AmdeTsion, My AmdeTsion!

I am in LOVE!
En-CHANTED!
In-TOXICATED!
Had the most awesome lunch ever in which i had my first Epiphany. And now I’m in-love! In love, with Amdetsion! Emperor Amdetsion! Who, before today, I only knew through history books I never read and a poem I had translated for my Ge’ez class:

What, and, which territory he brought back I didn’t know. Didn’t ask! Didn’t care! But I asked this morning and explain my friend did, what/why and how, to the last drop! I am not a huge fan of politics. Am worse when it comes to world affairs. My history knowledge, however, is more or less non-existent. I only know names and with what to associate them.

• “The French Revolution” I associate with a spoilt princess, “Best of times, worst of times”, Charles Dickens, and Le Guillotine
• “Watergate” I associate with Nixon, ‘I’m not a crook” and an ABBA’s song made for Waterloo
• Which I associate with Napoleon & Josephine

That’s all I needed to appear learned, informed. And with it I either convinced them, or confused them. This day of our Lord, 26th day of the year 2008 though, I asked all the questions. The what, the why, the who and the how. Then I went to Google to read on it. And baptised I was, with love! For “ArBegna AmdeTsion, MeLaLash YeWossen”.

It’s a sick feeling, coming across accusations you “beDabesa” know can’t be blamed on our government 100% (like Somalia and Ogaden), as I came across this morning. What am I missing, I ask myself, that I don’t seem to know how to get through to these people that Ethiopia NEED to hold onto her guns if she has to survive as a nation?!. That many were our ill wishers, and powerful are those who take care of them, for us to lie on our bed at nights and dream of “England”, so to say?! That we would have to keep our guns by our bedside at all times, have them lie on our knees when we are preparing each “gursha” to throw into our mouth; that we can’t afford to, don’t have the freedom of mind for, the eating of our enjera, and lapping of our water unawares (like dogs?!)

I knew all these – beDabesa!! But couldn’t explain it to neither Dr. Ethiopia (over by Abesha Bunna Bet) nor his pacifist friends for I knew not what I was really talking about. A female soldier minus her “Qeleha”, the undersigned had become for a moment there, ill-prepared to fight the holy war (our “holy war” this time, the war for survival as a nation & individuals who won’t have it no other way) becoming an easy target for both friends and foe.

But history lesson I had on lunch time. The very best! So I’m in love now, in love with Amdetsion and know why this East African country needs to have the biggest military power in all of Africa, inspite of being the poorest, inspite of famine and food aids. Our guns are our means of survival, as has been for thousands of years. And they should continue to be as long as there is breath in an Ethiopian’s body and those whose eyes turn red at the sight of one!

Now, I’m not sure how to make this crystal clear to you, how Somalia & Ogaden (and all those ensuing places of our war of survival Al-Jazeera would be telling it the way it hasn’t happened against us) are above religion and beyond heaven, without being politically incorrect. Perhaps you should try to meet with my friend and discuss it with him. He knows how to tell it, the way it’s been and is happening. And I am in love, en-chanted, in-toxicated by one AmdeTsion, Emperor of Ethiopia. And, yes, Meles, I’m with you on this one!

God speed!

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?!