From the Ethiopian blogosphere · Global Voices
Andrew Heavens

Ethiopia's bloggers were split right down the middle after months of political turmoil in the country simmered down in to an uneasy calm, broken only by a handful of mysterious explosions in the capital Addis Ababa.
The diaspora blogging scene – dominated by native Ethiopians settled in the US – filled the short lull with lengthy but compelling think-pieces. They focused firmly on the big picture, covering everything from life as a naturalized American to the importance of caring for your neighbour.
The Addis-based blogging scene – dominated by expatriate westerners and other ‘ferengis’ – turned to the minutiae of city life. They focused firmly on the small picture, covering everything from the country's first ever dog show to the length of Addis wedding convoys.
One notable new appearance inside Ethiopia was Revolutions Per Beat, a multi-author blog dedicated to the local music scene, started by the blogger behind Satisfy My Soul (Ego) and contributed to by the blogger behind Things We Should Have Written Down.
One notable new trend among the diaspora was the growing number of posts written in one of the country's main languages, Amharic – a new subset of Ethiopian blogging pioneered by Aqumada and taken on by relative newcomer Enset.
Ethiopian politics – and the continued unrest over last year's controversial national elections – remained under the surface of most blog posts. EthioPundit took Bono to task over what he saw as generally sympathetic comments by the U2 lead singer about Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Back when Audrey Hepburn was a UN Ambassador for Hunger or something like that the whole international caring celebrity thing was just fine because it was about drawing popular attention to a subject. Now, when celebrities expect to make policy and are listened to against all human experience and evidence in support of what are frankly bad guys, the time has come to tune out the world of cool caring celebrity.
Seriously, what was Angelina Jolie really doing at Davos?
Another political event that caught bloggers’ attention was the Ethiopian government's expulsion of the Associated Press journalist Anthony Mitchell towards the end of January.
Meskel Square reported on the decision; …My heart's in Accra worried about the long term implications for media coverage in the country; ET Blogs & Diaries thought the expulsion would at least provoke other mainstream journalists to step up their coverage of the country; and Weichegud! ET Politics was brilliantly “outraged”.
Seriously. I know as an Imperial-Derg revanchist/chauvinist/cyber warrior in the Diaspora I am in no position to be giving advice to the EPRDF’s unlettered apprentices, but… what the fuck! Which EPRDF apparatchik thought it was a stroke of brilliance to kick out Anthony? Now whenever the over-fraught, half-wit EPRDF schlemiels are paraded out to defend the government (or beg for food), they will be confronted by indignant ferenjie reporters who are outraged, I tell you, outraged.
Seriously.