Gebre Alemayu hopes to achieve one goal for Ethiopia’s millennium: to be able to run 5km in less than 14 minutes.
The 18-year-old runner was on Tuesday taking a break from his practice at central Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square, which was draped in posters and banners celebrating the Ethiopian millennium.
But unlike party-goers from around the world and many Ethiopians, Gebre will not be joining in on the lavish festivities set for Tuesday night.
”I have to work tonight. I am a shoe-shine boy and will make about 50 cents in one day,” he said.
Ethiopia follows a 13-month Coptic calendar that was discarded by the church in the sixth century AD and sees the Horn of Africa country adopt a seven-year delay from the rest of the world.
Ethiopia’s ubiquitous runners filled the square, which was decorated with large doves and light displays.
In contrast, scores of people in bedraggled clothing sat aimlessly around the square on Tuesday afternoon, many of them unemployed young men who said they could not celebrate the millennium by attending concerts, but had hope for what the new year might bring.
”I’m happy for the millennium. I hope that I can run 5km in under 14 minutes. That is my vision,” said Gebre.
”I have hope to gain good things,” said Yohannes Megersa, a student. ”But tonight I will watch the celebrations on television.”
Yosef Tassrew, a 25-year-old engineering student, said he was excited for the new millennium, despite being unable to find work in accounting, in which he holds a degree.
But, he added, Ethiopians — more than half of whom live on less than $1 a day — must take their future into their own hands if they want change. ”We have to be creative and we need motivation. We must be devoted. That is my vision.”
Ethiopia is hoping the millennium bash will shed a positive light on the country best known for its 1984 famine that killed nearly one million people.
”It is one of the biggest image-recovery projects. We are known for the famine but that is not the whole of Ethiopia. We have so much to offer,” said Seyoum Bereded, head of the Millennium Secretariat.
A concert featuring United States hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas is set to draw up to 20 000 people but tickets cost $165 — more than an average Ethiopian makes in two months.
Free events are happening at other venues in the capital, with the main concert set to be simulcast at the other locations.
”The concert will be nice, but I can’t afford it,” said Yosef, who added he will sit at home with his family to mark the millennium, until next year, he said, when he might find a job.
”In the future, I will get a job,” he said, arm-in-arm with a friend. ”The future will be bright.” — Sapa-dpa