Addis Ababa for dummies – Part 2 / Crime

It is probably not fair for me to comment on the crime levels in Addis after being here for less than a month. What I write is mostly based on anecdotes of long time residents and how safe I feel walking on the streets. I lead an extremely sheltered life here, we live just off Bole Road which is Expat Central and the hospital we work in is one minutes walk away.

I feel reasonably safe walking around the main streets during the daytime. I don’t get harassed too much by the begging kids either because I am not obviously faranji. The constant advice we have received is to be wary of pickpockets and mobile-jackers. And to never talk on the phone on the street. The common technique is for a man pillion riding on a bike to shove you hard from behind and then to grab the mobile which falls down from your hand. Unfortunately, this has meant that I have been able to take very few candid street photos till now. Maybe we are being too cautious but obviously don’t want to take a chance. Recently I heard of another mishap – two Indian guys were returning home from a party around midnight. They parked their car outside their house and one of them got out to unlock the gate. A man hiding in the shadows jumped out and assaulted him, grabbed his laptop and phone and fled. The victim had to be rushed to a hospital in the middle of the night for stitches on his scalp. This was probably a one off incident but still scary.

The Indian community in Addis seems to be well settled and set on rapidly augmenting their numbers both by breeding and importing family members from India. The ladies also have tales of visiting the dreaded Merkato market to hunt down elusive Indian ingredients.Though Ethiopia is a virgin market and business oppurtunities are numerous, I am sure this would not supercede their concern for personal safety, so overall,that is a good indicator of the safety profile.

My sorry-ass photo of Merkato taken from INSIDE  the car

I went to the Merkato as well. Unfortunately my escorts were as lily-livered as me and we all pussy footed around the periphery, ran our errand and were back before you could count to ten.

Ethiopian women also seem to have a great deal of freedom, they travel by public transport and are walking and driving on the streets even late at night. Public transport, especially the ubiquitous minibus seems really safe, if cramped and are extremely cheap. I haven’t experimented with late night taxis till now but they are supposed to be a good option. 

  

I have heard it repeated again and again that serious crime is rare in Addis and only petty thefts are common. However, all the houses have a high stone compound wall topped with barbed wire or glass shards. I assume they are there for a reason. Also I am not terribly comfortable with the ubiquitous chat shops in every neighbourhood. I am of course, more used to the Indian attitude towards intoxicants of all types – it is indoctrinated in our systems that alcohol is an evil consumed by bad people which makes them do bad things – like wife beating ! Horror! Shudder! And the liquor shops comply by having forbidding  barred windows whence they stealthily dispense unidentifiable bottles securely wrapped in brown paper. {( Whence? Really?) and who passed the colour coding laws – Alcohol in brown paper and feminine personal hygiene products in black plastic packets} And the customers comply by approaching the shops in an appropriately furtive manner, obtaining the aforementioned wrapped bottles and slinking into a dark basement “ Government licensed Permit Room with A/C” – And the villagers throw stones at them! 

Compare this to the Addis Ababa way where come sundown you gather at the neighbouring watering hole for a few hours of meditative chewing and gentle hallucinating while watching the world go by. No wonder my gentle Hindu soul shudders. Kidding, love the 8 Birr beers which are EVERYWHERE.   

For now I am going to continue with the routine precautions, give a wide berth to the chat chewers and I bet I’ll still lose my phone six months down the line once I let my guard down.