So interesting to follow this live.

How about those with out no ambassador ?

Weye gude

Ethiopia.

“Several years now”? These foreign analysts think everyone can’t see through their BS. Egypt and its colonial masters have been trying to contain the Ethiopian state since the 1850s, if not earlier.

Much much better reporting.

If Ethiopia’s elites and political class have shown us anything since the 1950s, across groups and regimes, it’s incompetence, a total lack of self-reflection, and zero sense of accountability. They live in a permanent state of hubris and collective self-deception, convinced that their side is always right, their ideas are beyond question, and their approach is the only truth, even as the consequences of their failures stare them in the face. A society led by elites with little interest in seeking the truth, who cannot make room for genuine learning and accountability, will keep repeating the same cycle of violence and destruction. If a good portion of our elites looked inward instead of constantly pointing outward and blaming “the others,” perhaps they could learn, grow, get along, and begin to fix things. But they want you to always believe the problem is the other side, want you to just react to latest symptoms and pains, with total disregard core and underlying issue. But it’s all of them and political culture we have built. Madness.

Just listened to this Al Jazeera Inside Story episode. It’s crazy how international media completely misinform people about every side of the issue. The selective emphasis, the double standards, the lack of nuance, and the false or half-true claims stated with certainty are especially frustrating in a situation that even well-informed locals struggle to make sense of. None of the speakers, all international “commentators”, showed any intellectual honesty. Total BS. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t been able to sort out our own affairs, leaving room for incompetent analysts with the wrong incentives to shape the narrative of the country. youtu.be/abf8ty-cKI8?si=_G_0…

Interesting.

I’ve been revisiting Ethiopia’s history and political dynamics from the Zemene Mesafint to the reign of Tewodros. It’s striking to think that, 200–300 years later, despite so much having changed both internally and globally, we find ourselves in a remarkably similar situation: confronting familiar struggles around fragmentation, a contested center, regional elites and forces competing for control of the state, rapidly shifting alliances, external powers pursuing their own interests through Ethiopia’s internal divisions and political competition framed through regional identity and historical legitimacy, with ordinary people ultimately bearing the cost. The resemblance is haunting.

Even more impressive: Ethiopian’s multi-hub pan-African strategy extends its scale through stakes, operational control & fleet power. • ASKY Airlines 🇹🇬 — ~40% stake (operator/technical partner) | 17 aircraft, targeting ~40 by 2032 • Malawi Airlines 🇲🇼 — 49% stake (technical partner) | 3 aircraft • Zambia Airways 🇿🇲 — 45% stake (operational partner) | 2 aircraft • Air Congo 🇨🇩 — 49% stake (manages operations) | ~6 Aircraft ~30 more aircraft’s in the wider multi hub ecosystem ET drives. Ridiculous.

“Built with China’s assistance” is a misleading description of how the GERD came to life. It reflects a familiar habit in global reporting: a tendency to describe an emerging countries commerce as “foreign assistance” The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is a roughly $5 billion to $6 billion megaproject brought to life through a complex mix of domestic willpower and international commercial engineering. With international financial institutions unwilling to finance the project, Ethiopia funded the dam’s roughly $5 billion civil construction domestically through the government and contributions from Ethiopian citizens. A Chinese state bank provided around $1 billion in commercial financing for electromechanical equipment, a loan Ethiopia must repay. The 13 turbines also came from multiple suppliers: 5 from GE Hydro France and 8 from Voith Hydro Shanghai. These were commercial transactions involving lenders, contractors and paid suppliers, not foreign charity. The framing reflects a familiar pattern in global reporting on emerging markets. When wealthy countries purchase foreign technology, it is called commerce. When emerging-market countries do the same, it is called “assistance.” The GERD was brought to life primarily through Ethiopian financing, political will and risk-taking. Call it as it is. Foreign companies supplied expertise and equipment because Ethiopia contracted and paid them. That distinction matters.

People still don’t grasp the scale of Ethiopian Airlines. ET’s fleet of ~170 is 2.5× larger than each of the next four African carriers and 4.5× Kenya Airways. Emirates has ~270. Ridiculous to me when you consider Ethiopia has a fraction of the wealth and none of the oil-funded state backing, direct cash subsidies, or sovereign guarantees the Gulf carriers enjoy. Literally, about 15 African countries have a 2026 nominal GDP below ET’s $9.1bn revenue. That includes Liberia and Burundi, plus Ethiopia neighbors Eritrea, Djibouti and South Sudan. Knowing that this massive scale was built by running the airline professionally and just funding expansion from operations and commercial borrowing, it makes ET a true outlier in global aviation.