
<p>Fans call it The House that Kobe Built, and since Kobe Bryant’s shocking death in a helicopter crash mourners by the thousands have gathered outside the glistening steel-and-glass edifice where the Los Angeles Lakers legend made so much basketball history, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/">reports</a>. </p>



<p>The arrivals at downtown Staples Center began soon after word spread that Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, were among nine people killed in Sunday’s crash. They continued unabated Monday as people took off from school or work to pay respects to a man with whom many felt a kinship.</p>



<p>“The memories that he gave us as a family were great memories,” said Lawrence Perez or North Hollywood, who arrived with his wife, Maureen, and 15-year-old daughter, Desiree. “We could have been at home, but we wanted to be with other people who are kind of going through the same thing.”</p>



<p>The Lakers had a game scheduled Tuesday night against the LA Clippers at Staples Center but the NBA postponed it “out of respect” for the Lakers. The next Lakers home game is Friday night against Portland.</p>



<p>The Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Clippers, opened for the 1999-2000 season, just as a 21-year-old Bryant was blossoming. That season the team would win the first of five championships over the next 10 years.</p>



<p>Although the mood there Monday was often somber as people hugged and wiped away tears, many couldn’t help but grin at times as they recalled joyful moments Bryant brought to their lives.</p>



<p>“The greatest moment was when I got his autograph his rookie year,” Perez said, recalling how he told the teenage Bryant he was destined for greatness. Bryant smiled, shook his hand and said he hoped he’d just break into the team’s starting lineup sometime soon.</p>



<p>Perez had planned to bring that ball to Bryant’s Hall of Fame induction, expected later this year, and ask him to sign it again.</p>



<p>“But that’s not going to happen now,” he said softly as his wife hugged him and said, “He cried when he heard the news.”</p>



<p>As people arrived at the arena they were greeted by a gigantic display of flowers, balloons, votive candles (some with Bryant’s photo on them), hats, jerseys, statuettes of angels and photos and paintings of Bryant and his daughter circling the entire area. Some showed father and daughter with angel’s wings. Others contained personal messages written in English, Spanish and Chinese, showing the international impact Bryant’s career had.</p>



<p>“I left my shoe for him,” said Louie Guerrero of Los Angeles, who arrived at the memorial pushing a stroller with his 2-year-old daughter, Lexie, decked out in her own little Lakers uniform. He spontaneously decided to add one of his official Lakers basketball shoes to the memorial after scribbling on it, “We Love You, Kobe.”</p>



<p>He walked away with only a sock on his left foot.</p>



<p>Nearby, Michelle Rodriguez of Los Angeles wiped away a tear as she gazed at photos of Bryant with his daughter and his teammates. The 30-year-old emergency room nurse had arrived with her 12-year-old bulldog, Canelle, after working an overnight shift. Both were wearing Lakers jerseys.</p>



<p>“I think everyone could say we loved the team as a whole, but it was different when you saw Kobe play,” she said.</p>



<p>“And he was such an awesome man outside of basketball too,” she added. “All the work he did in the community, he’s a hero to this city.”</p>


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Tears Shed, Joyful times recalled at Kobe Bryant memorial


<p> The world&#8217;s first female spacewalking team made history high above Earth on Friday, floating out of the International Space Station to fix a broken part of the power network, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/worlds-first-female-spacewalking-team-makes-history">reports</a>. <br><br>As NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir emerged one by one, it marked the first time in a half-century of spacewalking that a woman floated out without a male crewmate. </p>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="ru"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">LIVE NOW: Tune in to watch the first <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AllWomanSpacewalk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AllWomanSpacewalk</a> in human history! ??‍? <br><br>Starting at approximately 7:50am ET, <a href="https://twitter.com/Astro_Christina?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Astro_Christina</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/Astro_Jessica?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Astro_Jessica</a> venture into the vacuum of space to replace a failed power controller. Watch:  <a href="https://t.co/2SIb9YXlRh">https://t.co/2SIb9YXlRh</a></p>&mdash; NASA (@NASA) <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1185141081702391809?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">18 октября 2019 г.</a></blockquote>





<p>America&#8217;s first female spacewalker from 35 years ago, Kathy Sullivan, was delighted. She said It&#8217;s good to finally have enough women in the astronaut corps and trained for spacewalking for this to happen.</p>



