Hand-made baskets slated for Christmas decorations are piled for sale around Sidist Kilo. While the holiday season creeps up in slightly decreased double-digit inflation rates of around 27pc, holiday shoppers have only cut back spending on certain items. The festive cheers still adorn the streets of Addis Abeba despite the undercurrent of pressing problems faced by urbanites. Hope, the very firmament that keeps the human spirit enlivened and illuminated, remains embedded in the hearts of Ethiopians. Neither debt defaults nor uneasy neighbours cast their dreary clouds over a nation of 127 million watchful optimists.