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Traffic in Addis Abeba a Metaphor for the State

Aug 23 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      4250 Views

Before dawn breaks over Addis Abeba, a slow ritual unfolds where queues of shadowy figures form at taxi stops, their bre...

A Country in Secondhand Threads Struggles to Sew Its Own Future

Aug 16 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      6705 Views

Addis Abeba's streets blaze with colour. Under grey concrete and mirrored glass, crowds stream by in hoodies boasting distant universities and faded T-shirts advertising rock bands that never set foot on Ethiop...

Who Owns the Seed as Ethiopia Opens the Gate to GM Maize?

Federal agriculture officials last week quietly opened the door to commercial plantings of genetically modified (GM) maise, a first for the country, a policy decision that should shift the debate from familiar health and ecological concerns to a harder issue. Most GM varieties...

Aug 9 , 2025      |           |      4529 Views

When Leaving Becomes the Dream

The rideshare driver asked as he threaded through Addis Abeba's evening traffic. The question, tossed off lightly, carried a heavy implication. “So, when are you leaving?” he quipped. Leaving, not staying, has become the country's benchmark for ambition. A generation ag...

Aug 3 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      3821 Views

Repackaging Dispossession as Modernisation. A Lesson.

When I stepped onto campus life in the early 2010s, the place felt hushed, as if everyone shared a secret. Students queued for breakfast. Bread, eggs, and a swirl of injera cost 20 Br a day. It felt like a bargain, and it was a bargain. Nonetheless, the silence hinted at another...

Jul 26 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      2748 Views

Addis Abeba's Concrete Promises Face Hard Costs in Urban Overhaul

On a chilly Addis Abeba morning, Ginfile, the dense quarter otherwise known as "5Kilo," wakes to the hiss of charcoal stoves and the smell of buna. Neighbours swap greetings across courtyards that double as kitchens and workshops. Children weave through alleys, ducking laundry li...

Jul 19 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      4091 Views

Who Owns the Seed as Ethiopia Opens the Gate to GM Maize?

Federal agriculture officials last week quietly opened the door to commercial plantings of genetically modified (GM) maise, a first for the country, a policy decision that should shift the debate from familiar health and ecological concerns to a harder issue. Most GM varieties...

Aug 9 , 2025      |           |      4529 Views

When Leaving Becomes the Dream

The rideshare driver asked as he threaded through Addis Abeba's evening traffic. The question, tossed off lightly, carried a heavy implication. “So, when are you leaving?” he quipped. Leaving, not staying, has become the country's benchmark for ambition. A generation ag...

Aug 3 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      3821 Views

Repackaging Dispossession as Modernisation. A Lesson.

When I stepped onto campus life in the early 2010s, the place felt hushed, as if everyone shared a secret. Students queued for breakfast. Bread, eggs, and a swirl of injera cost 20 Br a day. It felt like a bargain, and it was a bargain. Nonetheless, the silence hinted at another...

Jul 26 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      2748 Views

Addis Abeba's Concrete Promises Face Hard Costs in Urban Overhaul

On a chilly Addis Abeba morning, Ginfile, the dense quarter otherwise known as "5Kilo," wakes to the hiss of charcoal stoves and the smell of buna. Neighbours swap greetings across courtyards that double as kitchens and workshops. Children weave through alleys, ducking laundry li...

Jul 19 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      4091 Views

The City That Refuses to Hear Itself

Every morning in the Jemo neighbourhood, in the western outskirts of Addis Abeba, starts with music, not the song a passer-by chooses, but the one that chooses her. Cafés line the dusty road and hang horn-loaded speakers above the doorway, each tuned to a different station or st...

Jul 13 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      2996 Views

Baking a Country to Prosperity on Borrowed Yeast

When my father retired from the civil service years ago, he opened a narrow bakery, with four walls, an iron oven, and a hopeful sign. It sent hot loaves to schoolchildren racing to the morning bell. For me, a teenager drafted into wage-free summer shifts, the shop was a seminar...

Jul 5 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      3449 Views

A "Talking Gorilla" Walks into Mercato

A couple of evenings ago, TikTok served up a scene that felt equal parts circus and science fiction. An Amharic-speaking Gorilla character strolling through Merkato, waving at fruit vendors, cracking jokes and locking eyes with the camera in a way that seemed unnervingly human. A...