<p>NASA leaders &#8211; along with women and others around the world &#8211; cheered Koch and Meir on. At the same time, many noted that this will hopefully become routine in the future.<br>&nbsp;<br>&#8220;We&#8217;ve got qualified women running the control, running space centers, commanding the station, commanding spaceships and doing spacewalks,&#8221; Sullivan told The Associated Press earlier this week. &#8220;And golly, gee whiz, every now and then there&#8217;s more than one woman in the same place.&#8221;<br>&nbsp;<br>Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a three-time spacewalker who watched from Mission Control, added: &#8220;Hopefully, this will now be considered normal.&#8221;<br>&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="https://www.voanews.com/s3/files/styles/sourced/s3/2019-10/AP_19290538450816_0.jpg?itok=xq3Zx4Gv"><img src="https://media.voltron.voanews.com/Drupal/01live-166/styles/sourced_410px_wide/s3/2019-10/AP_19290538450816_0.jpg?itok=ZV954Qnk" alt="In this photo released by NASA on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, U.S. astronauts Jessica Meir, left, and Christina Koch pose for a…" width="580" height="386" /></a><figcaption>In this photo released by NASA on Oct. 17, 2019, U.S. astronauts Jessica Meir, left, and Christina Koch pose for a photo in the International Space Station.</figcaption></figure>



<p><br>NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine watched the big event unfold from NASA headquarters in Washington.<br>&nbsp;<br>&#8220;We have the right people doing the right job at the right time,&#8221;he said. &#8220;They are an inspiration to people all over the world including me. And we&#8217;re very excited to get this mission underway.&#8221;<br>&nbsp;<br>NASA originally wanted to conduct an all-female spacewalk last spring, but did not have enough medium-size suits ready to go. Koch and Meir were supposed to install more new batteries in a spacewalk next week, but had to venture out three days earlier to deal with an equipment failure that occurred over the weekend. They need to replace an old battery charger for one of the three new batteries that was installed last week by Koch and Andrew Morgan.<br>&nbsp;<br>&#8220;Jessica and Christina, we are so proud of you. You&#8217;re going to do great today,&#8221; Morgan radioed from inside as the women exited the hatch.<br>&nbsp;<br>Meir, making her spacewalking debut, became the 228th person in the world to conduct a spacewalk and the 15th woman.<br>&nbsp;<br>It was the fourth spacewalk for Koch, who is seven months into an 11-month mission that will be the longest ever by a woman.</p>


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World’s First Female Spacewalking Team Makes History

<p class="dek">Discover the inspiring tale of Desmond Doss, the World War II medic who saved 75 lives all while risking his own. If you were to call him a hero, Desmond Doss would’ve likely corrected you, allthatsinteresting.com <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/desmond-doss">reports</a>.</p>
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<p>The young World War II medic who singlehandedly saved the lives of 75 American soldiers on the Maeda Escarpment of Okinawa in 1945 would say only that he did what was right — that he never carried a weapon of any kind because he was in the business of saving lives, not taking them.</p>
<p>Last year, the Academy Award-winning film <em>Hacksaw Ridge</em> brought Desmond Doss to the attention of countless people who’d heard neither the man’s name nor his incredible story ever before.</p>
<p>From a young age, Desmond Doss (born February 7, 1919) radiated the kind of empathy that he’d display as a soldier later in life. When he was a child, for example, he once walked six miles to donate blood to an accident victim — a complete stranger — after hearing about the need for blood on a local radio station. A few days later, Desmond traveled down the same long stretch of road to give more.</p>
<p>Also at a young age, Doss developed a hatred of weapons that would persist throughout his life, even during his time in combat.</p>
<p>Doss’ hatred of weapons stemmed from watching his drunken father pull a gun on his uncle during an argument, and from his religious beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. His mother managed to confiscate the .45 pistol from her husband and told young Doss to run and hide it. He was so shaken, he vowed that was the last time he would ever hold a weapon.</p>
<p>Instead, Doss spent his childhood doing things like flattening pennies on the railway near his Lynchburg, Virginia home and wrestling with his younger brother, Harold. He said that Desmond wasn’t much fun to wrestle with because you could never win — not because Desmond was particularly skilled, but because he’d never surrender and didn’t know how to give up.</p>
<p>Years later, this physical resilience is what helped enable him to earn the Medal of Honor.</p>
<p>At age 18, Doss dutifully registered for the draft and worked at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. When World War II broke out, Doss jumped at the opportunity to aid the cause.</p>
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<p><img class="size-full wp-image-132014 post-img-landscape" src="https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/okinawa-guns.jpg" alt="Marines in combat during the Battle of Okinawa" width="900" height="715" /></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><span class="credit">Wikimedia Commons</span><span class="caption-body">Marines in combat during the Battle of Okinawa. May 1945.</span></p>
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<p>But the fact that he refused to carry a weapon — let alone kill anyone — earned him the widely unflattering label of “conscientious objector.” It was a label that Doss hated, and instead of flat-out refusing to perform military service, he insisted that he work as a medic. The Army assigned him to a rifle company instead in hopes that he’d just leave.</p>
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<div class="rc-provider">“He just didn’t fit into the Army’s model of what a good soldier would be,” said Terry Benedict, a filmmaker who made <em>The Conscientious Objector</em>, a documentary about Doss in 2004.</div>
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<p>Doss appealed the Army’s decision up through the ranks until they begrudgingly made him a medic. But his fellow soldiers in training camp still couldn’t understand why Doss was there.</p>
<p>They teased him mercilessly to “man up” and carry a rifle. They launched their boots at him while he prayed by his bunk at night. They hated him for getting a pass on the Sabbath because to work on the holy day was against his religion — never mind that the officers gave Doss all the worst work to complete by himself on Sundays. Nobody wanted to be friends. Friends had each other’s backs. Without a defense weapon, the others insisted, Doss was useless to them.</p>
<p>Yet, over and over, Doss not only dismissed their cruel behavior, he rose above it. He resolutely believed that his purpose was to serve both God and country. All he wanted was to prove those two tasks weren’t mutually exclusive.</p>
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<p><img class="size-full wp-image-132013 post-img-landscape" src="https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/okinawa-explosion.jpg" alt="Marines in the Battle of Okinawa" width="800" height="674" /></p>
<p class="wp-caption-text"><span class="credit">Wikimedia Commons</span><span class="caption-body">Marines destroy a Japanese cave during the Battle of Okinawa. May 1945.</span></p>
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/1017773/ATIInline_6__container__">Then came the battle at the Okinawa Maeda Escarpment, or what the Americans called “Hacksaw Ridge.” It fell on May 5, 1945, a Saturday — Doss’s day of Sabbath. It was a particularly grueling onslaught with artillery coming so fast and furious that it was literally ripping men in half.</div>
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<p>The Japanese army’s plan of waiting until all of the Americans reached the plateau to open fire created a devastating amount of wounded soldiers. But the Japanese didn’t know that the Americans had Desmond Doss.</p>
<p>In an act that still astounds the surviving members of Doss’s company today, the fearless medic held his ground at the plateau. Amidst never-ending gunfire and mortar shells, Doss treated the wounded American soldiers that others may have left for dead.</p>
<p>Hour after hour, as explosions rang constantly in his ears, he tied tourniquets. Covered from head to toe in blood not his own, he crawled and dragged each hurt member of his company to the edge of the ridge and carefully lowered them down. For more than 12 hours, Doss labored under fire and saved an incredible amount of human lives.</p>
<p>Knowing that some Japanese soldiers sometimes tortured wounded U.S. soldiers, Doss refused to leave a single man on top of the ridge.</p>
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/1017773/ATIInline_5__container__">Not only did Doss leave no man behind, he also — miraculously — escaped with his own life and avoided any serious injury. Doss always claimed that God spared his life, and according to <em>The Conscientious Objector</em>, Japanese soldiers repeatedly had Doss in their sights only to have their guns jam.</div>
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<p>Two weeks later, Doss was in battle again a few miles away from the escarpment when a Japanese grenade landed in a foxhole containing Doss and some of his patients. He attempted to kick the grenade away, but it detonated. Doss ended up with deep shrapnel lacerations all down his legs.</p>
<p>He treated himself for shock and dressed his own wounds, rather than having another medic emerge from safety to help. Five hours later, someone finally did arrive with a stretcher. As soon as Doss saw a soldier in need, he rolled off, surrendered his stretcher, and started patching up his comrade.</p>
<p>While waiting for help to arrive, a sniper shot and shattered all the bones in Doss’ left arm. (<em>Hacksaw Ridge</em> director Mel Gibson left this part out of the film because he felt that it was so heroic that audiences wouldn’t even believe that it had really happened.)</p>
<p>Doss then crawled 300 yards to the aid station without accompaniment. He didn’t realize it then, but he’d lost his Bible on the battlefield.</p>
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<div class="ob-pixels">After this amazing display of bravery and heroism, Doss finally won the respect of his fellow soldiers. His commanding officer came to the hospital and told him he’d earned the Medal of Honor for his service, making him the first conscientious objector to do so. Upon awarding Doss his Medal of Honor, President Harry Truman reportedly said, “You really deserve this. I consider this a greater honor than being president.”</div>
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<p class="wp-caption-text"><span class="credit">Bettmann/Getty Images</span><span class="caption-body">Desmond Doss shakes hands with President Harry S. Truman after receiving the Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House on October 12, 1945.</span></p>
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<p>The commanding officer also brought Doss a gift: a slightly burned, soggy Bible. After the U.S. captured the area from the Japanese, every able man in the company combed through the rubble until they found it.</p>
<p>Forever marked by the scars from that very day, Desmond Doss lived to be 87 years old. But he will continue to live on as the man who once saved 75 lives, all while risking his own.</p>


