Habeshaviews’s Weblog

More Whining ?…Anyone ? May 25, 2009

As my Indian colleague at work says “this country is totally shutting down”. We are having constant power shadings and serious mobile network problems. I am not complaining…taking it one day at a time. I am just saying whoever is running this country must be on a break or sick leave or sth. They just forgot to put up a sign at the airport saying:

“Dear Visitors, we would like to let you know that we won’t be around from __ for an undisclosed time. During this specified period we only would provide limited internet coverage and unclean water. Power would be rationed throughout the country.Please be informed that your billing amount would remain the same.”

 Anyhow, I went down south over the week to Awassa and Arbaminch. Awassa was great. It has changed a lot since I saw it like 8 years ago:nice roads, green,clean, beautiful residential houses and warm weather.

It was my first time in Arbaminch. The Awassa /Arbaminch road is one of the worst roads I have ever seen in my entire life. I used to think roads in Kampala are the worst but they wouldn’t beat this one. Arba minch is green. It has beautiful jacarandas everywhere. It’s a beautiful place with great views and growing number of lodges.

It’s one of the most unplanned towns: construction projects are scattered here and there. It’s as if no one cares.Crazy enough, it has one of the fastest Internet connections I have come across here. May be it has to do with the number of subscribers or sth. It was crazy that everyone eats meat or sth that has to do with it. The level of poverty is shocking,even for me . Especially If you travel a little outside of town, you see the things people had to endure to survive. High populations density, recurrent conflicts , poverty …etc. I understand all the scientific explanations for causes of conflicts. I even did a Masters on it but I still couldn’t get it why people resort to fighting when they do not even have food on their plates and/or roof over their heads.

The more I see ,the more I become pesimist towards the prospects of this country.

Complains and rejection mails May 8, 2009

Settling or still trying to settle. Getting so cranky and complain about almost everything. People usually try to be nice but should feel like saying ” Shutt up , @#%&#$! “.

Got my lazy behind back to working,for a change. Not out of want  but out of need,totally and absolutely broke. SO what’s new ,right? Overwhelmed with the amount of things am supposed to do. Planning the next move as well…possibly it has to do with travel.

Been getting a lot of rejections lately. There is something funny about people telling you politely to “@#$% OFF !”. I’ve  learned not to take them personally. My favorite ones are employment letters. Below is one of them …

Dear ….,

Thank you so much for applying for the …..position.

We were extremely interested in your application, but after careful
consideration we ultimately decided to hire another candidate for the job.
This was an extremely difficult to make a decision, as there were many
well-qualified applicants competing for the position.

Thanks again for your interest in working at ……

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Warm regards,