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ADDIS ABABA, THE NEW FLOWER, FULL OF INTRIGUE.
“Hey, I know that guy, that’s an ITN news researcher” Said Stuart in
surprise.
Once again my interest was piqued, what was going on in this city? Five
months ago I had been here with my friend Charles. We had landed in an armed
camp with expatriates feeling decidedly uneasy and the Prime Minister moving
rooms nightly. To us new arrivals he appeared to be on the back foot, trying
to bring Ethiopia round into being a modern capitalist nation. He had many
enemies and may have feared overthrow. I wondered whether this had changed.
It is hard to tell in the countryside.
“What was so good about the old socialists?”
“Mengistu had only one pre-occupation, the war, and the unity of Ethiopia.
He hated the idea of two countries. But then we had education. We had one
teacher for each subject, now we have one per six subjects.”
“So the “boss” is happy now?”
“He is heavily supported by the Americans”
I remembered hearing five months ago that the Americans had been waiting in
the wings to assist Prime Minister Meles if he managed to bring around “the
boat” of Ethiopia. (See letter in the articles page). This was my answer, he
had succeeded.
I was happy to see that my favourite African country had at last found
stability. Stuart remarked to me, “if they could just stop killing each
other and others around them this place would rake in the tourist dollars. “
The next day we searched Addis Ababa, No shop stocked them. Indeed shops
that sold Land Rover spares were thin on the ground. The Land Rover
Authorised dealer (who was also the Mazda dealership) had run out. We ended
up finding them in a small shop, no larger than one of Stuart’s cigarette
packets. Had we had a Toyota, we could have bought spares in some of the
smallest villages we passed through. Land Rover will never be able to hold
its own in Africa as long as it has poor spare parts distribution.
At this stage Sam turned up. . Sam is an old friend and had travelled with
me in the past, he proved to be a constant source of cynical remarks that
kept us in stitches.
“I’m with you until early December and then I’m off. This meant that after
Cisca left in early January, our expedition was down to two people. Stuart
and myself. The idea of crossing the Sahara desert had been with two
vehicles, but we had lost one. I was not sure whether to be worried or angry
with the others. Where were they, why had they not made the RV?
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