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The True Story Of Desmond Doss Was Too Heroic Even For ‘Hacksaw Ridge’

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<p>A rare D-Day flag that flew on a U.S. Navy ship leading the allied advance at the beaches of Normandy nearly 75 years ago will be returned to America after going on display in the Netherlands on Monday, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/us-d-day-flag-to-return-home-75-years-after-normandy-landing/4772172.html">reports</a> VOA News.</p>
<p>The 48-star &#8220;Normandy&#8221; flag was on the U.S. Navy&#8217;s LCC 60, one of just three advanced fleet vessels directing troops onto Utah Beach in German-occupied France on June 6, 1944.</p>
<p>Howard Vander Beek, who commanded the vessel as a Navy lieutenant, kept the flag throughout the war, brought it home and kept it in his basement until he died in 2014. It was sold at auction by his family two years later and bought by Dutch collector Bert Kreuk for $514,000.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was pierced by German machine gun bullets and ripped by the wind,&#8221; said Kreuk. &#8220;The flag will be going home.&#8221;</p>
<p>Kreuk, who ran a business in the United States for 20 years, wants to donate it to the American people and hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump will come pick it up in the Netherlands. Dozens of U.S. and Dutch soldiers stood at attention as the tattered flag, stained by diesel fumes and dirt, arrived at Rotterdam&#8217;s Kunsthal museum in a military convoy headed by a U.S. Sherman tank.</p>
<p>Rotterdam&#8217;s orchestra played &#8220;Fanfare for the Common Man&#8221;, written in 1942 by U.S. composer Aaron Copland, as the flag was laid into a display case by soldiers.</p>
<p>U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands Piet Hoekstra said he has discussed the flag with high-level U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are making sure that the White House is aware of this opportunity,&#8221; said Hoekstra. &#8220;Vander Beek carried it in his backpack across significant parts of Europe until the end of the war. They are all special, this one is maybe a little bit more unique,&#8221; Hoekstra said.</p>
<p>The flag will be on display in Rotterdam until February 17.</p>
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US D-Day Flag to Return Home 75 Years After Normandy Landing

