Bren and Jen were in Ethiopia, now Mexico.

There are many things slowing down Ethiopia’s development, and each person that you ask will give a different reason. Jen would say it’s because all the men here are barbaric and stop, stare and shout obscenities at you in the street. Whereas others say it’s the lack of skilled workers or the towering bureaucracy or maybe even the misspending of what little money the country has. For myself I feel it’s the poor excuses that let Ethiopia and probably many other developing countries down.

‘This is Ethiopia’ is a phase we hear a lot, and it’s usually because something has gone wrong, a job is half done or that nothing has occurred at all. Some of the many questions and answers we have gotten here - Why do most schools here have no onsite toilet – ‘this is Ethiopia’, Why does the college have several printers and photocopiers but no toners – ‘this is Ethiopia’, Why do the overhead power cables keep failing - ‘this is Ethiopia’, why are offices and workplaces half empty in the afternoon – ‘this is Ethiopia’, why is there no bus today – ‘this is Ethiopia’. We are in Ethiopia, but it is not an excuse.

For example, I have been helping the college install a network across its computers and it’s been a good learning experience, it was especially amusing to have to explain to the IT lecturer that it DOES matter which order the coloured wires go in when crimping RJ45 to network cables! The actual internet connection is not owned by the college but they do have access to a single port on the router which they connect to a switch (sorry none-geeks if you are already lost) in the library and off to another switch in my office before connecting to other office computers.

All of these are connected by wires running through windows and over the roof of the building. I never thought I would be involved in wrapping network cable around drainpipes and fishing them through cracks in windows. I am glad I was not involved when they decided to lead a cable from the first floor up over the roof, three floors up, and then wrap the cable around a tree trunk before once again entering the building via a window on the first floor.

Apparently drilling holes is not an option as permission has to be gained and apparently cable clips would have been extra expense and would have taken longer! So we have this set up which is silly and lazy. I doubt it will last out the year. At some point I will take pictures of the horror/comedy. The aim of giving the college internet is a great one and I am glad to be part of it, I just wish that the job could be done a little better.

I suppose all the excuses underlie a basic lack of respect for the local environment, people and animals from the whole society. There are some great people who you can rely on, but the percentage of people willing to cut major corners and fail to do even the simplest of tasks is so much higher than I come to expect in the UK.

The fact that cutting corners and failing is part of the national culture is even worse. ‘This is Ethiopia’ is not a valid excuse for failure. The country has water, fertile land, an able population, good worldwide ties and valuable natural resources and is easily better placed than most other developing countries. I can’t image Japan behaved in this way when developing.

I know I keep bringing my experiences here back to development but it is why I am here. I feel that the hard work and effort of a lot of people, including myself, is squandered by excuses. Then again I should probably sit back a little, have a beer and enjoy watching the world go by even more often, after all, this is Ethiopia.

Posted on March 6th, 2009 under Ethiopia • Tags: development, Ethiopia, work. • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback