I used to be in Addis a while back (happy to see so many people in the comments posting from A.A)
Decent internet can be tough to find outside the capital and the local telco generally reacts to service interruptions with "meh, they'll just have to deal with it" e-commerce is starting to pick up slightly but definitely has a ways to go.
The surveillance is real. I know people who are not politically active have their phones tapped, would get their new text messages read (couldn't open their inbox and would see the counts of new messages go up and down randomly) to the point where they were physically surveilled in broad daylight with plainclothes and uniformed people tailing them and entering their home (they eventually left)
There's also blame to go around for the Diaspora as well. Often times some will believe they know best just because they were educated in the West and have the false confidence to think that only their perspective is correct and will voice it adamantly (to the point where I've seen "evidence" that was clearly fabricated). Theres very little compromise when it comes to political perspectives which squashes meaningful discussions before they ever happen and exacerbates things further.
Access to the internet just isn't as high a priority there as keeping everyone on the same page when it comes to developmental priorities. There's certainly some positive signs when it comes to the speed at which things have changed in the last 10 yrs but it's important to recognize diminishing returns when you see them. I wonder if a state-led development model like Ethiopia's will be equipped at all to spot that when it happens and adapt quickly enough.
Decent internet can be tough to find outside the capital and the local telco generally reacts to service interruptions with "meh, they'll just have to deal with it" e-commerce is starting to pick up slightly but definitely has a ways to go.
The surveillance is real. I know people who are not politically active have their phones tapped, would get their new text messages read (couldn't open their inbox and would see the counts of new messages go up and down randomly) to the point where they were physically surveilled in broad daylight with plainclothes and uniformed people tailing them and entering their home (they eventually left)
There's also blame to go around for the Diaspora as well. Often times some will believe they know best just because they were educated in the West and have the false confidence to think that only their perspective is correct and will voice it adamantly (to the point where I've seen "evidence" that was clearly fabricated). Theres very little compromise when it comes to political perspectives which squashes meaningful discussions before they ever happen and exacerbates things further.
Access to the internet just isn't as high a priority there as keeping everyone on the same page when it comes to developmental priorities. There's certainly some positive signs when it comes to the speed at which things have changed in the last 10 yrs but it's important to recognize diminishing returns when you see them. I wonder if a state-led development model like Ethiopia's will be equipped at all to spot that when it happens and adapt quickly enough.