Katie Prescott

BBC Radio 5live – On The Money: The Bears vs The Bucs by KatiePrescott

Cherie Blair came into Television Centre to give her response to the Davies report which looked into the number of women on company boards. It told businesses they had to more than double the number of women on their boards by 2015, or face government intervention. Yet it stopped short of introducing quotas – already in place in other countries, such as Norway.

An interview with entrepreneur Jahan Abedi, who runs quirky restaurants and bars throughout Cardiff – such as Crystal nightclub, Mocka Lounge and the North Star pub. He talks about how he got started, and why he decided to set up shop in South Wales.

For the centenary of the launch of Captain Scott’s Terranova expedition from Cardiff Bay, I went along to watch the festivities from one of the boats. I was even given my own naval escort.

Ship sets sail for Scott re-enactment

As inflation squeezes the family purse even tighter, I took a look at two generations of one family and their spending habits.

Family Fortunes : Two generations and their shopping habits

Wales@Work Report by KatiePrescott

For Wales’ Business Insider Magazine, I examined the future of the energy sector – and if the country can turn its rich natural resources, into a source of serious money.

Interview with Swansea lovespoon carver  Edwin Williams who even gave us a spoon while we were there!

Now I’m back in London, I’ve been trying to explain to friends what that very exotic sounding city Addis Ababa is like. The large photos in this post don’t fit properly but I think they give a better sense of the city.

It’s a city of contrasts. The muddy tracks and corrugated iron houses meander around the asphalt roads and the odd skyscraper. Sheep and goats graze in the dirt lanes, elegant women totter on heels down the fashionable Bolé Road, the high walls of the Sheraton Hotel are surrounded by low slung slum houses.

Corrugated Iron and Sky Scrapers

The city is littered with the skeletons of half constructed buildings, so at points it looks as if it has been hit by an earthquake. The roads linking the skeletons are not yet built and covered in rubble.  Bright blue Toyota taxis rush around the legacy of the last Emperors, the palaces, the university, the ubiquitous lion of Judah statues.

Construction in Addis - the poster shows the end result

There is a beautiful park in the centre of Addis – complete with swing sets, benches and fountains. But no-one I spoke to had ever seen it open. It sits well opposite the prime minister’s residence, and near the United Nations building. So well in fact that the cynic would say it has just been built for show.

The large expat community ensures you can ‘get’ most things you would in the West. You can eat Indian, Thai and haute cuisine as well as the traditional injera. There are supermarkets selling everything from baked beans to plastic wrapped apples. Night clubs such as Harlem Jazz provide live music and a less seedy alternative to the hotel bars.

A night out in the city is unforgettable. You don’t see many people getting plastered, the party revolves around the dance and the conversation – and it’s not an exaggeration to say that it is some of the most fun you will ever have.  Live music makes you want to get up and dance, people ask you to dance, the singers force you to dance.  Sweet tej (honey wine) is passed around in glass flasks that look as if they’ve been taken out of a chemistry set. The azmari sing, dance and force even the most serious to explode with laughter at their rude, witty rhymes.

Children beg on the streets. Mothers clutching babies tap on the windows of taxis, desperately asking the occupants for spare change.  Bodies twisted by polio drag themselves along the pavement, flip-flops on their hands, thrown coins by people on the buses.  The many charities which operate in the country help provide for the very poor.  Yet of course the country doesn’t look like a sea of large eyes in hollow faces as you might imagine from television coverage.

It would be impossible to write about Addis without mentioning how religious it is. As well as the call to prayer from the mosques which serve about 30% of the population, the majority of the city flocks to the many churches which also play hymns and readings over the loudspeakers attached to their steeples.  People cross themselves when walking past religious buildings, even when services are not taking place crowds of needy people stand around the churches begging or selling religious artifacts.

The growing number of tourists who come to Ethiopia seem to ‘do’ Addis in a few days before they move on to greener pastures. I can see why. I felt very overwhelmed and culture-shocked by the city. But a few days in Addis cannot do it justice.  It is in the city that you get a sense of the whole. As most capital cities, it absorbs people from around the vast country. It is here that you can see many of the different tribes, ways of life and traditions of Ethiopia.

Runners in Meskel Square

John Mellors has emailed me the account of the exchange of voice recordings between Queen Victoria and the Ethiopian Monarchs, written in 1901 by Captain MS Wellby in his book Twixt Sirdar and Menelik. Victoria sent a phonographic recording to Ethiopia, and requested that they send one back.

On the afternoon following the feast, we were
destined to enjoy for a second time the honour of
visiting the king, for Harrington had brought a
message for him from H.M. the Queen of England,
which she herself had spoken into a phonograph.
As we entered the tent, nearly half of which had
been opened, we found the king seated as usual,
whilst around him stood a number of dignitaries,
Harrington and his sowars, with drawn and carried
swords, took their places immediately opposite the
monarch. A table was then set in front of the
king, and on this the phonograph was placed.
With the exception of the gurgling sound produced
by the instrument, dead silence pervaded the tent.
The Negus was highly gratified with the message,
even standing up that he might the more distinctly
catch the words, for he was much struck with their
clearness and firmness. He listened to the Queen’s
gracious words time after time, and readily con-
sented to my attempting to photograph the scene.
During this time a grand salute of eleven guns was
being fired to celebrate the occasion. I stepped
outside to try and take a picture of this event also,
and found soldiers running about in every direction,
anxious to learn why guns were being fired on
the sabbath.

The phonograph was then carried off to the
private quarters of Queen Taitu, who was equally
charmed with the message, demanding several
times a repetition of the Queen’s words. It was
a wonder to me that this particular cylinder was
not completely worn out. The Queen, although
understanding no English at all, was nevertheless
easily able to recognize the mention of her own
name.