CBC News - World - A country you can never stop worrying about

CBC News - World - A country you can never stop worrying about Ethiopia is one country that I can never stop worrying about. Nor can the world. Each time that I have gone back over the past 25 years I am encouraged to see so much has changed since the great famine of 1984-85 that shocked the world and so moved us Canadians. Yet there is also much here that is alarmingly similar. This time old friends — survivors of that earlier tragedy — are proud to show me the signs of progress in the northern province of Tigray, the very epicentre of a famine that killed over a million people. In the countryside, small catchment dams have been built to trap rainwater and reforestation projects are underway; in the small provincial capital of Mekele, they can now show off a modern university, busy markets and a vibrant youth culture. A boy eats raw chickpeas from the family plot in Ethiopia's drought-stricken Oromiya region in January 2009. (Ho New/Reuters) Still, for all these encouraging signs I know there remain two constants here. Shared via AddThis