|
Ethiopia holds elections today, Sunday 23 May. For a long time I was looking forward to being in Addis during the elections... to be there and see what is to be seen. I was in Nepal when they finally held their elections (after two failed attempts) in 2007. I can't say that I saw very much, but it was still overall an interesting time to be there.
As it turns out, I left Ethiopia Friday night to fly to Germany, then on to the US for my mom's PhD graduation. So I'll miss the elections, but to be honest I'm not sure I really want to be there right now. Nepal's politics had somewhat of a bumbling affability to it as they tried to get the three main parties to agree on election guidelines and not walk out on parliament. I got the impression of a genuine interest in political process and fairness. Ethiopia's political players, on the other hand, give off a more sinister vibe. From the handful of allegedly politically-motivated deaths in the last few months to the government's continuous clamping down on journalism, telecommunications and travel, sometimes it just feels like the opposition has to be correct when they decry the validity of the elections even before they happen. Here are a couple of articles about the elections. Particularly interesting is this one which has an interesting quote: "Yes, the OPDO [government's party in the Oromia region] have been developing Oromia," says an old man who has watched the commotion. "But it's development and repression at the same time. They can build roads to the moon but I won't vote for them until we're equal."
In other news, I've decided to stay in Ethiopia until November and start grad school at MIT in January. I'll write more about that decision in my next post. On to the photos...
Since it took so long for me to get Horse running again, I really wanted to do some riding. There is a ridge separating two of our project areas, with no paved roads going over it. I was doing a tour of the two project areas, so decided to take the more direct route (to go from one are to the other via paved roads would have required going all the way back to Addis and then out again). The road was actually in great condition, and turned out to have some really nice scenery on the way.
A bit less than a year ago, my friend Sean was visiting and we went out to the Ziway project area and installed a prototype treadle pump. I'd been meaning to visit it for a while, and had heard that it needed repairs, so I went out to take a look...
Ali and I rode down to the town of Awassa (~5 hours from Addis) for a road race.
I think I'm developing a name for myself or something. Ali co-directed 'The Vagina Monologues' this year, so I got to help out with lighting.
Parting shot...
For more updates go here. |
