So feudal

The road that leads from Yeka to the upper city centre is being expanded to add a couple of more lanes and make it more presentable as befits the neighbourhood that hosts embassies of old and respected standing. The plans foresaw that this road will have to get a piece off the land that the Kenyan embassy stands on, perhaps 4metres or so. The embassy said no. I'm not sure how many square metres of valuable Addis land and Ethiopian soil the embassy reigns over, but I'm sure it could spare a few- say 200m sq off the 1500 or even 2500 m sq it stands on. As it is, the embassy's refusal was accepted- so the road is being expanded on one side only, meaning that a whole row of houses needs to be demolished. The residents are desperate because they have no where to go apart from some vague promise of being rehoused in condominiums "soon".

Let the embassy think it can do that, let it imagine through some weird egomaniac fug that it can command over it's host country like that- but can't this spineless government even stand up to an uppity little ambassador and refuse to destroy its people's houses or make the embassy/ Kenyan government pay direct compensation to them? How can we be sold and traded with like this 60 years after the last spurt of colonialism has ended?

Tu Pac with a Masinqo

Another example that we just cannot stop c...c....c..ccccopying others:

I saw a poster for a dude who calles himself Tu Pac, wears a bandana and brandishes a Masinqo... HELLO!?!?!?!

Maybe I should sample some of his tough squeaky-squawky YeArada Lij Hip Hop before I say more- if there's a Tu Pac, is there a P Diddy and Biggy?

Just a thought

Here our officers run to Eritrea and elsewhere like dogs caught stealing
In Thailand they tell their PM to get lost while he's abroad- without bloodshed...

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ROGUE! Magazine Psycho Test

You wanna know how high your personal fear factor is? Wanna see whether you belong to the hall of fame or hell? Check this test out and see whether you're up there with the greatest tyrants!
Circle the answer that appeals to you most and count how often you have circled each letter- the one you circled most describes you.

1. You are meeting with the Hungarian and Thai ambassadors who are facing an uncertain future and ask you for advice as to what their next steps should be. You suggest they

a) Await a call from their heads of state and continue on the diplomatic cocktail circuit

b)Take all the money and assets they can, settle old scores and get off that sinking ship they call their government for a brief exile in a luxurious location from where they can plan and execute a civil war over a patch of dirt

c)Fly back incognito, settle old scores with their previous superiors and ruthlessly work their way up in the under the new administration, providing insider info


2. You visit the region you grew up in on a political reconnaissance tour, when you see the people of that area you feel

a) A deep affinity and are pleased they are exhibiting a better lifestyle, health and educational facilities than before- which means taxes can be raised

b) Indifference that it still looks the same, after all you left for a reason- but you get out for some photos for the PR lot

c)Get an uneasy feeling that they are harbouring more rancour towards you than they let on, and stashes of capital wealth, so you order a list of all males between 16 and 70 and decree they are all to join the army, while imposing higher taxes on their land and meagre assets.


3. The media is getting frisky lately and are publishing critical opinion pieces, cartoons and jokes about your government, how do you handle this

a)Study opinion polls and try to get to the bottom of the problem, whether you do anything about it is another matter

b)Arrest some editors, raid their offices etc according to “Totalitarianism for Dummies”

c)What media?


4. Elections are looming and you cannot really fathom the public opinion, do you

a)Step up your campaign and leak some “dirty secrets” about your challengers

b)Flex some muscle by imposing tighter control on media, trade unions, student’s associations and human rights watchdogs. Deep down inside you know that public opinion doesn’t matter a fraction of donor opinion

c)Arrest youths, shut down all media (also the government one), impose curfews and make the killings more “visible”


5. At the current UN general assembly you are

a) Popular for your awkward puns and a as a great party pal, albeit a bit dim

b) Accepted by all, who to their dismay realise that you’re a bit of a political butterfly

c) Popular with the great big crowds who have made straw-dolls with your face on which they burn every evening.


