The 125 years old Addis Abeba seems to be at a threshold of a major socio-economic shift. As the middle class urbanite poised to reach a significant mass, the city has become a sea of changes, transforming at a breakneck speed. The infrastructure setting and the material needs of this growing cosmopolitan society is growing by the day. Numerous massive infrastructure projects are under way and different buildings are popping up here and there. But, the number of upcoming buildings may not be good enough to tell the whole story any more. Beyond this surprising structural development in the City, life has not just been what used to be for the city dwellers. From automating the daily life to a high demand of a world class comfort, life of the Addis Abebans seems to be changing for the better.

If you go to Mesalemiya, near Africa’s largest open air market Merkato, you likely find yourself dodging cars, pedestrians, donkeys and carts struggling to reach their destinations. And adjacent to this world where traders and buyers barter loudly all day and grain is unloaded from dusk till dawn; you will also come upon the entrance gate for Ethiopia’s only public mental hospital, Amanuel Specialized Hospital.

In Ethiopia, prosecution for corruption has been rare, which is why establishing the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (FEACC), in 2001, was seen as a ‘game-changing’ move by the government. Although there have been notable arrests in the past such as Tamirat Layne, prime minister of the transitional government, Siye Abraha, former minister of defence and Abate Kisho, former president of the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region, some argue that arrests were politically motivated and that corruption from big players on Ethiopia’s political and economic stage went un-checked by an enforcement body seen as weak and a public seen as apathetic.

One of the videos recently posted on the official website of Project Hopeful, an advocacy group for adopting children with HIV/ AIDS based in the USA, shows the testimony of a fourteen year old Ethiopian girl. The girl named Selah Twietmayer narrates her adoption story, how she was saved by the Twietmayers family from an orphanage in Ethiopia, where she lived as an HIV infected orphan.