I have worked on the premises of the AU roughly 10 years ago (for a couple of month). I knew next to nothing about it before I worked there. They are pretty adv

I have worked on the premises of the AU roughly 10 years ago (for a couple of month). I knew next to nothing about it before I worked there. They are pretty advanced from what I could tell. There's clear French and English blocks (+the Maghreb but they tend to side with the French block; +Angola which tends to side with the English block) and it's somewhat hilarious to see how these need to be balanced for most important issues but at the end of the day it's the same in the EU...I just never saw a system like that close up before. It was very notable that almost all people I spoke with were very passionate about the idea of a strong and united Africa. Having talked to some EU people there are a lot more bureaucrats and I get the feeling for some politicians it's the wasteland/failure if they get moved to an EU role instead of a national one. In the AU I got a very strong feeling that everyone was very happy to be there (and thought they could change things) and it was probably seen as more important than a role in the own government. Unfortunately that's the state of about 10 years ago. It's also notable that the difference between AU and surrounding country (there's also a UN complex in Addis which is similar to the AU) is rather strong. There's two amazing hotels in Addis (Sharaton and Hilton) and most of the city is fairly poor. The contrast is stark to say the least. The article also mentions a consultant from McKinsey...one of the things that I found very bothersome was that you basically had to work through consultants or local contacts to get anything done. I have met some rather shady characters and the big consultancies have carved out a nice little niche of "exclusive access".