By Samuel Estefanous

Urban Poverty isn’t just a topic sociologist and literary and artistic fountainheads indulge in.  Neither is it a subject confined to the times of Chaplin, Dickens or Dostoevsky. It is a specter that haunts governments well in to the cyber age. The Urban Poor is an explosive political power base capable of inducing myriads of change as recently witnessed in places like Nairobi. Unlike the peasants it isn’t attached to land and unlike the propertied section of the society it has nothing to lose ‘except perhaps its chains’ as often quoted.  In a way, it is your quintessential minimalist. A free spirit not made weak and vulnerable by the cares and want of the world. This class of people isn’t rendered spineless or coward and it doesn’t have any meaningful overarching interests to protect. Thus being an agent of change by default, it is capable of wresting out power, claim it and declare ‘All Power to the wage earning Consumer’. In other words precipitate mini- revolutions if not on the scale of ‘the Soviets’. At any rate, among others, that is the reason it eludes me why the incumbent is flagrantly undermining it.

Change is in the air

EPRDF feared it more than the combined forces of opposition parties and rebel movements.  Like all superimposed rootless governments, prior to the 2005 General Election, it tried to deal with the ‘incorrigible urban poor’ by extensively enforcing vagrancy laws aped from the West which enables authorities ‘to arrest, prosecute and harass the homeless, the unemployed and the poor’.  I believe the memory hasn’t faded away. EPRDF waged war against the ‘አደገኛ ቦዘኔ after it had identified this class of Urbanites as the solid constituency and indefatigable support base of Kinjit. I remember Dr. Berhanu capitalizing on this miscalculation on the part of ERDF and addressing die hard zealots packed to capacity at the Assembly Hall as ‘howdy vagrants?!’ .

Incidentally, out of habit people say poverty isn’t a crime but practically and- to a certain extent legally- it is a crime. Here is a simple example. Even if you are an established resident of the City living on your own, you wouldn’t be issued ID for multiple of reasons if you happen to be a lodger- of course unless you are affiliated to the Party hierarchy that is. Among others, perhaps that is one reason folks are joining the party in droves. However if you happen to be  one of this class of upstart millionaires hailing from  the province (whose sources of rich has ever eluded the public) and purchase a house in the City you would be issued the coveted ID without much trouble and right away. Some of the justifications given for extensively screening the lodger or denying the request out of hand are understandable and reasonable.  Simply put, a lodger is a legitimate suspect and I wouldn’t blame law enforcement for the assumption. Sadly, whatever is suppressed creates a compressed power. I guess it is a law of physics as well.  

Right after shock therapy of the 2005 election, EPRDF realized it was playing with fire by enforcing vagrancy laws and tried to ‘engage’ the poor urban consumer instead of fighting it as its natural nemesis. I believe its chief architect was Dr. Arkebe and it did try to address the problem to certain extent, though Bereket accuses Arekebe has unfairly and ubiquitously claimed ‘the kudos’. On the positive side there was the attempt to ‘transform’ the urban poor through SME and providing Arkebe sheds. On the creepy side there were the Orwellisque one-to-five cells of espionage.  The stats are subject to debate but as Bereket Simon writes there was indeed palpable poverty reduction, though the momentum couldn’t be maintained and sustained.    

It is a good thing there is a nascent Consumer Protection society in the country. It is trying to voice the collective disaffection of the urban poor and end line consumer.  I know these days it is limited to sponsoring a weekly column on the Reporter Amharic or may be its visibility is clouded by external factors. I am not sure. All I know is the public Authority established in 2013 to quell possible mass movement instigated by major consumer protest was dissolved in 2021. One can only understand the ‘importance and significance’ accorded to the problem considering the fact that the authority was invested with police, prosecution and judicial power to protect the Consumer. True, the Authority was riddled with multiple shortcomings but I would rather PP had tried to manage it efficiently instead of dissolving it altogether.

