January 4, 2006
Meanwhile, in the Ethiopian blogosphere...
Carpe Diem Ethiopia was back in Addis for a short trip and summed up the atmosphere on the streets.
A sense of doom pervades in the city-smiles are rare and even the goofy guards at the Hilton have lost their arm-trembling salutes...I heard the government's charges against the detained CUDites and others at a café not too far from the Posta Bet area where I had ventured to buy a couple of last minute gifts. The ETV report caught me offguard but it suddenly made sense why all the chairs faced the television set. The hush that settled in the smoky joint after the charges were read spoke volumes of the stress Addis Ababans are under.
That is the Addis I left in December - a city of gloom-ridden tension. I was looking over some of my photos from 2004 and early 2005 - the Bob Marley concert, the peaceful, joyful pre-election rallies, general mucking around in Meskel Square - and it was like they were taken in a different era.
New Year's Resolution No 1: Follow Carpe Diem's recommendation and get a copy of Fasil Yitbarek's Texture of Dreams. It is not out in the UK. So I will have to put my faith in BookWorld on my return.
Weichegud ET Politics kicked off 2006 by giving a hapless EPRDF academic a good kicking. The man in question was Dr. Yohannes Gebre Selassie who was interviewed with Dr. Getachew Metaferia, a political science professor at Morgan State University, on VOA's Amharic service.
Dr. Y kept asking the Professor from Morgan State why his paper was “focusing on the negative.” Damn straight. With all the good news streaming from Ethiopia, why is Dr. Getachew acting like a buzz kill? I ask you.
New Year's Resolution No 2: Have another go at learning Amharic. Writing snide commentaries on the ENA's English service is all well and good. But add VOA, Deutsche Welle and ETV to the mix and a whole new universe opens up. (It is now getting a little late in the day to mention my favourite piece of Weichegud from 2005, the personal-is-political post "What have I done for Ethiopia?".
Other reasons to be cheerful in the Ethiopian blogosphere:
- Ethiopundit is back, and this time he is mad about monuments.
- Things We Should Have Written Down has discovered the joys of raw meat - "Can't wait for the blog where you tell us all about 'seeing kosso'," writes one of his commenters.
- Aqumada shares the pain of being an "intellectual negro who goes to a blood-red Republican state in search of a job". First interview question: So what do you Ethiopians think of us Americans?...
Posted by aheavens at January 4, 2006 8:15 AM