#Next space rebels help cracked

His ruling Prosperity Party has ditched the state-led economics of the eprdf for a more liberal, consumerist kind of capitalism. In practice this often meant drab high-rises built with cheap aluminium frames.ДЄbiyвЂ™s priorities are very different. Alula Tesfay Asfha of the University of Tsukuba notes the constructivist style of the period, in which buildings were designed to a minimum standard and aimed to cater to as many people as possible. They viewed the city in essentially functional terms their flagship urban projects were mostly large-scale bits of infrastructure such as housing estates and a light-rail system. To grasp the kind of image he has in mind, compare it with the style of the eprdf, AbiyвЂ™s Marxist-inspired predecessors. вЂњAbiy believes that public spaces and monuments create the image of the Ethiopian state which he wants to project to his citizens and to the world,вЂќ says a former adviser. In the run-up to elections last year, in which the ruling party won over 90% of the seats contested, state media broadcast drone footage of the revamped city at the top of the evening news. Glossy promotional videos depict the renovation scheme as a symbol of national unity. вЂњIf you can change Addis, definitely you can change Ethiopia,вЂќ he remarked in an early interview.

#Next space rebels help cracked

Last year Meskel Square, the historic central plaza, was lavishly refurbished at a cost of more than $73m-a striking sum in a country in the midst of a civil war.ДЇor Abiy, who has cracked down on dissent and imprisoned opponents, refashioning the capital is a political project as well as an aesthetic one. Public thoroughfares have been splashed with colour and adorned with flowers and murals. The cityвЂ™s existing infrastructure is also getting a facelift. вЂњThese days you see new changes every week,вЂќ gushes Gebre Sifer, a retired pastor visiting the library. The swishest of these, set on nearby Mount Entoto, boasts hiking trails, adventure sports, boutique restaurants and a luxury resort.

Several more parks and green spaces are germinating. Next door a science museum and an amphitheatre are going up. Earlier this year a massive public library opened. Menelik IIвЂ™s nearby palace has already been converted into the first of several new exhibition centres. The new park is one of a dizzying array of grands projets in the pipeline. Now Abiy Ahmed, prime minister since 2018, is setting out to do so again-even as an atrocity-filled war with Tigrayan rebels has disgraced his regime and called the countryвЂ™s future into question. From the racist master-plans of the Italian occupation, to the Haussmannian demolition schemes of the eprdf years, each government has sought to recast the city in its own image. Its buildings, streets and public spaces are etched with the legacies of empire, war and revolution. Successive rulers have treated it as a вЂњmodernist monument for the rest of EthiopiaвЂќ, writes Elleni Centime Zeleke, author of вЂњEthiopia in TheoryвЂќ.