Book Review: The Garbage King

The Garbage King 
by Elizabeth Laird
 336pp, Macmillan

Set in modern-day Ethiopia, The Garbage King contrasts the lives of two boys: one poor, orphaned Mamo, the other wealthy, but misunderstood Dani, who both grow up in Addis Ababa. Mamo is tricked and sold into slavery and by his wits and determination manages to get back to Addis, where he lives with a gang of street children. Dani, too, finds himself living on the streets.

The lives of the two boys become intertwined. This book is a good introduction to the lives of children in Ethiopia after years of civil war. It also exposes the very-real facts of abuses against children and of child labor in Ethiopia.

This book is recommended for students of high intermediate ESL and above.

*(For the year 2000, the International Labour Organization stated that there would be 3,375,000 economically active children, 1,632,000 girls and 1,743,000 boys between the ages of 10-14, representing 41.10% of this age group. (ILO, International Labour Office - Bureau of Statistics, Economically Active Population 1950-2010, STAT Working Paper, ILO 1997)

Film Review: Black Gold: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

2006 NR 78 minutes

Directors: Nick Francis, Marc Francis

Ethiopia is the home of coffee. In fact, a legend is that a goatherd saw some goats that were so excited they seemed to be dancing. They had been eating the cherries from the coffee bush. The goatherd picked the cherries and took them home to his wife, who told the goatherd to take them to the monks. The monks, thinking that there was something evil about them, tossed the coffee cherries into the fire. When the aroma filled the monastery, the monks crushed the roasted beans and brewed the drink we now know as coffee.

Coffee holds an important place in the culture of Ethiopia, where a coffee ceremony is a central part of Ethiopian hospitality. Now over twelve million Ethiopians are involved in the production and distribution of coffee. Coffee accounts for over two thirds of the country’s earnings.