The millennium craze and accommodation for the guests:

Millennium Burger, Millennium Traditional Food Restaurant, Milennium...., Millennium....

The list can go on. Entrepreneurs have already been making advantage of the craze to make some fortune out of it. Hotel rooms are being expanded; various committees are set up (with the way things are going, they will set up a committee that will oversee all other committees); NGO's are getting pamphlets published; etc.

There seems to be an air of expectation in Addis. Of course, with celebrations poised to start as early as June 2007 (Sene 1999), a lot of us have something for diversion. Diversions from the housing problems, diversions from the water problems, diversions from the inflation.....

However, I wonder when I hear that around 700,000 guests are expected to come from abroad for the celebrations. It will be a massive boost for tourism and should be encouraged by all means, yet where are we going to put all these people? Do we have enough hotel rooms? I doubt. So, they're going to rent houses and prices will hike. For the ordinary Addis Abeban, it's something to worry about. I, for one, have started worrying what the proprietor will do when the contract runs out in June. Will he increase the rent? Will he tell me to leave?