Jun 28 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      3385 Views

As the Capital Rises, the Regions Wait for a Turn

It is stating the obvious to claim Addis Abeba is placed foremost in the economy, playing the protagonist, director and banker of national growth. The data affirms this louder than any. Though the capital houses only three percent of the population, it produces 29pc of urban G...

Jun 21 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      4083 Views

Tracks in the Sky Hopes on the Ground

The electric-blue trains that once glided across Addis Abeba's skyline promised a leap into the future. I remember standing on the platform as a university student when the first two-carriage Light Rail Transit (LRT) rolled in, its doors hissing open like something lifted from a...

Jun 14 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      3608 Views

The Gig Economy's Serfdom with WiFi

When a muggy Tuesday dawns in Addis Abeba, a young driver unlocks a ride-hailing app and hopes, silently, for steady passengers and a generous surge. The compact sedan feels like his own, although the bank holds the title. He sets his hours, or thinks he does, before settling int...

Jun 7 , 2025      |      By Ahmed T Abdulkadir      |      4170 Views


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Columns

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Parents Dreams Meet the Reality of the Classroom

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From Digitisation to Digital Transformation

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A Celebration of Love Where Tradition Met Presence

Agenda | Jul 25,2026

Shematera Weavers' Chain Meets the VAT Line

Editorial | Jul 25,2026

Cost Recovery by Public Institutions Becomes a Hidden Tax


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Editorial

Cost Recovery by Public Institutions Becomes a Hidden Tax

Jul 25 , 2026

Ideally, citizens who have paid income tax all year should not have to reach for thei...

Millions Looking for Work. Companies Cannot Find Many to Hire. A Paradox?

Jul 18 , 2026

Pressed in Parliament on jobs and household incomes, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD)...

Ethiopia Needs a Peace Premium the IMF Cannot Supply

Jul 11 , 2026

At a market stall, reform arrives without a communique. It comes as a higher transpor...

The New Gold Standard Comes with a Warning Label

Jul 4 , 2026

In the goldfields of the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia's balance-of-paym...

Sunday With Eden

A Celebration of Love Where Tradition Met Presence

In an age when weddings are often planned as much for the camera as for the couple, I...

A Consultation Worth Less Than Bread

Imagine spending seven years studying medicine, completing demanding clinical rotatio...

Life Matters

Parents Dreams Meet the Reality of the Classroom

I suppose I should not be surprised by the immense value our society places on educat...

The Doors That Speak

It feels like a lifetime ago since I wore a high school uniform. Memory can be a fickle thing, and perhaps time has softened the edges of th...

Agenda

Shematera Weavers' Chain Meets the VAT Line

Jul 25 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

The footsteps, bargaining voices and rustle of cotton cloth that once filled Shemater...

A Sack of Cement, with the Chain No One Can See

Jul 19 , 2026 . By FITSUM TADESSE

In the Jemo area of Addis Abeba, Fikremariam Wondimu no longer trades cement so much...

Production Soars While the Feed Sellers Go Under

Jul 12 , 2026 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

At his stall around Ferensay Legasion, Mastewal Tekuye has decided to leave a busines...

A City Between the Market and the Rules

Jul 4 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE and FITSUM TADESSE

July has arrived with the heaviest rains of the winter, dark clouds and mist blanketi...

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Commentaries

The Central Bank Bets on Signals Over Ceilings

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has set aside the tools that governed its money f...

The Floral Industry Steers On Uncharted Waters

The federal government has at last cleared a blockage that held back the domestic flo...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Fortune news

Global Bank Board Suspends 18 as Deposit Probe Widens

Jul 25 , 2026 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER

Global Bank's Board of Directors have overhauled top management, after suspending sev...

Hulu Sport Wins in Court, But Stays Closed

Jul 25 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

Judges at the Federal High Court have overturned the National Lottery Administration...

Federal Regulation Grants Receipt for Farmers, a New Product for the Banks

Jul 25 , 2026 . By NAHOM AYELE

A newly enacted regulation by the Council of Ministers lets eligible producers pledge...

Trucks Impounding Puts Fuel Carriers, Regulators at Legal Odds

Jul 25 , 2026 . By FITSUM TADESSE

A fuel tanker carrying tens of thousands of litres was confiscated after its driver a...