October 9, 2005
Back in Addis
So, as I said below, I'm back in Addis after a three week break in Edinburgh, Scotland. As part of it, I took an almost total break from the internet - something that I would recommend to everyone who spends too much of their life staring at a glowing screen. As a result, I have got nothing intelligent to say about anything that has gone on recently.
I missed the Meskel celebrations where, I heard, members of the crowd expressed their frustration by throwing stones. I missed the tension building up to the mass protests that never happened, the allegations of mass arrests and aborted armed uprisings. I arrived back just in time to hear of the break down in talks between the EPRDF and the main opposition coalitions.
Apparently the UK and US delegations here are now trying to do their bit as peace-brokers, giving the people at the battle-scarred European Commission a bit of a rest.
What I can say is that tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of the new parliament - whether the opposition decides to turn up or not. In the build up to the big day, the streets are once again filled with the guns and blue and black camouflaged uniforms of the federal police. You see them everywhere walking along Bole Avenue, up around the Sanford School end of town, from the Piazza to the Merkato. Add to that the (no doubt false) rumours of another city-wide strike early next week and some unpleasant memories are starting to stir.
Posted by aheavens at October 9, 2005 4:00 PM