<p>When Democratic lawmakers won the majority in the House of Representatives in recent elections, they not only won the ability to better shape legislation in the House, they also gained the enormous power of investigation. Investigations have always been an important way for Congress members to hold government officials accountable, to inform public policy and to spur national debate, VOA news <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/a-look-at-the-history-and-importance-of-congress-power-to-investigate/4743218.html">reports</a>.</p>
<p>House Democrats have promised to hold investigations on a range of topics, including the activities of President Donald Trump and his staff. Here is a look at the history and importance of Congress&#8217; power to investigate matters.</p>
<p><strong>Why does Congress have the ability to investigate?</strong></p>
<p>The U.S. Constitution says Congress will hold &#8220;all legislative powers&#8221; of government. While the Constitution does not explicitly grant Congress the right to carry out investigations, the founding fathers envisioned lawmakers investigating matters as part of their responsibility to legislate and courts have long upheld that role.</p>
<p>According to a website run by the <a class="wsw__a" href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Investigations.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Historical Office</a>, George Mason of Virginia said at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that members of Congress &#8220;are not only Legislators but they possess inquisitorial powers. They must meet frequently to inspect the Conduct of the public offices.&#8221;</p>
<p>Congressional investigations date back to 1792 when the House passed a resolution to examine the St. Clair expedition, according to the Senate Historical Office. General Arthur St. Clair led U.S. soldiers to their defeat in a 1791 battle against Native American fighters in what is now Ohio, prompting President George Washington to demand his resignation and for Congress to start an investigation.</p>
<p><strong>What can Congress investigate?</strong></p>
<p>Congress is able to investigate anything that pertains to legislative matters.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hearings are most commonly held for three reasons: to consider pending legislation; to investigate issues that may require legislation in the future; and, to investigate and oversee federal programs,&#8221; according to a website run jointly by the <a class="wsw__a" href="https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/Investigations-Oversight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Clerk of the House&#8217;s Office and the State Department&#8217;s Office of the Historian</a>.</p>
<p>Investigations also serve an important function to oversee the judicial and executive branches, including probing possible presidential wrongdoing, and in rare cases laying the groundwork for impeachment proceedings.</p>
<p>In its more than 200 years, Congress has investigated a huge range of topics including the sinking of the<em>Titanic</em>, organized crime, the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, which was instrumental in bringing about the resignation of President Richard Nixon.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today congressional oversight enables House and Senate members to serve as the eyes and ears of the American public,&#8221; according to the <a class="wsw__a" href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/Investigations.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Senate Historical Office</a>.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court has ruled that one thing Congress cannot investigate is the private affairs of individual citizens.</p>
<p><strong>Who carries out the investigations?</strong></p>
<p>Both the House and Senate can hold investigations, which are usually carried out by one of the many committees by which the houses of Congress are organized. Lawmakers can also set up joint committees composed of members of both houses of Congress as well as create special committees, which are set up for a specific purpose.</p>
<p><strong>What resources do Congressional committees have for investigations?</strong></p>
<p>Members of Congress generally have more ability to research topics than the average citizen. Lawmakers typically have access to government information, including, in some cases, classified material. They also have a trained staff that has the time and ability to research issues.</p>
<p>Additionally, Congressional committees have the ability to compel witnesses to testify before lawmakers. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could hold witnesses in contempt if they failed to testify when subpoenaed.</p>
<p>In a ruling two years later, the high court said that witnesses who lie before a congressional committee can be convicted of perjury. Congressional committee members can also call on outside experts to testify before investigative hearings and to help make a more detailed study of the issues.</p>
<p><strong>What is the impact of Congressional investigations?</strong></p>
<p>Congressional investigations are not just a means to get information that is important to lawmakers. They are also a way to inform the public about various topics and to shape the political narrative. Most committee hearings are open to the public and are widely reported in the media.</p>
<p>While investigations generally function to enable lawmakers to make better policy decisions, they are also an integral part of the U.S. government&#8217;s system of checks and balances. By design, lawmakers have a responsibility to bring to light abuses by the others branches of government, including those carried out by the president, cabinet members, and judges.</p>
<p>Challenges to the success of Congressional investigations include the appearance of partisanship, which can taint the results in the public eye. Sam Ervin, the chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, which was set up to investigate the Watergate scandal in 1972, warned that for an investigation to be successful, it must avoid partisan politics.</p>
<p>He said investigations &#8220;can be the catalyst that spurs Congress and the public to support vital reforms in our nation&#8217;s laws,&#8221; but said they may also &#8220;afford a platform for demagogues and the rankest partisans.&#8221;</p>


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A Look at the History and Importance of Congress’ Power to Investigate

