From zero to hero

There is a new delight on the streets of Addis that carries more serious weight beneath. The fresh batch of graduates of the new Federal Police officers are out and about in dapper fresh khaki; the joke being that they are so young and skinny they have to sling their belts twice around their waists and get a muscle strain from having to lift their boots. Some of the more menacing looking ones carry big guns and equally big scowls which nonetheless fail to disguise their youth and ignorance, others carrying truncheons, gangling about on patrol duties.

These new killing machines are rumoured to be the replacement for the “louche and soppy” police currently operating, who are apparently listed for transfer to rural areas that are inherently pro-TPLF/ EPRDF (errr… where?). So next time someone chucks a stone can we expect a higher death toll or a lower one? Higher because they’re too young and keen to relate to the larger consequences of their perverse orders and actions; lower because they just don’t cut it and actually look like they could easily integrate into Addis life with its cynically accommodating residents’ sardonic hospitality that nonetheless must be a allusion to the much-missed warmth and humanity of back home.

Until then though we can entertain ourselves by watching how the young’uns flail about at major traffic intersections trying to direct the traffic- being ignored, pointed and laughed at.