If you want to understand a person – look at their shoes, or lack of.

As the most frequently used interface between ourselves and our physical environment more than anything else that we our footwear treads the fine balance between communicating both need and intent. In dustier climes with a significant population engaged in manual labour tasks – keeping shoes clean (and white trainers/sneakers white) is a strong signal that you’ve risen above the crowd and can afford not be be engaged in manual labour tasks. Shoes can tell you a lot about someone where ever you are, in Ethiopia more than most.

Ethiopia has a thriving shoe-cleaning culture – sit at a cafe for more than 5 minutes and someone will offer to clean your shoes – offering something to rest your feet on whilst you wait. Cleaning crews sit around big bowls of sudsy water scrubbing shoes back to perfect whiteness. Clean shoes as a signifier of status.

Photos: a trader in Merkato – drying out his freshly scrubbed shoes and comfortable wearing a temporary solution whilst they dry.

Chinese brand Huawei positioning itself in the Ethiopian market.

In Merkato, Addis Ababa.

Seat adjustment interface in ANA first has shifted to full touch screen, a nice enough design, but in-use feels kinda cheap compared to more nuanced buttons. Aside from the functional differences should the visual design/look/feel/behaviour of a seat adjustment interface in first differ from one in Economy?

From en route to the US, I don’t know when.

Advertising for the movie Zeraf that heavy handedly explores Ethiopian and Chinese culture clash. Short review here. From one taxi driver – “attitudes will change when there are more mixed Ethiopian-Chinese babies”.

A growing number of Lifan vehicles on the road – according to today’s driver the components are shipped to Ethiopia and then assembled here. From some quick and dirty interviews with taxi driver’s (for that is worth) there’s mixed feelings about the wave of Chinese and Chinese consumer goods here – on the one hand Chinese compaies are bringing local goods into the marketplace; running construction projects at a price that companies from other nations seem not able to meet; and at the other extreme they are destroyers of local markets e.g. dumping clothing on the market and destroying the indigenous market’s ability to compete; offering up shoddy goods; and living in compounds separate from the local populace.

Notably – RMB were not easy to change.

Lifan has a decent enough reputation.

The use of thorny branches to discourage kids from hopping on passing trucks as they slow on the incline.

Trying to get a sense of who hangs where, and what they do when they get there. An easy starting point is the local internet cafe – and a perusal of bookmarks and history lists. Aside from the usual Yahoo Mail/Gmail/Facebook/… are the ‘world’s largest language learning site’ and an interactive bible.

Today is Sunday 27th May, 2004. My early morning jaunt trying to track down this town’s finest coffee roaster for a fresh brew started at 1pm local time.

One of the more nuanced quirks of Ethiopia is how locals refer to time. The country is notionally on Eastern Africa Time (EAT), which lies at UCT/GMT+3, but locally the clock-day starts at dawn (06:00) rather than at midnight (24:00) meaning that locals will quote times six hours ahead, or given that I’m writing this from Ethiopia – that I am running 6 hours behind. Time is an abstract and this is arguably less abstract than most: Ethiopia’s proximity to the equator provides limited variation to the dawn/dusk.

The Ethiopian calendar year is based on the Coptic calendar – starts on September 1st, and runs for 13 months – 12 months of 30 days, and the last month with 5 or 6 days depending on whether the rest of the world has a leap year.

The perceptions of time put into perspective by re-reading Edward T. Hall’s Beyond Culture.

Sharp spikes embedded in the surface of an water meter cover to stop people sitting on it, side-by-side with a cushion on Pepsi crates – prickly designs and softeners. Found in the ‘Taiwan Market’ in Dire Dawa – ‘the place where Taiwanese & Chinese goods are imported’.

What goes for vehicular experience in today’s ride, heading into Dire Dawa.

125 year old school, 1,000 students per year, beautifully worn.

There are dumb bells, and there are smart bells – these made from machine cogs. From 300 Birr (~17 Euro) for the pair.

One of those short stopovers in San Francisco – three hours on the ground.

One of the benchmarks of a nation’s development is its perceived ability to explore unchartered territories – whether heading to the moon, or sending scientific expeditions to the more far flung corners of the globe – this advertisement for the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Adminstration sponsored by Chinese outdoor equipment/clothing brand Toread. As Chinese soft-power grows, so will Chinese brand’s ability to leverage events beyond its borders as proof of (at least) being able to hold its cultural own and (at most) its cultural superiority.

Thought for today: How a growth in soft-power impacts a nation’s ability to reflect on, and publicly acknowledge both the positive and negative of its culture, and beyond that – its ability to take on (constructive) criticism from abroad, and acknowledge the positive in other cultures. And the role of brands such as Toread in writing that narrative.

Makes me want to break out the ice-axe.

In China a fapiao- the official receipt used for expense claims has a resale face value of 2 – 10% of face value – leaving one behind in a restaurant or taxi is the equivalent of giving a tip (in a culture where tipping is uncommon) and not requesting one allows the person or establishment to avoid ringing the exchange through a cash register. There are two primary practices around handing out fapiao: the first is that they are printed to the exact value; the second is that the seller takes an equivalent sum from book of fapiao that contains various denominations.

In many smaller establishments the seller is reluctant to hand over fapiao since in essence it becomes declared income and it is common to have to ask twice, especially as a foreigner. But in larger service industry chains where (some) tax is a given and employees feel less loyalty to the bottom line over-paying on fapiao (handing back receipts way in excess of the actual sums purchased) is like handing money back to the customer. The social norms dictate that the seller should round up – so if the the lowest denominations are 20 RMB (about 2.5 Euro) a customer could get 40 RMB of fapiao for a 25 RMB drink.

Thoughts for today: the situations where the buyer or seller will shift a measurable value (cash, money) into other less comparable forms (fapiao, …) to disguise the real value of the exchange. Who they are disguising it from. The legal and social rules surrounding the exchange. Aftermarkets for the receipts.

Photo: overpaid fapiao in a Beijing Starbucks, meeting with Jeremy Goldkorn.

Brands in context – Chinese ATM, with a 00.

Family unit, China style.

Lane house shared sink.
One day these will be retro-retro.
But not today.

Imagine this with self-driving cars and the rules of the road.

Brands we know and love.

The South Korean penchant of convenience stores to place refrigerators on the street. In a world where the company that supplies the fridge, dictates the marketplace – that’s a timeline of of social and legal contracts right there.

Very South Korean detailing on this car cover – includes space to write a phone number to allow a parking-inconvenienced neighbour to get in touch.