I have been asking similar questions as yours for all my adult life and the answers I could come up with are as follows.
1) Maybe to pat themselves on the back as usual in a language they understand, for a job well done .
2) Ethiopian post office doubles as CIAE(Central Intelligence Agency of Ethiopia)
3) Because Ethiopian would be hijackers could only afford the domestic flights tickets.
4) Just to show off, that they can afford even a foreign import.

To be honest, you have raised very important points, I think we have to think about them very deeply in order to understand our sociological makeup. All the questions you raised are probably uniquely Ethiopian and that must mean something.

Just want to share my experice for years back. I was flying locally once and was searched about 2 to 3 times. As we were boarding the aircraft on the tarmac, I was told to take my shoes off by one of the security officers, so I said to him how come the ferengi taht was in front of me wasn't asked to do the same. The guy replied we have not seen feregi hijacking an airplane.

Let me start answering from the final question as does the Prime Monster of Ethiopia:-

4. May be Max Havelaar foundation (http://www.maxhavelaar.ch/en/) has to shift focus and tell Ethiopians and citizens of other coffee producing countries to help their fellow countrymen by seeping their own coffee.

3. May be someone whispered into the intelligences' stomach (they use it for hearing) that Somali Islamists are planning to hijack local flights and hit the palace.

2. Because they are afraid of someone taking a picture of them while they check if a box contains Dr. Birhanu Nega’s new book... the dawning of freedom.

1. May be the UN, like the Ethiopian Government, is also infected by that virus which makes you work only for the consumption of the West and ignore what the citizens want.

Sendek Alama

I can only answer two of your questions :

1.That is a good point. You may have to ask them!

2.I have no idea!

3.It does not make sense to have to go through it but i think that will secure your safe journey. It's in your interest if they over-do it than if they under-do it! Another point, atleast they donot descriminate. Every body is checked equally, I guess. That may not be the case elsewhere!

4. Every body wants to test something new. You know what you have and you want to know some thing else. Ethiopians abroad look for abyssinian coffee because they miss it and they had enough of Nescafe or whatever.

Re the post office - maybe because the staff would be caught in the act of opening parcels that they shouldn't open. I had at least one parcel sent to me (whilst I was in Ethiopia) that never arrived....the sender told me it contained underwear...so I just hope someone who appreciated it got it :)

But then maybe it's just sitting in a dusty corner somewhere - another package I sent over to Ethiopian friends in January finally arrived just a couple of weeks ago. Better late than never.

I could never understand the Nescafe thing either...but then I don't understand it no matter where it's being drunk.

On the domestic security subject I remember some time a while ago before Axum had it's new airport and the terminal was just a tin shed when we were actually asked to strip down to our underwear - I was 10 at the time. Then our bags were taken apart piece by piece, the reason though wasn't OLF bombs or hijacking they were (with good reason in a lot of cases) searching for those hollow crystal rocks that Axum used to have thousands of.

It wouldn't suprise me either if the nescafe was actually from Ethiopia originally but had been round the world to be "nescaferised".

Answers:

1. They are talking to no one which is the point. If they wrote their claims in Amharigna or Oromigna etc, Ethiopians will know they are lying and ask questions.

2. Ethiopian post office does not want to be caught on camera stealing.

3. Fetesha is an important part of our political culture and provides employement for the fetashoch. The fetashoch do not appreciate being replaced by a machine and do not plan on making a fetesha more efficient (as a matter of job security).

4. Drinking Nescafe shows that you are cosmopolitan, wordly and wealthy.

1. UN doesn't know that people in Addis talk Amharic- oh shutup! America never colonized the Habesh until 1991 and it is only 1999 in Ethiopia.

2. There are too many cameras arriving at the post office every single day and some will go to the intended and other won't. No need for extras wich will certainly go to the unintended.

3. Some people don't mind being frisked as long as it is someone of the opposite sex doing the fitesha, unlike in prison or the other people. But it seems like only the other people will enjoy it. The legendary ETHIOPIAN air marshals of the 70s and 80s are all but gone and will be remembered for being envied by their peers at EL-AL. Today's security people simply don't have that kind of lexury to train a few in a few months in the last 15 years. Pakistanis are managing their stuff as if there are no Ethiopians who could, regardless which part of the country they came from for example.

4. With today's irrisponsible responsible guys of the same or a very few family at best to the most part, one simply should know where in Ethiopia coffee grows. What does port mean to Ethiopia when you can use Djibouti port, eh? You'll find yourself in Kaliti if you ask that question. Next thing you know Ethiopia will import water of the blue nile from Egypt.

Thanx for being specific on your #3 response which would've been response to #2 if you hadn't to think of prime molester styles, Sendek Alama.

Maybe I'm being naive but there are actually Ethiopians who drink Nescafe in Ethiopia? I see it in the stores but never thought we actually bought the stuff.