Addis Ababa (New Flower) takes the airborne traveler by sur- prise. Coming in from the north, one flies first up the narrow, green Egyptian valley of the Nile, then over the barren Nubian Desert in the Sudan. Across the Ethiopian border, the desert rises to a high plateau, broken by deep gorges. On the plateau is a patchwork of grain fields and thatched-roof farmsteads that con- tinues for hundreds of miles. Its pastoral character gives little hint that a city of 1.3 million inhabitants is nearby,...