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Journal of African trips

African trip [I]

Agelasto
2004-05-20 20:57:33

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responsibilities. Eritrea was able to
survive for almost a decade on foreign aid. There is no way it can survive on its own resources
and develop an economy that has a global fit. Wars are a good way to divert the public's attention
from domestic problems.

As much as I like Eritrea, I take Ethiopian's side in this dispute. That is not to say I found
anything in Ethiopia more pleasant than in Eritrea. By the time I arrived in Addis Ababa, I had
had my fill of Ethiopian food (6 meals in Asmara, which is a half-year's worth, given a tolerance
level of one meal a month). And Ethiopia has a tourist culture that by contrast makes Egypt's
seem tame. A decade of war (civil war between communists and non-communists, and a war with
Eritrea) has left the country looking war-torn. There must be more beggars per capita than any
other place in the world, except perhaps Santa Monica. The capital is filled with beggars of all
ages and people missing limbs. I never saw these scenes in Asmara, but Addis Ababa is a city of
refugees. But it doesn't look even like a city. In the middle of downtown, within several hundred
meters of the GPO, are fields with goats. There is a lot more 'there' in Oakland than in Addis
Ababa.

I figure that Sunday is the best time to arrive in a capital city, because that's when it is officially
closed and more at peace with itself. I took a cheap mini-bus from the Addis Ababa airport and
got off where I figured downtown to be. While I was reading my LP map, a young man stove up
aside me and offered to take me to my accommodation, recommended by LP, not by him. We got
to the hostel, which was a converted home, run by the family who lived in some back rooms. The
home had once been much larger, but property had been confiscated when the Marxists
implemented land reform after they took control ...