2 - untile close to the end of the poem I though it was for me...:) (Comment this)
Written by:
Anonymous
at 2006/05/24 - 09:34:33
3 - Gisu, there is a question I have been asking myself latlely and I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet but I would love to hear your take on it. Why should I feel proud about things I can't change and why should I feel proud about accomplishments to which I haven't contributed an ounce? Being from the line of Kush and being an Ethiopian, for example are things I can't change even if I wanted to. Should I be proud of stuff I don't have control over. By the same token, is it becasue of a sense of ownership that i should feel proud abut the great Axum civilization and the accomplishments of Adwa? I am, however, proud of my ability to drink about a liter of yirgachefe coffee a day. I do it for the motherland. I am the main reason why our economy has been growing at 7% annually. (Comment this)
4 - I love writers’ fascination about the universe. I love the way you used the sun on your poem. You rule. I enjoy your writing skills. (Comment this)
Written by:
Anonymous
at 2006/05/24 - 11:43:26
5 - wegesha,
You posed yourself a tough question. For me the key is to identify whether you are primarily a member of a group (through shared history, lineage, etc…) or an individual, first and foremost. If your individuality dominates all else, I guess you should not feel obliged to be proud of this piece of history or that. But if this is indeed the case, I hope you won’t start whingeing when, for example, Yekolotemari becomes Prime Minister and announces “What is the relevance of Axum’s civilisation to the people of GamuGofa” (or some such gem of wisdom).
May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your contribution to our economy? Assuming that half of the (mythical) 7% annual growth rate is due to your copious consumption of Yirgachefe coffee, a worthwhile research question would be “How many litres of Yirgachefe coffee should Wegesha patriotically consume everyday to eradicate poverty from Ethiopia by 2011?” (Hint http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12815113/). (Comment this)
6 - Wegesha, I know what you mean. You've asked a question I have always wanted to ask. It's like when someone says 'your have a cute baby', or 'you are a handsome man' or 'a beautiful woman ' (whatever the case may be). :) Or when they compliment certain parts of your body (no not that), like when they say 'you have nice hair' or 'nice eyes' or whatever. When someone says something like that to me (which BTW is once in blue blue blue moon :) ), I say, ' I have nothing to do with it'. (Comment this)
and your question about “What is the relevance of Axum’s civilisation to the people of GamuGofa” is on point! :) Can you picture the people of 'Gamu Gofa' version of your poem?
Would they mangoragor about Kush, Axum, Lalibela, and Adwa when talking about the score of their past? May be... just maye be, the scores are 0 le 0 for them :( (Comment this)
second to Ethiopian leadership, this has been the bane of my Ethiopian existence. I used to have a poster of Tis Abay in my dorm, which the Ethiopian Tourism Commission brilliantly decided to translate directly as 'water that smokes'. Once my friends were done making fun of the unsavvy marketing phrase, they would go on to ask, 'is that Ethiopia?' Um. No. Maybe I took a picture of Niagra Falls and put "Ethiopia" next to it? WTF? Still I had many who'd come back asking again and again, including a Kenyan friend who eventually had to be threatened with eviction from the room and excommunication before it (hopefully) occurred to her that there might actually be water in Ethiopia.
I find that it's not so much that I am proud, or feel the need to express my gushing delight over what our forefathers have done. What bothers me is the inability to have a decent discussion about Ethiopia with decent non-Ethiopians when their views have been so jaded by all the negative talk of western media. The Ethiopia in my mind and the Ethiopia the rest of world imagines are starkly different. Too different. So when I am unable to discuss current day Ethiopia, I fall back to defensive and am only left with iterating past glories, if that would elevate my audience to my perspective ...
You posed yourself a tough question. For me the key is to identify whether you are primarily a member of a group (through shared history, lineage, etc…) or an individual, first and foremost. If your individuality dominates all else, I guess you should not feel obliged to be proud of this piece of history or that. But if this is indeed the case, I hope you won’t start whingeing when, for example, Yekolotemari becomes Prime Minister and announces “What is the relevance of Axum’s civilisation to the people of GamuGofa” (or some such gem of wisdom).
May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your contribution to our economy? Assuming that half of the (mythical) 7% annual growth rate is due to your copious consumption of Yirgachefe coffee, a worthwhile research question would be “How many litres of Yirgachefe coffee should Wegesha patriotically consume everyday to eradicate poverty from Ethiopia by 2011?” (Hint http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12815113/). (Comment this)
and your question about “What is the relevance of Axum’s civilisation to the people of GamuGofa” is on point! :) Can you picture the people of 'Gamu Gofa' version of your poem?
Would they mangoragor about Kush, Axum, Lalibela, and Adwa when talking about the score of their past? May be... just maye be, the scores are 0 le 0 for them :( (Comment this)
"bilew bilush yealem chira
bemin afe sl'anch lawra"
second to Ethiopian leadership, this has been the bane of my Ethiopian existence. I used to have a poster of Tis Abay in my dorm, which the Ethiopian Tourism Commission brilliantly decided to translate directly as 'water that smokes'. Once my friends were done making fun of the unsavvy marketing phrase, they would go on to ask, 'is that Ethiopia?' Um. No. Maybe I took a picture of Niagra Falls and put "Ethiopia" next to it? WTF? Still I had many who'd come back asking again and again, including a Kenyan friend who eventually had to be threatened with eviction from the room and excommunication before it (hopefully) occurred to her that there might actually be water in Ethiopia.
I find that it's not so much that I am proud, or feel the need to express my gushing delight over what our forefathers have done. What bothers me is the inability to have a decent discussion about Ethiopia with decent non-Ethiopians when their views have been so jaded by all the negative talk of western media. The Ethiopia in my mind and the Ethiopia the rest of world imagines are starkly different. Too different. So when I am unable to discuss current day Ethiopia, I fall back to defensive and am only left with iterating past glories, if that would elevate my audience to my perspective ...
And it almost never works! (Comment this)