6. At the dining table of the UN meeting the talk revolves around

a) Your and other heads of states’ exploits at the elite Uni you all went to

b) Fair trade and how to come out of it richer and cleaner

c) The putrid smell of the delicatessen cheese that reminds you and your table mates of the prisons in your countries


7. During dinner at home the talk revolves around

a) Bills, laws, decrees etc

b) How to get the most out of your people and everyone else- and your female staff into bed

c) What dinner- what home? You don’t eat nor sleep- you test the latest torture gadgets and weapons of urban terror


8.Your wife thinks you’re

a) Too busy, never home

b) Too busy, never home and she’s glad of it

c) A rubber doll doesn’t think


9. Your children think you’re

a) Too distracted, never attentive

b) Too weird and unpredictable

c) 5 want your job, 4 are in exile, 15 are in various jails and 8 want your head


10. You want to be remembered as

a) A great, fun guy who made no major waves

b) The stern and just father of a nation

c) How good I was at milking the donors and keeping in power for 30years despite being voted out 6 times

Here's your score:
Mostly
a- Too moderate, you’re a joke of a politician who still believes in dialogue and democracy

b- Ok, you’re a fast learner, however you should stop shaking hands with old ladies all the time- too cheesy. But hey, strike a pose for the ROGUE! camera team!

c- Great, you are due for the HSPP (Hitler-Stalin-PolPot) Terror Prize and Gjengis Honorary Medal

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.

EnquTaTash

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May 1999 hold peace, prosperity and health for all of us

and deliver Ethiopia from this shadow

Quacktastic

Ouff, this rain is really eating away at my Optimism... (navigate away if you want light stuff)

Just run through these figures and see what it makes you think of the profusion of private clinics in larger cities:

Income (in ETB):

Consultation fee: 10 ETB x 50 Patients per day = 500 ETB (x 30) =15,000/ month
Laboratory fee: 80 ETB x 50 Patients per day = 4500 ETB (x 30) = 135,000/ month


Annual Income: 135,000 x 12 = 1,620,000

Add 10% miscellaneous= Total annual income = 1,782,000 ETB

Expenditure (in ETB):

Rent: 3000/ month (x12) = 36, 000
Utilities: 2500/ month (x12) = 30,000
Equipment maintenance: 1500/ month (x12) = 18,000
Salary for 8 support staff @ 400/ month: 3200/ month (x12) = 38,400
Tax and licence fees: 1500/ month (x12)= 18,000

Annual expenditure: = 140,400 ETB

Add 10% contingency= Total annual expenditure = 154, 440 ETB


Annual break-even/ profit: 1,782,000 minus 154,440 = 1,625,760 ETB


1.6 million Birr take-home, both doctors earn ~500,000 a year (how much do they declare to the taxman and subsequently have to pay in income tax?...) (see NB below)

Everyone has to make a living, especially as a freelancer you have to take what comes; in addition the figures in US$ etc would be laughable and perhaps 50% of the population can afford to pay that and more.

The point is that most private clinics are run like businesses, with a minimum daily turnover stipulated to all staff, especially the doctors. Turnover of cold hard cash, not people helped or any such soppy notions. Therefore, what does this mean on the ground:

-A normal flu suddenly requires intravenous treatment with “anti-inflammatory” drugs

-A skin irritation is diagnosed (using an array of blood tests, urine and stool analysis, when a swab of the area could have been the solution) both as a bacterial infection and allergy, with medication of the 3rd generation variety being doled out like qolo for both and neither.

-A colicky child has to take potent antibacterial drugs against the trinity of favourites: Typhoid, Typhus and Amoeba after the blood and stool had been examined in a messy, barely-sanitary laboratory right next to the filthy “washroom”

Another point is that if at least after all that hocus-pocus the right diagnosis and treatment were given to achieve long-lasting recovery and health the unscrupulous rip-off could just be excused.

NB: Calculations based on first hand information:
Local clinic with 24 hour- 7 day service close to a major transportation taxi hub in densely populated area so patient numbers are roughly 50/ day
Overnight stays and surgery excluded from sums
Lab fees always add up to a minimum of 75-80 Birr per visit, no matter whether it is a sprained foot and a blood test is ordered to check for stomach ulcer causing bacteria (Oh that rascal H. plyori! Nasty bug, but does it make you miss the steps on the stairs? No but it costs 70-120 ETB a pop for testing.)
All expenditure figures are assumed based on common fees for rent, overheads etc. plus 8 staff (excluding big cheeses)f: 2 Security, 1 Receptionist, 2 doctor’s assistants, 3 lab staff