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There
is this general tendency among our community of
robustly starting to do something in full force and
then subsiding until some time after and then
restart it all over again, reminiscent of the
seashore tides that web and ebb every now and then.
I am talking about the number of campaigns we have
had to sweep and heap to keep Addis clean and tidy.
Instead of making cleanliness our culture or a way
of life, we appear to have adopted 'campaigns' as
our culture. That kind of statement does not of
course include the affluent communities in and
around the metropolis.
Millennophobics are once more offering us the
opportunity to keep our Addu Genet clean and
green. Last Wednesday afternoon, taking shelter in a
small grocery, I witnessed that nature was also a
staunch executioner in the process of cleaning every
nook and cranny of the grocery. The downpour was so
heavy and torrential that myself and a friend of
mine were trying to appropriate the idiom 'raining
cats and dogs' with the rainfall at hand.
By some coincidence, the drainage system in the
backyard was blocked by dry waste, thus flooding the
rooms whereupon we saw a number stout rodents come
out from their habitats to escape drowning and
jumped into the overflowing surface water on the
tarmac road, much to the surprise and hilarity of
many people standing at the doorsteps of the grocery
taking shelter. The rats were eroded down as soon as
they dived and flashed in the runoff. (The veteran
writer Mesfin H. Mariam may perhaps be happier
reading about rats being washed away substituting
dogs.) It was fun in the rain.
"Ever since the committed Aberra Molla's movement
for clean and green Addis Abeba receded, many
urbanites were craving a better habitat as a human
rights issue and a responsibility that should be
discharged by the city administration. Just like the
right to access clean water, air or soil, the right
to access clean habitat is to be respected as a
right to health service, according to a young man
holding a spade and taking a break from loading
garbage onto a cart. He was audaciously advocating
and supporting the recent campaign for cleaning the
capital.
"It should not start and end at an individual,"
lecturing us bystanders. "Every one of us has to
play his or her part. A healthy environment improves
our living conditions. Sileshi Demissie has no
vested interest in cleaning the accumulated mess."
The man was emphatic and assertive. A swaying
passerby looked up opening his eyes with some effort
and asked him, "What is the use of having clean
roads and streets when our rooms are empty and
filthy?"
The lecturer did not mind waiting for any reply. He
went on his way whistling an insensible tune to
himself.
How interesting to observe that the slum areas and
shanty sectors of the metropolis produce more
garbage and trash of riff raff quality like grass
and ash or corn kernels. It looks like the poor have
much more to dispose than to consume.
I have heard an old woman blessing the prevailing
price hike believing that wanting serves our people
better than abundance. In her opinion evil deeds are
the results of extravagance. I did not quite
understand what this had to do with the piles of
garbage spilling over the gigantic dust bins that
seem to be misplaced everywhere.
A woman whom I met while she was coordinating the
emerging sweeping action in her village said, "We
are victims of our own negligence. The coming of the
Millennium is an opportunity to be used efficiently.
But cleaning our streets and open spaces in the
village is not enough. It has to be a sustaining
culture. We Ethiopians are shy when we eat outdoors
but not when we urinate publicly."
I have heard that saying for umpteenth time. I have
also seen many people eating and drinking in broad
daylight without feeling ashamed just like when they
empty their bowels.
I was listening to a boring radio talk show on the
subject of campaigning to keep the city clean and
tidy for the Millennium. The show was conducted by
amateurs who are unaware that the duty of the
moderator is to facilitate discussion among phoning
audience and not to hear their own voices by giving
their presumptuous and leading conclusions. They
even repeat themselves at the expense of callers and
superimposition of voices. They were talking about
the merits of cleaning the streets and roads or the
sewerage ditches as if that is all there is to
having a clean and tidy habitat.
Sweeping streets or clearing hedges and undergrowth
is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, there are
times when we do wrong to the ecology by clearing
green grass uncovering the blanket and exposing the
soil for erosion. The man with a spade in his hand
and advocating for each individual's responsibility
was just doing that. He was clearing the green edges
of the open ditches and exposing the fragile soil to
the mercy of the rain that would wash down the cut
grass like the drowning rat as it were.
"Cleanliness starts at home," the shirk voice of the
women coordinator still rings a bell in my mind. "We
have to clean the inside of our homes, compounds and
villages. All it takes is water and a broom."
She did not tell us where to dispose the trash
though. I told her that the two dust bins that were
placed opposite the former higher nine or commonly
known as Semien Mazegaja have been taken away to God
knows where in the dead hours of the night.
I think I have a right to have a clean habitat just
like the right to access to health service or clean
roads, schools, playgrounds for my children, clean
water or clean air or clean environment or clean
world if you like.
Do we need to wait for the verdict of another G8
summit to have a cleaner globe?
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