View From Arada

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View From Arada

May 4 , 2019

Beware, Abiy, of Frequent Foreign Escapades

Belete, first cousin to Emperor Haile Selassie and matriarch of a powerful family, sat listening to her grandson read from Addis Zemen. “His Imperial Majesty arrived in Port-au-Prince today for a...

Apr 26 , 2019

The Dangers of Stormwater in Addis Abeba

A few raindrops signaled that the monsoon storm that has been hovering overhead since late in the afternoon last Tuesday was about to unleash its moisture-laden load, and everyone on the street scram...

Apr 20 , 2019

Dining Out, a Lost Art in the City

Not much can be criticised of the European buffet at the new five-star Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, unveiled recently by Ethiopian Airlines, except that the desserts are placed on the bottom shelf of an...

Apr 13 , 2019

Workers’ Safety: Awash in Danger and Neglect

The construction worker removing grit and paint from windows on a half-completed high-rise dangles from a ledge with a bucket of water and a short-handle brush in one hand and bracing himself with the...

Apr 6 , 2019

MERKATO: Pulsating, Throbbing and Mesmerising the Soul

A trip to the labyrinth world of Merkato has been planned by two friends and then postponed so many times that the fact that it took place recently is no small miracle. “I assure you there is a...

Mar 30 , 2019

The Harmful Notion of 'My Country, Right or Wrong'

The New York Times' March 20 article by Selam Gebrekidan, an award-winning journalist, raised the ire of many Ethiopians and even some foreign fliers of Ethiopian Airlines, who lashed out at Selam o...

Mar 23 , 2019

Ethiopian Funerals, a Way of Life

Ethiopians, notoriously lax about keeping appointments, are as punctual as a German engineer when it comes to funerals. “Do not be late,” warns a colleague to a man procrastinating about when h...

Mar 16 , 2019

RIVERS, SOULS OF A CITY

An American visitor recently confined his confusion and dismay about the state of affairs in Ethiopia to his local colleague. Conversing on the proposed Riverside Revitalisation Project proposed for A...

Mar 9 , 2019

Whose Land is This, Any Way?

The arrival of a Land Cruiser in the centre of the sleepy hamlet of Aleyu Amba in Northern Shoa stirred quite a commotion as children scramble from a nearby market, gleefully gawking and staring at th...

Mar 2 , 2019

Conservation, A National Duty

A hearing at the Federal High Court in Ledeta involves a quarry operator who has been negatively impacted by a road contractor that dumped excavated waste material from a nearby highway construction...

Feb 23 , 2019

Opposition Parties Poised to Stumble Again

In Arada, St George Square, just to the south of the old Addis Abeba Fire Station building is a little obscure street, the strangely named Eon Street, that runs to Ras Mekonnen Square in Piassa. Along...

Feb 16 , 2019

Time to Examine the Sino-Ethiopian Relationship

At the central courtyard of the immigration office on Churchill Road, a group of Chinese labourers in khaki, tunic suits that appear a bit too large on them, and tacking oversized flip-flops of consid...

Feb 9 , 2019

The Failures of the Ethiopian Professional Class

The contrast between what boils outside the trimmed walls of a medical clinic compound in Cherkos and the clean, swept and manicured landscape inside is a jolt of reality that is hard to shake. Inside...

Feb 1 , 2019

Ethiopians Leave Morality, Decency up to Individuals

The toddler is inconsolable, irate that he be fed immediately and insistent on removing the delicate netela, white shawl, that his mother modestly tries to cover her body with. The child grapples at t...

Jan 26 , 2019

City Mired in Gridlock, Mismanagement

The gridlock of Addis Abeba's traffic is a gruelling experience on any ordinary day, but early last month the situation changed into a virtual nightmare. A sea of stopped and idling vehicles morphed t...

Jan 18 , 2019

Modernisation, Not Westernisation

Timqet, the Epiphany festival that is just around the corner from Gena, the Ethiopian Christmas, is more traditionally observed, while Genais proving to be quite a different matter in this country. ...

Columns

Commentaries | Oct 11,2025

The Human Flight a Failure of Political Imagination, Not a Mere Economic Policy

Ladislas Farago, a roving Associated Press (AP) correspondent, arrived in Ethiopia in 193...

Editorial | Oct 11 , 2025

TRADITION THRIVES AS COSTS CLIMB

As dawn broke over Addis Abeba last week, the city's arteries pulsed not with the usual we...

Featured | Oct 5 , 2025 . By REDIET YARED

TOMATOES TASTE OF INFLATION

Tomato prices in Addis Abeba have surged to unprecedented levels, with retail stands charg...

Agenda | Oct 12 , 2025

TOMATOES TASTE OF INFLATION

Tomato prices in Addis Abeba have surged to unprecedented levels, with retail stands charg...

Fortune News | Oct 12 , 2025