Another classic at Edna Mall

Went to see District 13 at the mall for the 2PM show. It was yet another classic ... believe it was originally French and dubbed to English with Arabic sub-titles. That was quite a mix :) Alongside Surrogates that I saw a few weeks ago, this is two-for-two for bad (but not time wasted) flicks at Edna. There was a LOT of violence and swearing in the movie, the theatre populated by no less than a few dozen very small children amongst many adults.

I am finally ready to announce the 2 major differences between Canada and Ethiopia:

1) The size of the people; it is apparently only common over the past 10 or so years to see ANY local here anything else than a "perfect body weight". I would not be surprised if the assimilation of some western delicacies (e.g., hamburgers, french fries, and deep-fried this and that) is a contributing factor.

2) Nobody uses car seats here for their children. I have been told there were a number of initiatives to fix that, but the seats cost too much for the masses to afford ... close to 2,000 birr. I see 2-year olds being held in a parent's arms (in the front seat no less in a "new" car with airbags!!!!!!) as well as very small children standing up in the back of the vehicle or between the 2 front seats.

If I were a philanthropist with money to burn, I would negotiate with the feds here to import 3-5 million newborn car seats, 8-10 million car seats, and 10-12 million booster seats. In bulk, shipped by the slow boat to Djibouti this would probably cost somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2 billion USD but would be money well spent. Who has that sort of money? Not too many people :) This initiative could easily be repeated in all African countries as colleagues here have informed me they are probably not in use anywhere on this continent.