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No sooner had we been thinking to ourselves, "The children of Ethiopia have it so easy. Isn't there some way to humiliate them on a large scale?" comes word of Ethiopian Idols, a pirated version of the popular American Idol singing contest that has against all odds (ex.: no one in Ethiopia owns a TV) taken the impoverished nation by storm, proving that a good schadenfreude showcase can find an audience just about anywhere.

"Ethiopian Idols" has it [sic] own answer to Simon Cowell the acerbic judge on the American and British versions. Feleke Hailu disses contestants by telling them they "sing like donkeys." [...]


"Sometimes they get angry. The girls burst into tears and a few weeks ago one singer threw a stick at me after I told him he had failed to get through to the next round.

While the stakes aren't quite as high as the American or UK versions (instead of a $1 million recording contract, you get a sack of cornmeal signed by Clive Davis and an opening spot on Justin Guarini's upcoming tour), it's still an exciting opportunity for most Ethiopians, for whom the shameless pursuit of celebrity is still a relatively fun and novel concept. To say nothing of the fact that being aware of one's "pitchiness" is a great distraction from that other contestant concern, constant hunger.