FORTUNE+ VIDEO SPONSORED CONTENTS ADVERTORIALS FORTUNE AUDIO Fortune Careers TRADE AFRICA Election 2026 New TIME REMAINING UNTIL ETHIOPIA’S NATIONAL ELECTION 0Days 0Hours 0Minutes 0Seconds

Fortune Logo

BROKEN BEACON

Mar 7 , 2026.

New lights of varying sizes and designs have begun to appear across the city, rising along sidewalks and neighbourhood streets to brighten the night. Yet one of these fixtures, once a proud addition to the urban landscape, now lies beneath a fence with its bulbs shattered. Stripped of its purpose, it has become an improvised seat for a young man taking a brief rest, a quiet reminder of a duty once meant to illuminate the path for passersby and stand as a symbol of the city’s progress.


PUBLISHED ON Mar 07,2026 [ VOL 26 , NO 1349]

[ssba-buttons]

Most read

Editor's pick

Commentaries

The Political Class Bet on Mega-projects, Pushed State Banks to the Brink

Ethiopia's developmental state experiment was less a model of economic discipline tha...

Taking Women Farmers Seriously

As the war in Iran disrupts fertiliser supplies and undermines food security around the world, the need t...

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...

Editorial

Mistaking Development Theatre for Public Trust Has a Cost

May 30 , 2026

Tomorrow, millions of Ethiopians are expected to vote in the seventh national electio...

Tax Push Tests How Much Pain Taxpayers Can Bear

May 23 , 2026

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has spent weeks in Addis Abeba conducting t...

T-Bills Trap Begins in the Federal Government's Own Budget

May 16 , 2026

The federal budget tells a troubling story about inflation, debt and reform. The prob...

Every Encounter with the State Should Not Become an Invoice

May 9 , 2026

The Ethiopian state appears to have discovered a fiscal instrument that is politicall...

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

Sunday With Eden

When Ordinary Lives Rewrite Poverty

There are moments in life that leave people changed forever. A few days ago, I attended a conference at a religious inst...

A Ball, A Father, A Life-time of Memory

Football was never merely a game in our household. It was ritual, language and affect...

Life Matters

Beyond the Scoreline, How Foreign Football Becomes Local Identity

The recent celebrations in Addis Abeba following Arsenal's success were, to put it bl...

When Problem-Solving Fails Because the Shape Looks Different

We like to think of ourselves as pattern-recognition machines. From the moment the da...