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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1963)
8 D THURSDAY. IfcBMUAHY 28, lbb3 Mt,Llr(JD MAIL, iiimunt., WLUtunu. UniAUM 3,000-Year-Old Monarchy Hurrying To Catch Up With Rest of World By DON DILLON United Press International Addis Ababa - (Ml - Ethi opia la a 3,000-year-old mon archy hurrying to catch up with the rest of the world. It is a land of jet transport planes and donkey caravans, parking meters and horse drawn taxi-buggies, shiny new schools and illiteracy. It is a place where the pre dawn howl of hyenas awaken newcomers to iis modern cap ital, where half the clocks are six hours ahead of the oth ers, and where the tablecloth is made of bread and eaten with the rest of the meal. A little bit of it, along the Bed Sea on the eastern bulge of Africa, is one of the world's hottest areas. But most of it is a plateau a mile and a half abo' e sea level with a climate in which you can swim every day and sleep under a blanket every night. The plateau is pocked with mountains two or three miles above the sea and with gorges larger than the Grand Can yon of the Colorado river. The whole country is about the size of the United States from Maine to Lake Mic'-igan and from Canada to Tennessee. Constitutional Monarchy The form of government is constitutional monarchy and the degree of democracy per haps corresponds to the na tion's educational and eco nomic development: There are no political parties and the senate is appointed by the emperor. The chamber of dep uties is elected and appears to be moderately independ ent of - but never hostile to -the emperor. Foreign diplomats were as tonished by the two-day revo lution in December, 1960, by the imperial household guard -and they still differ-about its purpose. Some describe it as a demand for faster re forms and economic progress; others call it a naked power grab by totalitarian minded officers. All agree that the 2,000 vic tims on both sides included some of the best brains in a country which urgently needs all the educated and trained men it can develop. Leaders of the rebellion were hanged and put on pub lic display. Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil when the revolt broke out. When he got home one of his first acts was to absolve his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen. Prince In Broadcast The prince had said In a broadcast during the revolt that "the laws and regulations of the country have been abused to deprive the com mon people of their rights and privileges In order to boost up the riches ' the fa vored few." He explained later that he had been forced to make the broadcast. The middle-aged crown prince attends public affairs with his father now and P pears to have preserved his standing as heir apparent. Addis Ababa is surrounded by peaks but it is still 8.200 feet up. A visitor can find himself puffing as he walks up the soft slopes of Haile Selassie avenue, the main downtown street. Other major streets bear names such as Churchill, Eden, Wavell, Wingate, George VI and Smuts. The names used to be such as Bad oglio, Graziani and Mussolini. They were renamed when the British army in 1941 ended the five-year Italian occupa tion - the only break in Ethi opia's 30-century history of independence. Have No Names Many of the side streets have no names and the houses are unnumbered. This makes no problem for the postmen; everybody goes to one of the city's two postof fices to pickup his mail. The dial telephone system is effi cient, but looking up an ad dress in the directory can be disconcening. Most simply list postoffice box numbers but many are such as these: "Near police station number five," "Behind ammunition store." Everywhere you look in Ethiopia you see animals. Un dersized Brahmin cattle ..United Pr slenetstiaron graze in the centerlancs of downtown Addis Ababa bou levards; hippopotami are common along the ivers; fam ilies of baboons caper beside the dusty roads, countryside game includes elephant, rhin oceris, giraffe, zebra, wart hog, orix and cheetah. The hyenas are seldom seen but they perform a useful function: a dead animal in the streets need not be re moved; the carcass will be consumed between midnight and dawn. Tamed Chained Lion And in the courtyard of the emperor's office palace is a tame chained lion named To jo who enjoys being petted by emerging visitors. The ruler's name is Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethi opia, king of kings, elect of God and conquering lion of the tribe of Judah. He has reigned since 1930 and is sup posed to be the 325th mon arch in a dynasty started by the son of the Queen of She ba and King Solomon. The 70-year-old widower emperor lives in Jubilee Pal ace, a two-story tan stone structure. He likes to receive visitors and does so as often as possi ble in his 20-by-30-foot of fice. He sits at a low carved wood desk at one end of the office, usually wearing a brown khaki uniform with almost a square foot of rib bons on his chest. For American Newsmen The audience this corres pondent attended recently was for a dozen American newsmen, some of them travel writers. The frail looking, bearded, five foot . six emperor answer ed their questions through an interpreter, t'.