Whatever dude!

There are so many things you don’t say out-loud because you love, fear and/or respect those listening weyim out of common decency! You don’t tell your mother, for example, how her attitude towards women & marriage reminds you of a ‘bAriya fengaay” sometimes. You don’t tell your boss his/her jokes are never funny. And you don’t say “these fucking [fill the name of your respective “bisot qesQash” group here] are making you tired already” infront of members of the race or religion group that caused the weary feelings (if you prefer to live in peace with your neighbors, that is). But I really wished I could say something [nasty] against the Muslim fundamentalists in Somalia earlier when I read, on a friend’s facebook profile, the following article: Clerics Killed in Somali Mosque.

Don’t get me wrong, now! I have always viewed the war in Somalia as another “tiQur netib” on our history (“torinet” and “sibseba” seems to be the only thing we are good at doing nowadays, none of which have proved much help in moving our “kedihnet yetelaqeqech ager yememesret” guzo an inch). And, if it was in my powers, I’d have had it over before it even started!!

I feel sorry for the people of Somalia, for ‘the grass between two elephants’ treatment they are getting from their neighbors. And I’m sorry their problem, whose end is still difficult to foresee even after 17 years, seems to “metreff” to others. But I can understand why our government needed to get its hand dirty over there. It would not only benefit politically & ofcourse economically from the West, always the West (which it needs more desperately than anything after HR2003), but also help it to punch a hated enemy (the leader of a small country on the horn of Africa who has a striking resemblance, have you noticed?, to Sadam Hussien, Gadaffi & even Joe Stalin) on the nose. Not fair! Monstrously wrong! But understandable.

So whenever I hear claims of Ethiopia invading Somalia, I simply give it the deaf ear. Not only because I am well aware these accusations aren’t made to get a rise out of me but also because I recognize it as only natural to want to blame someone you can’t lay your hands on rather than those you can do something about in times of despondency. [My dad asks God what he did to offend Him whenever my hell-raiser brother comes home drunk and starts verbally abusing every living thing within a mile]. That would give sufficient answer, I believe, to any wonderings any one of us might have as to why if these people aren’t happy with their government and the way it operates (or atleast the neighbors it asks for assistance from), they won’t take it with “it” directly instead of keep blaming all their problems on us! Not that we’ve managed to voice our own “teQawmos” on things we aren’t happy with our government doing, even with a country that has not been torn apart by a war that has been going on for the last 17 years anyway. So I forgive and try to forget.

I can even go as far as forgiving and try-to-forgetting the Ethiopians who are making the same accusations [not from any sense of “teQorqwarinet” to the people of Somalia but to serve their own little insignificant ends] against the Ethiopian government from the States and Europe! After all, as my college classmate used to say, what do you expect from a one dollar dish?! I mean, these people have proved, time and again, that they do not gave a rat’s ass about us. And probably never will. As long as they are settling their little scores with the government from a safe distance, essatu lemyaQatilew weyOlet enji we are only numbers to them. Numbers that could be reported to the concerned “mebt reGeta tekelakay mahber” to “mas’atat” the government with. It goes without saying the more we died, the bigger the number! And the bigger the number, the bigger the blame and the fiercer the sanctions would be against the government. Sanctions we, the people, pay dearly for.

I’m not trying to say they “pray” for our [mass] demise exactly!. I know these guys are human [ejig “tebab” and irredeemably selfish maybe, but human nonetheless] and a “wOgen” at that. No doubt, they would have had it otherwise, if they could! But they can’t and are painfully aware of the fact that nothing comes free in this world. Especially “zewd” and “betre mengist”. Especially in Africa! Therefore, they are ready to sacrifice some of us (it was 15,000 youth for Engineer Hailu Shawel. A man who, in his own words, worked for the Dergue regime lest no harm should befall his family) for a good cause. What the West would call “collateral damage”! Yep, that’s us, babe, collateral-damage-to-be, dead-man walking. Women too, at that. And, sometimes, even them wee ones!

It doesn’t sound fair, by any measures. Just as the war in Somalia can never be justified say whatever our government will. It may even tempt us to think if our death-wishers aren’t as bad as those ready to fire at us were we to start trouble. But, thankfully, they have been telling us to “trust” them for decades. And trust them we would (woe to him that lays not his life in their hands) as knowing what’s good for us – better than us! They are the “mihurs”, after all, the “doctors”.. the “professors” and the engineers. We, mere mortals! No getting round to it, I’m afraid! Say, being from a “Christian Island” and of a skeptic disposition, you were to humbly murmur “mechem.. beAmsaale silase yetefetere hulu yisasatalna..minalbat…”. It would be shame on you .. O ye of little faith.. for haven’t you learned?, have you not heard that saying “befiQirina tornet gize hulum mesariya tikikil new”?! [Something their mostly successful attempts to justify everything they loved and demonize everything they hate bears abundant witness for]. Which is why it would be but a small price to pay to prove our undying “fiQir” [for them]. A ‘fiQir’ they would exploit to the best of their ability in their “torinet” against the government.

All this, ofcourse, is nothing compared to what’s happening in Somalia – atleast for now!. The monstrosity of Muslim fundamentalists killing their own innocents so their people would believe the big bad “Christians” from the highlands of Ethiopia went on a Muslim-killing spree!

“Ohh.. if I just wasn’t a lady.. what would I tell these varmints!”

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P.S. The last line was taken from Wiki’s favorite quotes of Scarlett O’hara’s from “Gone With the Wind”