ETHIOPIA:Many feel left out as Ethiopia clebrates its millennium, writes Rob Crillyin Addis Ababa
Flags hang from every lamppost, the hotels are full and street corners are curiously free of stray dogs.
Tonight, Ethiopia's ancient calendar ticks over into 2000, more than seven years after the rest of the Christian world celebrated a new millennium, and the capital is preparing for a party.
But while organisers say the lavish celebrations mark the start of an Ethiopian renaissance - and a chance to put years of famine, poverty and civil war behind them - many feel left out.
Johnny Mengistu, who owns a nail factory, said the government had priced most people out of city's main celebrations where tickets cost more than €110.
"I'm a businessman, but even I won't be able to afford it," he said, sipping a macchiato at the Tomoca coffee shop.
"I will be at a small gathering of friends and family. It's a shame because we are all very proud of it. It's something different and unique. We are the only ones with this calendar."
Famously proud Ethiopia was never colonised by the powers that carved up Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Isolated from the rest of the world, Amharic remains the national language and they have a calendar based on an ancient Egyptian system calibrated on the Nile floods.
While most of the Christian world revised their dates to account for fifth-century calculations suggesting Jesus had been born eight years earlier than previously believed, the Ethiopians have clung to a 13-month calendar that makes today the last day of Pagume, the 13th month, of 1999.
Organisers say the celebrations offer a unique opportunity for Ethiopia to re-invent itself.
Mulugeta Aserate, of the Millennium Secretariat, said: "It's a chance to put the turbulence behind us. Ethiopia has suffered a lot of bad coverage in the foreign press. The rest of the world knows Ethiopia for famine, civil war and soaking up huge amounts of foreign aid. That's not the Ethiopia we know."
Celebrations tonight will centre on the Millennium Central Hall, a $60 million venue funded by Sheikh Mohammed al-Amoudi, a Saudi billionaire of Ethiopian origin. Traditional Ethiopian artists and pop acts will lead the countdown to midnight when a spectacular fireworks display will light up the Addis night.
That will be followed by hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas, who have flown in from Los Angeles for the concert. There will also be two free concerts.
Addis Ababa has been given a rapid makeover for the party. Teams of women have been sweeping the streets and some of the ramshackle slums have been pulled down so nothing spoils the view for the presidents and prime ministers due to attend the party.
The city council has sent workers out at night poisoning stray dogs, provoking condemnation from animal welfare groups. But the plans are mocked by the country's opposition who point out that Ethiopia's problems are far from history.
Two years ago almost 200 protesters were gunned down in a wave of protests that followed disputed elections. Last month, 31 opposition politicians, detained since the protests, were finally released after receiving pardons for convictions many observers believed were suspect.
Ethiopian troops are accused of human rights abuses in Somalia where they are fighting Islamic and clan-based militias.
Aid agencies warn of a growing humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia's Ogaden region. Last week the charity MSF said its medical teams were being denied access to people in need by government forces intent on tackling an uprising by ethnic Somali rebels.
Bulcha Demeska, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, accused millennium organisers of ignoring the country's problems.
"These celebrations have been used by this government to deflect from our troubles," he said. "We have people who don't have enough to eat, and three-quarters of the population do not have clean water. This country is extremely poor and the government is trying to talk its way out of these problems."
Mr Mulugeta insisted Ethiopia deserved a party. It is in a far better state than when Meles Zenawi's rebel army toppled the brutal Marxist junta of Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, he said. "Things are better than 17 years ago, but it is difficult when you are building democratic institutions from scratch," he said. "The tempo is slow."
Whatever the merits, few Ethiopians outside the elite will be joining the celebrations. "Most of the people here are very poor," said Johannes Tesfay, sitting at a coffee shop opposite the hall where tonight's bash will be held.
"The focus should be on helping those people, not on holding a big party for the rich."