-en asked ab ruptly: "How do Americans feel about Africa?'1 The ans wers were scarcely enlight ening. The lion of Judah then emphasized the "importance of what tourists say." A palace official suggested later he was referring to of fensive remarks attributed to an American senator about the ability of Africans to gov ern themselves. When the formal audience was finished, the king of kings stepped around his desk and chatted briefly in Eng lish. He remarked that the United Nations seemed to be doing "much better" than the League of Nations. He did not refer directly to his celebrate ed - and unsuccessful - per sonal appeal to the league in 1936 to head off the Italian in vasion of his country. But he noted that "the : .embers of the league were not strong enough morally to make col lective security work." Slate-Owned Airlines Much of the country's pas senger and freight moves via the slate-owned Ethiopian air lines. It is an efficient, profit able line set up in 19,45 with technical assistance from Trans World airlines. The company recently bought two Boeing 720B jets for its routes to Greece, Spain, Germany, Kenya and West Africa. The line uses propellor planes including the old reliable DC3s to serve 33 Ethiopian cities. Some of the provincial air ports are just grass strips. An Ethiopian pilot told this cor respondent that a Goba air port the crew sometimes has to shoot the circling vultures for safety reasons before take- and Ethiopians tell you the off. Only about 7,000 tourists came here last year but a re vitalized Ethiopian tourist or ganization thinks the figure may reach 20,000 in 1963. It advertises such countryside attractions as churches Sewn from solid rock at Lalibela, huge ancient obelisks at Ax um, and Lake Tana, the head waters of the blue Nile. Near Bahar Dar, on the south shore of Lake Tana, the Nile plunges over Tissisat Falls, perhaps the most spectacular in the world with exception of Victoria Falls. Addis Ababa pretty well shuts down from 1 to 3 p.m. daily. The men return to their homes - plastered cement block structures with tile or galvanized steel roofs - for the heavy meal of the day. The food is called wat - an assortment of hotly spiced meats and vegetables with side portions of yogurt and rice. . No dishes are on the table. Instead, the whole table is covered with a thin, soft grey millet bread called injera. The wat is served in little piles atop the bread. Each diner tears off a four-square-inch piece of the "tablecloth" and folds it into a sort of open envelope vhich he uses, one-handed, to pick up the food. The time system is confus ing. Public clocks now oper ate midnight-to-midnight as elsewhere. But many people still follow the Old method In which the clock-day starts at dawn. Thus a public clock will say 6 a.m. at dawn but other timepk. )s will say 12. When you have a 10 a.m. ap pointment it pays to find t if you should be there in mid forenoon or six hours later. Twist parties have become popular in Addis Ababa homes and the Ras hotel spon sors a twist session every Fri day night. The city has two night clubs, a good theater featuring American and Eu ropean films, and a prostitu tion district in which red-curtained doorways have replac ed red lights for identifica tion purposes. There are perhaps fewer than 40 neon signs in the city. The radio station broadcasts mingle Ethiopian music with such exotic tunes as "The Yel low Rose of Texas." Business establishments range from the "atomic laun dry" in Addis Ababa to a big Dutch-run sugar plantation on the Wonji plain to the south. The major export is coffee jjj- ttCi -i i i "rfii .-.J EMPEROR'S RESIDENCE Jubilee Palace, shown above in a picture taken last December, is the residence of Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia who has reigned 'ince 193!), and is supposed to be the 325th monarch in a beverage originated here and took its name from the prov ince of Kaffa. In Neutral Camp Ethiopia seems determined to stay in the cold war's neu tral camp. Officials privately express concern over Commu nist Chinese cultural and ec onomic penetration of Africa but they think Peking should be in the United Nations. They say they have held o recognizing Peking only out of deference to "our Ameri can friends." American foreign aid has dynasty started by King Solomon and the Queen of Shcba. Although the Emperor lives here, he rides across town to j work in the older Menelek Palace. (UPI) j NATIVE HOUSES Tnesc native nousrj be- of the world. Story of progress in Ethiopia, side the Blue Nile in the village of B'har which hopes to be prime force toward Dar arc pretty much the same as they were African unity, is told in the accompanying 3.000 years ag'1. but much of Ethiopia is dispatch. lUPI) changing in order to catch up with the rest in Biscuits f Parslcv Flakes y hi su'e my re ufscent rawer 1 P?jfx? jid piekfd fw garden 4...k ...... ' 1 4 jrs aid i regular U o:. t's. . jj CRESCENT V Sfict Mtrchanfi S'c l3 ' concentrated on education and the peace corps is both active and popular. Yug slavia is building a hydroelec tric project on the upper blue Nile. Nearby is a handsome technical school itiilt by the Russians. Ethiopia hopes to be a prime force toward unity of the continent. A heads-of-slate meeting is scheduled for May in Africa hall, Addis Ababa's most im posing building. This seven story edifice is headquarters of the United Nations commis sion for Africa Its stained glass windows depict ancient ignorance, a black man slay ing a dragon symbolic of col onialism, and a free people marching forward. I FREE LADLE mi mr eke b$)j3 SEE THIS UNUSUAL PREMIUM AT YOUR FAVORITE FOOD MARKET LIMITED TIME OFFER Laugh at your waistline jFiB, FORTIFIED I Aim jus MILK NON-FAT MILK LI - 1 buy with confidence at your locally owned and operated quality market-serving medford's finest Meats and groceries since 1940. "CHOICE" STEAKS Well Trimmed and Aged for Perfect Eating ff CAiicxnc v wWfc- II I nup pniiKin ne cm id 11 DELICIOUS PURE PORK SAUSAGE II I FREE WITH EACH 10 LBS. 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