5 Things that give Addis a dreadful look

Addis Ababa is one of our world top diplomatic cities. Being the spot for African Union and other international organizations, the city hosts various meetings that accompany top officials of many nations. However, this city is not up to the standard to be in charge of all these things when it comes towards the city's appearance and the services it provides.

It's obvious that it takes a huge investment to eradicate all the deficiencies the city has but from the current circumstances, I'm sure, the city's caretaker with dwellers can work out some of the problems regarding the city's appearance that seems minor tasks but could make a big difference.

1. Electric/Telephone Lines & Poles
The Electric/telephone lines are in poor shape that looks as if rats has messed them up. This disordered structure with the old wood pole gives the streets an awful image. Even though, such things are not witnessed in newly founded residential areas, the rest of the city has stick with this old and rubbish appearance. The city administration must give an appropriate consideration.


2. Clothes hanging on Condo's Balcony
This is one of the most horrible things to see when you're out in the city. Many people who leave in apartment or condominium hang their clothes on their respective balcony in order for the clothes to dry up. But my question is, when the apartment first designed, haven't the architect devised a place for such things, could be at the backyard, where residents can share. Because, the clothes adding up with the condominium's unattractiveness makes a whole ugly stuff, just standing in front of you to make you sick. Or if people do this for security reasons, an alternative method they should come up with rather than this that is tarnishing the city's class.

3. Bulky Fences surrounded by Greenery
Every villa house in the city has huge fences and moreover greenery such as trees surrounding it. Including my home, the same thing exists. I have learnt that during Emperor Haile Selassie I regime, villa houses used to have a very short and simple fences so that it wouldn't look heavy. But after the Derg regime, things turns up side down for a reason I don't know and since then, every house has a huge fence and sometimes, a lot of money being invested on it as a trend. And if you try to amend yours, you would just single out yourself from your area in which it doesn't make any difference. Such things should be of a similar mode among a specific residential area. A code must be set by the sub-city and apply them so that in that certain area, you will see a neat and corporate outlook.

4. Road Barriers
The barriers to partition narrow roads in the city are too old and most of them out of condition. And few of them that seems in a better condition are so packed with excess greenery. The trees and other plants make the street too heavy to ride on it. And some of the roads barriers are almost equal to the road size itself, which is really non-sense. This was an old mechanism in which it should be altered in our time. As, with the extra space, one can broaden the track or the pavement but instead, we see those ridiculous roads being restored (without any conversion). Roads neatness has a big impact on city's image.

5. Posters on Fences and Walls
I don't really understand to place posters on places where there are lots of posters being posted one over the other, where it looks so nasty. From advertising point of view, I don't know how the advertisers possibly think that pedestrians can view the posters, if it's not neat enough to attract. Ok maybe that could be how they play their business but, what about the look of the city? Every fence and wall your face turns to, you see countless posters that make you turn away quickly let alone to see what is written on it. If the city administrators set a board to put posters at certain places (such as bus and taxi stop) and if they regulate it well, we can get rid of such problems easily.

Nonetheless, I know it's easy to criticize than to act up on but, if you're not given the space to get involved and thus, only a room for criticism, what should you do? I would be happier if the piece I wrote was all about applauding the city caretaker had it fulfills all its responsibilities. However the fact remains, no, it's not doing it's best and it deserve evaluation.

Focusing on Barriers that hinders our Progress

Too many times we dedicate ourselves in linking our problems to homophobias for being the main cause. And too little attention we give to our own obscurity that is causing our slow progress. Why? Would this take us any further?

From ignorance, the greatest disease of our time, to the tittle-tattles, it seems our community has faced barricades from progressing much further. Apparently, these sicknesses that look as if our community has been infected with, came from nowhere but only from us.

Ignorance or a reluctance attitude amongst SGL people is a very common facet when it comes to bringing change for their plight in Ethiopia. Either this weakness has generated from fear of coming out not therefore to face any consequence (if occur) or lack of faith, in which they find it hard to imagine Ethiopia being a safe place for SGL people. However, both grounds are non-sense.

Our target is to create a safe and favorable environment for SGL people in Ethiopia that takes every one of us strength from fully coming out to ourselves, to slightly coming out to other close individuals (could be to family or friends.)

Accepting the fact that coming out to someone I'm close with as an intermediate to bring awareness in the community, I have told my sister that I'm gay, not long ago. Many questions she asked and I tried to address all, in which she finally swayed to be ok with it. This being the first incident for me to come out to a family member, I was excited to tell my other gay friends if it could motivate them and tomorrow if they contemplate to come out as I did. To your amusement, few appreciate the courage while unfortunately; most warned me to be careful and not to utter anything to my sister about my gay friends. And none said, they would try to do the same. We all know coming out isn't easy in a society like ours but at least, having the aspiration would indicate our eagerness to attain our rights. Conceiving is the start and executing follows.

Apart from this, most gays especially from Ethiopia, don't even wish to participate in the groups. They don't find the group for other function unless for dating purposes. So many times I have tried for people in Addis to get involved in the group, where in most cases they agree to disagree. And then, I started assuming these groups could be hectic to operate than any other professional forums. But later that I found out, the same stillness occurred in the new Gay Ethiopians Forum.

Or, is it the moderators and the key players in the groups who have made the groups disinteresting and thus discouraging others to participate?

All that is needed is a space where we can grow out of it. Why can't we see this in a bigger and better picture?

New Look for Ethiopian Lesbians

EthioGLBT, an organization working on the well being of GLBT people in Ethiopia, has recently offered a new logo for Ethiopian Lesbians group, openhandedly, as a sign of helping one another. It seems for a reason to build a tight bond between the two groups albeit, nothing confirmed yet from Ethiopian Lesbians group, whether they accept the new logo or not.

Ethiopian Lesbians group, founded a year ago, has only sixteen members and designed only for Ethiopian and Eritrean lesbians.

/The designed logo can be viewed in EthioGLBT File section/