<p>From its hillside overlooking the Ethiopian capital, Berhanu Mengistu&#8217;s century-old, gabled family home has seen emperors and governments rise and fall, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/in-ethiopia-as-capital-rises-history-rots/4726206.html">VOA</a> <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/in-ethiopia-as-capital-rises-history-rots/4726206.html">news</a> reports.</p>
<p>It has withstood economic stagnation and the rapid population growth that replaced its once-patrician neighbors with a rabble of shacks.</p>
<p>But it now stands lonely in a field of weeds, the house&#8217;s corrugated roof and red plaster walls stark against a fast-changing cityscape of cleared slums, tower cranes and glinting high rises.</p>
<p>Palatial homes like Berhanu&#8217;s are scattered throughout Addis Ababa, built for imperial-era courtiers and foreign business moguls, but most have slid into dire neglect as the government focuses on an aspirational building boom.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nowadays, most of the buildings you see are more of the European architecture,&#8221; said Berhanu, a supply chain manager whose house has been in his family for seven generations.</p>
<p>Across the capital, older, poorer neighborhoods — like the one that once surrounded Berhanu&#8217;s home — have been leveled to make way for glass-and-concrete towers, lauded by the government as a symbol of the rapid economic expansion transforming one of Africa&#8217;s poorest countries.</p>
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<p>But preservationists worry that the breakneck development comes at the cost of the capital&#8217;s architectural heritage.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are isolated efforts of protecting, saving historic buildings, but it&#8217;s really very limited,&#8221; said Fasil Giorghis, a well-known architect.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is not even a given that you should protect a historic building.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>A young city</strong></p>
<p>Addis Ababa was founded in the late 19th century by Emperor Menelik II as he expanded the Ethiopian empire from the country&#8217;s northern highlands to its modern boundaries.</p>
<p>The young city soon filled with houses belonging to members of Menelik&#8217;s government, among them Berhanu&#8217;s ancestor Yemtu Beznash, the family matriarch and administrator of a powerful law court.</p>
<p>Menelik, who died in 1913, also hired Armenians as city engineers, while merchants came from India and Yemen.</p>
<p>That cosmopolitanism was upended in 1974 with the arrival of the Derg military junta, which dismantled the Ethiopian empire.</p>
<p>Fasil recounted how, as foreign traders fled, the communist-leaning Derg handed their former mansions to poor tenants, who could not afford to maintain the earthen walls and wooden floors.</p>
<p><strong>&#8216;Ideological shift&#8217;</strong></p>
<p>The Ethiopian People&#8217;s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which evicted the Derg in 1991 and continues to rule today, has presided over an economic boom.</p>
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</div><figcaption><span class="caption">FILE &#8211; A picture taken on Nov. 1, 2018, shows buildings under construction in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<p>This has seen contractors from China and elsewhere set to work on half-built skyscrapers that give the capital&#8217;s skyline a jagged, unfinished feel.</p>
<p>Maheder Gebremedhin, an architect who hosts a radio show discussing the trade, says the neglect of the old buildings is due to the cost and complexity of renovation, as well as a lingering ambivalence toward the imperial past.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because of the ideological shift, there is not a real interest to keep these buildings,&#8221; Maheder said.</p>
<p><strong>Heritage abandoned</strong></p>
<p>Government and private donors have successfully restored a handful of buildings, including one of Menelik&#8217;s palaces and the mansion of a former defense minister that&#8217;s been converted into a museum.</p>
<p>But city authorities acknowledge that most of the 440 buildings that have been designated heritage sites are rundown.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because of our capacity as a developing country, they can&#8217;t be repaired all the time,&#8221; said Worku Mengesha, a spokesman for Addis Ababa&#8217;s tourism office.</p>
<p>A decade ago, foreign embassies and Ethiopian preservationists tried to restore the Mohammadali house, once the property of a wealthy Indian businessman featuring prominent Indian and Arabian architectural elements in addition to its imperial-era Ethiopian style.</p>
<p>However, bureaucracy and shoddy construction scuppered the effort, Fasil said.</p>
<p>As a result, it is padlocked and abandoned, with parked cars sheltering beneath its Indian-inspired arches and a pair of discarded trousers draped across its faded cream staircase.</p>
<p>Other historic buildings continue in their Derg-era role of housing for the poor, or in their slow decrepitude.</p>
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</div><figcaption><span class="caption">FILE &#8211; A man walks past the Sheik Ojele palace, which was built in 1890 and influenced by Indo-Islamic architectural design, in Addis Ababa, Nov. 29, 2018.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<p>The expansive former palace of Hojele Al-Hassen, a wealthy traditional ruler during the Menelik era, still houses people from his western region, who spend after-work hours socializing on the wraparound veranda.</p>
<p>But it&#8217;s increasingly dilapidated, with an entire decaying wing that once served as a school classroom sealed off for safety.</p>
<p><strong>Family history, city history</strong></p>
<p>Three years ago, as city authorities leveled the homes that had mushroomed around Berhanu&#8217;s house, he kept the bulldozers at bay by having his home designated an historic building.</p>
<p>Berhanu now hopes to turn his family history into national history.</p>
<p>Standing near a large portrait of the matriarch Yemtu, he spoke of his dream to make a museum of the house whose rooms are filled with family photographs and heirlooms, including a wall-spanning snake skin.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is not only our property. It belongs to all Ethiopians and people of Addis Ababa,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>He hopes the city will agree.</p>
<p>Across the street in the slum area the government wants cleared, his neighbor Solomon Damana had recently resolved a dispute with city authorities and was following orders to demolish the small family home in which he was born and raised and move to a one-bedroom apartment on the outskirts of town.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m happy that one isn&#8217;t demolished,&#8221; he said, gesturing at Berhanu&#8217;s place. &#8220;It&#8217;s an historic house.&#8221;</p>
