ETHIOPIA. Blog 4.
We returned to our hotel around 5pm and requested a walk into the surrounding town of Mizan. Rather than let Guus and I loose, alone, our driver shadowed our movement. We really are a novelty factor here but of course business is business so the traders carry on hustling. There’s a market for everything, fridges, bananas, meat, spices and make-up to list but a few. Most of the shops spill out onto the street, there’s a real sense of the wild west and frontier town. The kids beam at us and yell out, they just love a reaction. There’s no real attempt to hassle us for money, maybe our guardian angel is doing a better job than we think.
We return to the sanctuary of our Hotel and for a couple of hours I take the opportunity to catch up on emails and social media before descending to dinner.
At dinner we have a new “guest”, the owner of the Hotel. He started out as a teacher, then subsequently opened a small hotel down the road before going all in on this one. He’s keen to hear what we think. I tell him that it feels like a palace in the middle of town and asked who was his target audience as you don’t get many tourists in this region. It turns out that it’s a popular watering hole for regional politicians. Apparently there had been around 1,000 politician / civil servants in for lunch. Which sounded very lucrative.
The conversation went on to the politics of Ethiopia. It’s interesting that Ethiopia has no colonial past, however it has been dominated by regional ethnic interests and for those who live there the concept of being Ethiopian is a relatively new one. In fact our hotelier told us that he was only allowed to set up the hotel just as long as he stuck to business. His ethnic group in the region were considered outcasts. It’s only been through years of hard work and clear business success that that yoke is slowly being lifted.
The current Government has clearly a much more entrepreneurial approach than its predecessor and is starting to flex its resource muscle on a world stage. They’ve also managed to extinguish a lot of corrupt activity. Like so many African countries they are tired of being exploited for their natural wealth and the instability that brings. With new stability comes more certainty, a fertile breeding ground for resident entrepreneurs.
The red tape that bedevils opportunity in Europe has yet to catch up with Ethiopia. That has its pros and cons. Workers are clearly exploited for cheap labour. You don’t see much in the way of health and safety, however there is a sense that if you want to get on in life the opportunity is there. I hope that means that in time those at the bottom of the pile will see their lot improve. I sense that Ethiopia will be a very different place in 5 years' time should I get the opportunity to visit again.