Barney Rubble

If I were to pick a cartoon character to represent Ethiopia, I think I might select Barney Rubble from the Flintstones. Barney Rubble is a bit more conservative than his wily neighbor Fred Flintstone, both in character and in dress. Fred wears a bright orange suit, yells Yaba-daba and jumps into situations head first, whereas Barney wears earthy colors and gives great consideration to any action, which reminds me of the fastidious demeanor shown here by people in meetings as they discuss the various angles of any issue. Sure, Barney has his faults, but for the most part he is a voice or reason to quell Fred's antics. This resembles Ethiopia's position as capital of the African Union, which they helped to establish, trying to pull the continent towards more unity and development.
Another reason for the Barney Rubble comparison is that there is a great deal of construction going on in Addis and it seems like everything is in a permanent state of being one-third done, with broken slabs of concrete and stones piled up near the construction sites. The bare columns of these construction projects are all decorated with long, wooden poles tied into a complex array of criss-crossing scaffolding. Although these look nice when silhouetted against the sky at dusk, you could probably disassemble these and build a new fleet of cars for the town of Bedrock.
Also, as I have mentioned before, the main roads are paved and well-maintained, but the side roads in Addis Ababa are nothing but earth and rubble. Vehicles, pedestrians and herds of animals kick up dust and dirt as they make their way down these streets, driving or stepping over rubble the whole way. On one road, a capped manhole rose a good 1/2 meter straight up above the middle of a road and our taxi had to slow and veer right through a pothole. Not over it, but through it--maybe more aptly described as a "road canyon".