By Tedla Asfaw
Marthe Van der Wolf showed us a video clip of Addis Ababa with new roads and corrupt officials owned new buildings. We heard similar account of building boom from tourists as well as diplomats.
Officially Ethiopia is gearing up for May election. From the video clip of Vander Wolf of VOA no sign of election posters seen because the people know already the result of the election.
The regime won of 99.6 percent of the vote in 2010 will be adjusted to show the image of democracy for foreigners. This time the win will only be by 90 percent.Those in power will allow few seats to go for the loyal oppositions and we will be told democracy is booming like the building boom. What a nonsense !!!!!
If infrastructure was a measurement of democracy we had much better of it in Mubarak’s Egypt, Saddam’s Iraq, andGadaffi’s Libya ?? Why did the people revolt then ? To live as free people and question all in power who accumulate wealth both home and out of country while millions of the young have no job to start their own families.
Van der Wolf should have tried to find out who owns those new buildings and ask the hundreds of thousands who sleep outside scavenging and begging, the children, women and elderly, under those high rises in Addis Ababa. It seems Marthe Van der Wolf is working on a ” Tourism Clip ” for Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia and the seat of the African Union, the good image.