Desperate times/desperate measures
July 1, 2009 at 5:38 am 9 comments
After I showed the following article a friend sent me to Chris, he told me this joke people used to tell in the good ole times. Before the recession, you know. Before the mighty-ones were brought to their knees. And yours truly left home to come to everybody else’s ‘Promise Land’ to stand next to a woman in a wheelchair, a retired gentleman and a pregnant teenage girl chatting with a young man who gives the impression of having been in jail until of late to look for a job at her local Manpower employment center. It’s a “Yo Momma” joke. “Yo Momma is so poor, a village in Africa is fundraising for her”.
[He appologized later, remembering my African roots. I told him I’d survive].
But the following ain’t no joke. It’s a report Associate Presse’s Samantha Henry posted 9 hours ago. It’s entitled Immigrants in US are asking for money from home. I’m posting it here so you’d know it could have been worse and say “የባሰ አታምጣ”. የባሰ ከመጣም .. to remember “where there is a will, there is a way”. For some, that way may just be 15 minutes away.
– Read article.
– Email article to that member of your family who starts their ሰላምታ with the listing of money-related woes.
– Ask for a PayDay Loan.
Entry filed under: Latest Posts.
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1.
Scoob | July 1, 2009 at 3:46 pm
what happens `if they are worse off than you?
2.
Wollo dessie | July 1, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I can see only squares instead if words.can you fix it?
3.
abesheet | July 1, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Hi again, Scoob:
Yeah, that’s bound to make things more complicated. But if I’ve learned a lesson in my life, this is it: yeEnat meQenet kirru rejim newu. You never know “keyet endemiyametut”. Hopefully, none of us get to that place where we need to ask money from our people back home. Unless you are blogging from a state called “California”, where an actor whose movie you won’t watch if paid is the Governor. In that case, you are excused :cool:.
Wollo Dessie:
Welcome bro/sis. I’m sorry you are having the same problem Mazzi seems to have. Perhaps paying this website a visit may help?!
Atit’fa/fi
4.
Mazzi | July 2, 2009 at 12:09 am
ሰላም አበሺት፣
You know even the Amharic typing software I had on my computer apparently works in your comment section of your blog, except I did not know it would work nor did I ever try to use it before while commenting :-). አይገርምም? I think it is a similar software like the online one you pasted from Ethiopian Review. It sure will be fun to use the software for the occasional አማርኛ any one of us might want to use.
This particular post of yours (Chris’ joke, the grim job market, and the article about immigrants asking for money from the very homes they used to send money to) reminded me of some random story from somewhere I heard sometime back about a man who had been run through with a large spear. When asked if it hurt terribly, he was said to have replied “Only when I laugh!” Just like the man in the story, I could not easily laugh at the joke and not be phased by it or reflect on the article’s message without hurting somehow since the issue is too close to home right now :-).
ይሄኔ አንቺም “የባሰ አለ አገርህን አትልቀቅ!” ሳትዪ አትቀሪም ሥራ ሲጠፋ።
ቀላሉን ያርግልን!
P.S. Chris’ joke with slight modification….
Two African immigrants (AI) in the West say to one another …
AI#1: “Life is so hard right now!…”
AI#2: “How hard is it?”
AI#1: “It is so hard that if my village in Africa raises fund and offers it to me, I might have no shame and accept it!”
(Sigh! Can relate) :-).
P.S.S. After fiddling a bit (not sure what I did exactly) the mysterious squares that were showing in place of the Amharic letters previously got replaced by the actual letters! Wish I can share what exactly I did to fix this problem for your other readers, but maybe had something to do with the site you suggested. Not sure though. If anyone knows, please share!)
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Mazzi | July 2, 2009 at 12:17 am
Could the cure to fixing the problem with the Amharic font not showing up properly be simply downloading on one’s computer the “unicode ge’ez fonts software” link listed on the website you linked above? Just curious since that is one of the things I did myself.
Good luck anyone with the same problem!
6.
spacefog | July 2, 2009 at 6:27 am
I say ‘media running out of stories ‘ to this .
I know a lot of people whose realtives send them money from Addis even before the recession.
I don’t know what the big deal here is ?
On another note , the funniest joke on power black out in addis is the slide show of electric poles playing gemed Zilay with their wires, LMAO.
7.
abesheet | July 2, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Mazziye,
I have no idea what happened. I don’t have amharic software installed on this pc. But the Geez characters I see online seem to work fine. I think they’ve developed a new font every system can recognize as a picture, instead of a strange alphabet. I’m hoping to hear from WolloDessie if the link has been helpful.
Spacefog:
Nice to see you again, gurl.
I don’t understand. Are these people who get money sent for them students who won’t be able to support themselves otherwise? Or adults who believe they are too refined to do a minimum-wage job?! I can undersand and sympathize with a grown up who has been supporting his/her folks so far, going through a rough time, reaching out for a family back home. Or somebody, like I would if things got worse, for example, demanding the little savings he/she stashed away “ለክፉ ቀን” be sent to them. Otherwise, & if your family isn’t eating out of Sheik Mohammed Ali Amoudi’s hands, sounds plain cruel.
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Wollo dessie | July 3, 2009 at 6:46 pm
It is working now abeshet. Thank you for your assistance
9.
Ankami | August 26, 2009 at 11:10 am
What’s going on, my friend? Why do not you write?