who cares?

Neighbours in our street were preparing for “mels” a few weeks ago. “Mels” is the return party on Tuesday evening after a wedding celebration. We like parties in Ethiopia and families go out of their way to host their guests to the best of their ability. The street in which we live is narrow and the only access to our house. The compound of the hosting family is rather small so it was decided that one of the party tents was going to be pitched up in the road instead. This was done, without informing us so we found some people setting up the tent and we asked what was going on. They explained about the party and said that the road would be closed from 6 pm to 11 pm that same evening. Until then, we could drive through the open tent. Later that afternoon I did my very best to come home before the tent would be closed and was happy to turn into our street at a quarter to six. To my surprise the tent was already closed and filled with chairs and tables. I couldn’t go home anymore. This I couldn’t accept and I complained that I had come in time as agreed earlier and wanted to go home. The organisers were not happy but pushed the chairs and tables aside, opened the sides of the tent and I drove through. The next morning at 7.30 am I was ready to go for work and take the children to school. As we drove out of our compound, we bumped into the same tent again. I was surprised as I was informed that the road would be opened again by midnight. I had to wake up the organisers who reluctantly began to make way for me again. I trust it was a good party as loud music was played until late the previous evening, for the entire neighbourhood to hear. I wish the married couple a happy married life.
A few days ago, around the corner of the same narrow street, my way home was blocked again as workers were loading a truck with soil, which was being removed from a house as the owner has begun extending his buildings. Good for him but works are going on, while the road is now being blocked every now and then. Trucks are even dumping rocks at the corner of the street which becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate.
Yesterday evening I was home, trying o do some work, while being entertained by the loudspeakers of the nearby Mosque, sending prayers into the airwaves. The same happens at other moments during the week but now by the Orthodox Church, located at the other side of the neighbourhood. It is interesting to note that the sound systems of the churches and mosques seem to become more and more powerful. You don’t have to go the church anymore these days as you can listen to the preaching while watching television or doing anything at else at home.
Driving the kids to school or going for work has its unexpected challenges as well with all the road works going on or not going on, as you wish. More often than not roads are closed without any prior notice, causing unnecessary jams and inconveniences.
Meanwhile all kinds of businesses are set up in the middle of residential areas with music shops blasting the latest records right into your bedroom window, cars taking up much of the road space waiting to be maintained by the garage next door and panel beaters clanging away the whole day, not to mention the spray painters, colouring the same cars as well as everything else in their immediate surroundings.
I could go on but I won’t. The reader will have his or her own similar stories to tell. The point is that nobody seems to care what goes on outside their own interest or immediate environment. Do I have to mention the behaviour of drivers in traffic, which seems to get worse by the day? The traffic police don’t look at the bigger picture either as they pick on small irrelevant issues but allow massive violation of the most basic traffic rules, resulting in mostly unnecessary traffic jams.
What it all boils down to is that we are not alone and that we all live and work in communities and environments, which are affected in one way or the other by anything that we do or don’t do. Considering our external environment would therefore be a wise thing to do as we depend on relations with others, who operate in the same environment. Where there are rules and regulations to follow, this would help but it seems very difficult for many of us here to follow rules. After all, in Ethiopia, we live in a so called particularistic society in which most people are of the opinion that it is good that there are rules but they don’t apply to them as their particular situation is different than that of others. They can therefore ignore or bend the rules to fit their interest.
From the point of view of the development of the private sector, this may have more serious consequences than the relative small inconveniences I described above. Issues that come to mind here include waste management, pollution, mixed industrial and residential areas, handling of dangerous goods etc. If we continue to go about our business without considering its side effects, we may end up becoming a threat rather than a contributor to the economy and welfare of the country. A few weeks ago I read about plans of an investor to build a cement factory. This seems a very good idea indeed as the demand for cement exceeds the supply by far. What worried me though was the information that the factory will be fuelled by charcoal. While I have no doubt in my mind that a proper monetary costs-befits analysis has been done to arrive at such decision, I hope that the environmental consequences have been considered carefully as well.
Realising that we live in a so called interdependent global community must encourage us to always look around and consider the effects and consequences of our actions on others and our environment.
Who cares? We should.

(ton.haverkort@gmail.com)