“Il Grillo parlante”

“Il Grillo parlante” – The Talking Cricket, is the name given to the cricket Pinocchio (the protagonist of “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi) kills after it tries to give him some advice. “The cricket comes back as a ghost to continue advising the marionette. In the 1940 Walt Disney adaptation of the book, this cricket is renamed “Jiminy”, and is appointed by the Blue Fairy to serve as the official conscience for Pinocchio.” (Wikipedia)

Reading that made me think “How Fitting”. I mean here is an annoying cricket, killed by a “wooden” Marionette he’s appointed to play the conscience of until the later can pull his shit together enough to “become a real boy”! Isn’t that awfully familiar? The fact that prophets have been killed, and will probably continue to be killed [not necessarily literally], by wooden headed men of power and the society they are/were trying to change?

By that, i’m not simply referring to the infamous “Dergue” regime (and the “Beaalu Girma”s of this world). No, this killing of prophets is as old as the world itself. There is even a legend about an ethiopian king that I love re-reading while waiting for my turn at Filwuha by Sebhat Gebregziabher. The story of a certain crow that spent the night screaming “he who ate my head would become a king”. It ofcourse took the cook no time to administer a knife to the Crow’s head. However….

But that’s beyond the interest of this post.