This state of affair cannot last indefinitely. It isn’t something to be ignored without allowing raw untamed force to fill the vacuum. I think change is in the air. I feel it in the deafening silence in the face of unspeakable human tragedies we witness on daily basis. I see it in the eyes of the destitute who could no longer afford to feed their families. I see it in the level of the humungous and inexplicable public spending. I hear it loud and clear in the creepy voices of the cadres heralding the prosperity of the selected few at the expense of the multitude. I can sense it in the manner regular folks have come to dread holidays instead of looking forward to it. I cannot help but notice it in the mindless extravaganza of the filthy rich, their associates in power and the ‘professional enablers’ living off the spill overs.

I can detect it in the growing number of heads of families trekking long distance home-not only to save money but to arrive after the kids and the landlords have retired to bed. Most important of all, I can see it in the degree to which the public is held in utter contempt by the New Class. The other day a good friend of mine shared me Ato Mosh Semu’s post drawing parallel between the struggling traders being crushed under the weight of new taxes and the vulgar display of riches by the officials sporting 70,000 birr suits and 50,000 birr worth wig on basic salary under 30,000 birr per month. 

I am positive he will add to the list, expenses encumbering the business community such as fines, kickbacks, hiking gas price, tolls and protection money owed both to the government and the highway robbers not to mention loss of life encountered among long distance logistics operators. My only reservation is he should have reflected on the complicity of some of the business owners who are perpetuating the system and sustaining the criminal enterprise.

They have reason to. They suffer little as they transfer every single dime legally or illegally paid to the end line consumer.  In other words the consumer is obliged to refund all expenses of the trader including bribes and kickbacks paid to corrupt officials.  In this regard I have little sympathy to the business community as they stand to ‘aid and abet’ the criminal networks.

Eventually it is the consumer-particularly those earning fixed salary-that shoulders the pain, the loss and every other dire consequences. That is why this class of the society is said to be a legitimate force capable of bringing governments to their knees and to hold them accountable for the misappropriation and dissipation of the meager Sovereign Wealth. I guess in no time a Ralph Nader is certain to distinguish himself from among the ranks of the consumer and spearhead the movement. 

The impoverished end line consumer needs only an organized and capable Opposition Political party to mobilize, harness and lead it with wisdom to bring about a measure of social justice in the country.   

Sanitation and Corridor Development     

The sorry state of sanitation in Addis has always put the Capital in utter disrepute.  It tops any town in the country by the extent of open space defecation. In the far laying Regions, the combined efforts of donor agencies and the Health Extension programs have significantly brought down the statistics. But a city cannot be kept clean by getting rid of the poor and making it inhospitable to the consumer.  When Addis is declared the most expensive city in Africa, in practical terms it is pushing hundreds of thousands of residents every year below the poverty line.   

We have to admit it, in cities like Hawasa and Bahir Dar resourceful City Administration teams were able to keep the Cities speckless –literally- and still make them affordable and hospitable.  If you find yourself in one of those cities, without realizing it you would find your pocket staffed with pieces of papers when you arrive back at your room. One wouldn’t dare spoil the beauty of the towns by littering the roadsides with wastes. On the contrary these days most cities have become hostile, unaffordable and off limits to the end line consumer incapable of transferring the additional costs and expenses.   

Thus, if Addis has long been an open latrine it is solely on account of the weakness and unprofessionalism of the City Administration officials which have totally neglected the municipal services in the City (So much so that folks used to tell jokes at the irony of the sanitary engineering the former Prime Minister had specialized in against the backdrop of the pathetic waste management system of the Capital). Sanitation and waste management are regular municipal activities.  A city trying to manage regular municipal services through ‘Corridor Development’ betrays a degree of unprofessionalism relative to managing City Administration.

Bottom-line as long as the overwhelming majority of the urban resident remains poor, homeless and unemployed the cities are liable to become dirty open cesspools -with or without the Corridor Development.  It is a better standard of living that keeps cities clean. The less the number of the poor, the unemployed and the homeless is the cleaner a city becomes.   

God Bless      

The writer can be reached via estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com