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January 15 , 2022 . By TADESSE TSEGAYE

Don't Surrender the Streets to Vehicles, Give Walking A Chance

Close to my neighbourhood, there is a wide street. A decade ago, with my friends, we used to joke that it was an expressway. Taken up largely by the Addis Abeba Light Rail now, the pedestrian walkways are ceaselessly thronged by people. Making things even more crowded is that it has become minibuses...

December 25 , 2021 . By TADESSE TSEGAYE

Cognitive Dissonance's Not the Enemy. It's People

It was several days ago. I argued with a long time friend, which seemed to go on for forever. It is about numbers. He was perturbed and frustrated with the near-total absence of applying numbers in the execution of duties and responsibilities with the positions he had been holding for ages. It had been compounded by a company culture spearheaded by a CEO with the belief that no position within a work environment requires qualification exceeding the eighth grade with, in his term, no more than the main elements of math. This is addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, including th...

December 19 , 2021 . By TADESSE TSEGAYE

The Humbly Competent Shall Inherit the Earth

Amy Dardin’s case is the symbolic equivalent of the word procrastination. The Virginian Amy tendered to Congress for the reimbursement of a horse that belonged to her and had been used by soldiers during the American Revolution. It was half a century before the procrastinating Congress finally agreed to pay. It came to my mind as I contemplated whether to make a phone call or pay an in-person visit to my old friend gently to remind her of a past due payment. It brought about an agonising reappraisal of our friendship. However trivial the issue looked, the word “dunning” immediately...

October 16 , 2021 . By TADESSE TSEGAYE

For Every 'Aha,' Society Moves Forward

Aha! It is a palindrome referred to by William Safire as a triumphant cry of discovery. It is “one of the great, unappreciated and deliciously nuanced words in the English language,” he says. It is also the official scientific name for a genus of Sphecidae wasp. “Aha ha” was also named by a researcher to express his joy in discovering a second species of Aha. It sums up the life of people who are engaged in research, the satisfaction from the endeavour. There is the story of Sir Isaac Newton’s little dog Diamond that knocked over a candle on his master’s desk and started a...

View From Arada

October 9 , 2021

Good Employers Don't Let Employees Go the 'Wrong Way' on Safety

Last week, it was after the bugle call rang out, which signalled the bi-weekly refuse collection in our neighbourhood, and as soon as the ensuing crowd commotion faded, that I went out with my bags of...

October 2 , 2021

Training: the Answer to Every Siege Against One's Profession

The Greek mathematician Euclid’s Elements, written in the third century BC, was a collection of theorems and problems that formed the basis for geometry. Yet, much of it owes a great debt to the wor...

September 26 , 2021

'Temar Lije' the Million Dollar Punctuations

The most costly grammatical error in history was made when a US space probe, Mariner 1, bound for a Venus flyby, headed off course and had to be destroyed, setting the National Aeronautics & Space...

September 18 , 2021

Vigilance against Stagnation: the Price of Professionalism

Rahel Belatchew, an Ethiopian born Swedish architect, has been rocking the architecture world. Recently, she became a finalist in the 1st category of Founder of the Year, an award that recognises entr...

September 10 , 2021

Laser Pointed New Year’s Resolution

As I was contemplating about making a New Year’s resolution, the word “new” brought some déjà vu from the past, my college days. Back then, suggested readings for the courses we took was rare...

September 4 , 2021

Paint the Heart Out: Inspiration for Uninspiring Times

In 1995, Iggy Pop responded to a 21-year-old fan – Laurence, a child of an acrimonious divorce. One morning, his response arrived at her home in Paris when her family was being evicted. Amidst tears...

August 28 , 2021

Don't Knock Elementary Schools, There's Nothing Elementary About Them

A couple of months ago, I met an old colleague, a senior veteran army officer old enough to be my father. When we worked together, he used to be illustrious for his discipline and admired for his att...

August 21 , 2021

Meet Athletes Halfway on the Tough Road, However Breathtaking It Could Get

Right after I finished college, I got a job at a state enterprise. Given a chair with a table in an office with two other professionals, I asked where I could find the keys to the table drawers. But t...

August 14 , 2021

Library of Today, Knowledge Platform of the Future

A corridor in the building of the Education Ministry, which is entrusted with a mammoth value and mission, once witnessed a strenuous debate between two friends. They were university students working...

August 7 , 2021

Addis' Historic Site Conservationists, Assemble!

I was fortunate enough to participate in a brainstorming session last week organised by architects and academics. It was hoped to write the story of architecture in Ethiopia by identifying and captur...

July 31 , 2021

Bye, Bye Movie Stars, Make Way for the 'Influencers'

Recently, I had a chat with a once aspiring broadcaster whose dream of being famous through his local FM radio programme fell by the wayside some time ago. I asked him how he became sure of his failur...

July 24 , 2021

Murphy's Law to Life in Present Day Ethiopia

Some famous sayings often express the need for pessimism. Take Murphy’s Law, which states that “if anything can go wrong, it will.” A lesser-known one is Hofstadter's Law: “everything will...

July 18 , 2021

Much Meaning in Body Language, Even More in Balageru’s Dancers

Some people are creative animals. The 19th-century Norwegian philologist Ivar Aasen collected all of his country’s difficult regional speech, and created a national language. Then he shaped folke-ma...

July 10 , 2021

Veterans of Legacy Media Pose Lessons for Foot Soldiers of Twitter

Among Portugal’s few literary giants, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reisall and Fernando Pessoa are mentioned. Yet, all the preceding three were pseudonyms of the last one. As if these...

July 3 , 2021

The Bahiru Kegnes of Today Boast Electronic Masinko

Dick Fosbury, an American high jumper, won a gold medal and broke the world record for the high jump in Mexico City during the 1968 Olympics. Medals are out there to be won, as are records to be broke...

June 26 , 2021

The Structure's Imposing, but What's Its Story?

Francisco Álvares, half a millennia ago, told of the tales of Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches with a memorable introduction. “It wearied me to write more of these works, because it seemed to me...

Columns

Commentaries | Jan 15,2022

Peace Process within Arm's Reach. Beware Spoilers!

Foes and friends of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) agree that his administration is full...

Editorial | January 15 , 2022

Diaspora Homecoming Breathes Life into Businesses. Will It Last?

On the verge of losing his job as a sales officer at Ayat (Real Estate) Share Company, Wak...

Featured | January 15 , 2022 . By SAMUEL BOGALE

Liquidity Crunch Casts Menacing Shadow Over Banking Industry

When the central bank imposed a freeze on collateral-based loans last August, there was no...

Agenda | January 15 , 2022 . By HAWI DADHI

HIBRET STANDS TALL & HIGH

Melaku Kebede (leftmost), president of Hibret Bank, was all smiles late last week as he sh...

Fortune News | January 15 , 2022

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COVID-19 UPDATES: All the stories and commentaries on Coronavirus, in one place

Don't Surrender the Streets to Vehicles, Give Walking A Chance

Cognitive Dissonance's Not the Enemy. It's People

The Humbly Competent Shall Inherit the Earth