concrete is usually carried up to each floor by a system of wooden pole ramps. It was amazing to watch the intense but efficient labor involved in one of these pours. Pairs of men brought trays of stone, sand, and cement to a mixer, and then other pairs carried the concrete up the ramps. 

There was a big push to complete some of the key road projects for this weekend's celebrations of the African Union's 50th anniversary, but there are so many other projects underway that it's hard to imagine the city feeling "finished" any time soon.

AIFF wraps up

A great NGO that's tackling this issue.

What a treat to have found out about the film festival and to have been able to get to so many of the films. Along with the movie about cotton farmers (described in Friday's post), the other highlight of the festival for me was "Blood in the Mobile." In the spirit of the best aspects of Michael Moore, a Danish filmmaker seeks answers from Nokia about their response to the well-known violence and human rights abuses that take place at mining sites in remote eastern Congo/DRC. These mines are the source of the "blood minerals" (especially cassiterite, SnO2 - the primary ore of tin, and coltan) that are used in all of our cell phones (and many other electronics). There is a good trailer and other info at http://bloodinthemobile.org/). Besides the tragic human, highly endangered Mountain gorillas are also being lost due to this mining activity. (More info on that issue here.) As a Seattleite, it was great to see that hometown congressman Jim McDermott (interviewed in the film) is a co-sponsor and supportive of a House Resolution to take action to promote "peace, stability, and observance of human rights" in the DRC.   

In a line-up dominated by quite intense and sobering films, a joyful stand-out was the story of a group of Sudanese blues musicians. Here's a taste. The most memorable lines from the festival come from Propoganda which referred to Paris Hilton as a "narcissistic parasite" and to celebrities in general as "trained monkey collaborators of death."  

Kind of mean and a bit (but not entirely) outrageous, of course, but memorable! 

Getting out in the city

This past week has been a veritable boon of cultural activity, starting last weekend with hearing a terrific chamber music ensemble, made up entirely of Ethiopian born and trained musicians. Under the direction of  pianist Girma Yifrashewa, the featured artist, the group performed original music composed by Yifrashewa,  as well as a pieces by Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Bottesini. Here's a news report on the concert with a video clip. You can also hear samples of Yifrashewa's music from his website and on abytube. A solo summer tour of the United States will bring Yifrashewa to New York on June 8th (at the ISSUE Project Room) in Brooklyn) and Seattle on July 26th (at the Good Sheppard Center Chapel).



The concert was hosted by the Italian Cultural Institute, the same venue for the opening night of this year's Addis International Film Festival (AIFF). AIFF offers six days of documentary films from

around the world in five different venue, including the Alliance Francaise, the British Council, and a community center. The opening night was well-attended (~150 people?) and featured four films, ranging from a 6-minute profile of a Somalia refugee stuck in a Tunisian refugee camp after fleeing the unrest in Libya to the 52-minute story of a Borana (a Rift Valley ethnic group) boy learning to travel the multi-day route to deliver salt to market (by camel). Also on the program, a brief film about the Sahrawi resistance to Morrocan rule in Western Sahara and the story of an Afghan refugee in Spain waiting for her son to get permission to join her from Athens. It was great to have a human face put on stories that I'd only heard about in the news or that were entirely new to me.

Another notable film was Propoganda, a North Korean version of a Michael Moore movie. Even though it is its own piece of biased propaganda (offering North Korea as the world's one hope for a transformed future) and ragingly Marxist, it also offers some disturbingly cogent critique of Western media, consumerism, imperialism, and war-mongering. This film (and its companion film on Egypt after the revolution) only drew a handful of people to the community center where it showed - on a slide screen via laptop and digital projector, which was unfortunate. In its 7th year, AIFF is still a work in progress. The website was down until the festival's opening day, and the schedules posted on it don't match the printed information being printed. At the same time, the whole thing has an indie, grassroots, and ultimately authentic feel to it.

Tonight, when the laptop at the British Council froze, I found myself helping troubleshoot and connecting a back-up computer. This was after being mistaken for the director of one of the films: a horrifying account of bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan. Despite being illegal since 1994, one third of rural girls are reportedly subjected to this criminal form of courtship. Another powerful film from tonight's program was Cotton for my Shroud, which recounts the struggles of Indian cotton farmers who face a losing equation of rising input costs (such as pesticides, fertilizers, and the Bt seeds that they are pressured to use) and falling cotton prices. The end result for over 250,000 desperate farmers has been suicide, leaving behind bereft and impoverished families. Encouraged at one point to replace food crops with a cash crop, entire families and communities find themselves struggling just to eat enough to stay alive. 

This kind of grim math featured in many of the AIFF films and is emerging as a theme of my time here in Ethiopia. With 41% of its 87 million people under the age of 15 and a fertility rate of 4.8 children per woman, falling but still double the world average (all according to pr.org), it's hard to imagine a form of economic and social development won't leave many people mired in deep poverty - or, for that matter, that can be sustained with the country's already strained resources and environment.

Yikes! That's not a very cheery note to end on. Consider watching the video clip of the pianist.
 

Class picture for GiveBig

Classes resume

Rec time.

School

After missing a Saturday class due to the Easter holiday, we got back into full gear with class on Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday was a dramatic day! Heavy rains made it hard for most of the students to get to class on-time, and then the power went out (for the first time in almost a week) just before our start time. Eventually everyone made it (the first time we had all 20), and we had a spirited discussion of a Jomo Kenyatta short story, "The Gentlemen of the Jungle." The story for Saturday was from Zimbabwe, "Why Don't You Carve Other Animals" by Yvonne Vera. Saturday class runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and the students have been impressively focused and productive. They are motivated to learn, to engage each other, and to improve their English. They also really like the clean, open, uncrowded spaces of the college campus; it is, unfortunately, a contrast from their regular schools. (The picture to the left is the courtyard of one of these schools, with 1,400 K-8 students.) 

Other ILAE News

Last Monday, May 6th, was a big day for the school. There was a fundraising event at the city's oldest hotel, the Taitu (built for Menelik II's wife Empress Taitu in 1888 E.C.) that, despite heavy rain and subsequent snarled traffic, drew a large, supportive crowd. Also, an on-line magazine for Ethiopian diasporans, Tadias, came out with an article featuring one of ILAE's founders. It's exciting to see so much enthusiasm for the school and to hear that this program is helping to fill the gap between potential and opportunity for the students it is serving.