In Ethiopia, Up is Down, Down is Up!

I was watching a TikTok the other day where a woman said, “We have everything in Ethiopia, except the money to buy the everything.”

If you haven’t been back to Ethiopia—specifically Addis Ababa—in the last four years, you’ll be lost, disoriented, and amazed by the transformation the city has undergone. Seriously, a lot has changed—and at such a fast pace, it’s wild to think about all the possibilities and potential that were once tucked away behind familiar places. But underneath all that glitz and glam is a quiet (sometimes loud) cry for help.

Unless, of course, you're one of the boujee folks cruising around in fancy cars—cars that come with import taxes heavy enough to bankrupt someone—or you’ve got the connections to skip the bullshit bureaucracy and land in the right place at the right time.

While the brand-new city lights shine bright across parts of Addis, the dinner table conversations aren’t nearly as glamorous. A few with big bucks are building massive homes in gated communities, keeping their kids in private schools, flying them off to Dubai and the U.S. for vacation—while literally across the street, someone displaced by conflict is begging for change at a traffic light. (Oh—and by the way, I just found out it’s now illegal to give spare change at stoplights. I get that it’s a safety thing, but damn.)

Walking around the streets of Addis, you can see the genuine exhaustion of life on people’s faces. Everyone’s just trying to make ends meet. At least back in the day, you could say—confidently—that you’d get three meals a day. It didn’t have to be fancy, but it was something. Now? Even that’s questionable. You’re not even sure if the public transport that’s supposed to get you to work will actually show up—or be anywhere near where you need it to be.

And forget cheap goods from rural areas. Many truck drivers don’t want to risk the trip anymore—because they’re literally being held hostage for ransom on the roads. (And honestly, I don’t blame them.) Speaking of being held hostage: you, too, could be the next one. It's no longer easy to take a quick road trip with family or hop on a bus to see relatives in another region without running into some kind of security issue. There are daily reports of people being kidnapped, with families being asked for millions in ransom. Cash only—because they don’t want to be tracked through account numbers. And like... where the hell is someone supposed to come up with millions when they can’t even afford to eat injera?

And what is cheap anymore, anyways??????? These days, every time you walk out the door, you better be stacked with cash. There’s no way to predict what something will cost even a week from now. It’s crystal clear when you look at the lines at gas stations. I genuinely feel for people trying to make a living using rideshare apps like Ride or Feres. You’re telling me they’re buying Vitz, BYDs, and other cars on massive bank loans—and somehow making those payments and affording to live? With these gas prices??? Absolute insanity.

And don’t even get me started on the health worker crisis.

It’s already common knowledge that there’s a major healthcare gap across the country. Most people don’t get routine check-ups—they wait until they’re literally fighting for their lives. And that’s only part of the story. The system is still bleeding from the war and the ongoing conflicts in the north. Meanwhile, healthcare workers are expected to survive on peanuts—without the proper tools, medicines, or staff to manage a growing population with growing medical needs. It’s heartbreaking. So heartbreaking that some young healthcare professionals are choosing suicide over another day of watching their years of hard work rot away—ignored, undervalued, and made into a joke by the powers that be.

This is the new reality of living in this country, a whole lot of chaos—and hella confusing.