Addis Roads and Thirteen Months of Sunshine

There have been some torrential rains in Addis in the last few days. Many of the main roads, including the ring road, have been flooded.

The flood can always be blamed on the poor construction of the drainage or the roads. Yet, one wonders when one sees the ‘well constructed’ ring road. It’s been built by the now ubiquitous Chinese construction companies. These guys have made a name for themselves by constructing roads in a very short time compared to their Ethiopian counterparts. The roads seem good too. At least the paint that is used to divide the lanes does not disappear after 2-3 months. The ring road, however, has one major problem: it gets flooded after heavy rain. It’s hard to believe that the reputed Chinese companies built it.

Ethiopia has long been called a country of thirteen months of sunshine. Is it the case that the Chinese, who were relatively new to Addis (Ethiopia) when they built the road, took the phrase too literally and thought it would never rain in Addis? In this case, they might not have taken the rain into account when they made the design.

Fireworks and Commonsense

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting with friends in a café. The Addis Ababa Stadium was in full site and it looked like there was some kind of procession going on (it was the Ethiopian Sports Meet – we later learnt). We were chatting and suddenly one of us shouted ‘fireworks, fireworks!’ We thought it was on the giant LCD screen in the Meskel Square. No, it was not. It was being detonated from the inside of the Addis Ababa Stadium. It didn’t look accidental because it was repeated for some time.

Hey guys, I thought fireworks were meant to be ‘fired’ in the dark. Correct me if I’m wrong. If it were feasible, I would love to do a research whether yesterday’s firework was the first to be [not accidentally] fired during the day (when the Sun was at its brightest). Or if any one of you would like to help, leave your comments.

Does the generation lack commonsense? Or is it an Ethiopian phenomenon?

USAID OIL FOR SALE

These days in Addis, it’s so common to see cans of aid oil (cooking oil), donated books (with the stamp ‘Not For Resale’ clearly shown), etc in the market (mind you, they are for sale).

The most common aid oil for sale is the oil with USA stamped on it with a smaller USAID print beneath. You can get it in Merkato; you can see it in small shops in your neighbourhood. You may even have it in your kitchen.

The amount is too much to say that the poor who’re dependent on food aid sold all the cans of oil we see in the city. So, where did it come from? It’s very likely it didn’t reach the poor.

I have never said anything to the small shop owners who sell the aid oil. Many of them may not even know it’s aid oil. I don’t expect high level of business ethics from them either. But a recent experience at one of the biggest and high standard supermarkets in town shocked me. A friend of mine and I went to buy some stuff at Shoa Supermarket on Bole Road – a 24-hours-open, high standard place. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we encountered a familiar site (cans of USAID oil for sale). We tried to speak to one of the shopping attendants. She sent us to the owner/manager. The manager tried to act as if she hadn’t seen the USAID mark on the cans. When we showed her, she started defending her company saying that since there is a high demand, she sells it. When we told her that it was supposed to reach the poor and we would never expect a big supermarket with a high standard such as Shoa to sell the oil, she said that as long as there is demand, she sells it. She also said that the poor may have sold it back to buy other necessary food items. We pointed out to her that such a vast amount of oil in the city couldn’t be a resell. “Perhaps the Aid Organization has sold it,” she speculated. (I wonder what USAID would say to that.) Then she asked us to see our papers. We told her we were just concerned citizens.

It was a crass act that can never be expected from a high standard shopping centre.

USAID: please pay attention to this. The oil should reach those who need it (and in whose name it has been shipped).