Just testing photo posting...

Who's inciting what please?

A while ago I went on a work trip to a small woreda town in Oromia; as I was preparing for the meeting in the big old town hall I noticed some very interesting slogans painted and calligraphed carefully in technicolour:
One in Amharic: "Kinijit ye neftegna dildiy new!"
In Oromiffa: "Nafxagna Dinaa Oromiyatii..." I don't have the full text here, but remember the translation as "Neftegnas are the Oromo people's enemy" and one here that still needs translation: "Kanguddina Oromiyaatiif Hawwumarti Ammarraa Misioomasiitiif Haa Kau!" (could be a harmless one)
So what exactly is this government doing? I mean it could be some private person's incentive to stick these on the wall, but I get the feeling the woreda's admin. has something to do with this, even by just turning a blind eye.

On ETV for the all-day Meskel celebrations bonanza (yay!) the Amarigna programme was held in Hadiyya country- looking as if celebrating the diversity and variety of our country. If you had been watching the earlier Oromigna programme, too, then you would have had a sick feeling rising: Poems, plays and speeches about Neftegna this, Neftegna that... Staged to look as if it was an impromptu performance by "ordinary people like you and me"- yeah, stumbling through some thinly disguised Amhara-phobic drivel concocted by an EPRDF/ TPLF cadre who's just been through a "Qube" crash-course.

The EPRDF has imprisoned the opposition and various others on charges of "Inciting genocide" and planning the next round of killings in Africa that would make Rwanda look "like a child's play". Hellloooooo?!?!? What is this then going on in Oromia- on one hand beating and intimidating farmers with various Mafia means (www.hrw.org) for voting for Kinijit and Hibret and on the other hand telling them about Neftgnas and that, by implication, the opposition is led by Neftegnas who are the enemy of Oromos. It baffles me that they can get away with such bullshit!

The Oromos I know do not subscribe to the EPRDF version of "Neftegna and Amhara are our enemy", however this propaganda fuels radical organisations such as OLF (and ONLF)- and they do not leave room for anyone but Oromo supremacy. Can anyone else see that this is divide and rule of the worst kind becuase it has now openly mde it onto the walls of community meeting venues- makes you wonder what some if these meetings are about huh? Animal Farm style "enemisation" of an obscure entity (Neftegna) to disguise the works of the true enemy within. However this won't leave the EPRDF unscathed if it ever kicks off.

All I hope is that, apart from not buying the EPRDFs bullshit, the Oromos and other ethnic groups also use their cunning to distinguish between genuine national pride and hot-air pompous racism as bandied about by other organisations.

I AM THIS, YOU ARE THAT; IF YOU’RE NOT WITH ME, YOU’RE AGAINST ME; MY FRIEND'S ENEMY IS MY ENEMY…

Truly? Lately there’s been a lot of discussion on the ET-net as to what Ethnicity and Nationalism are, the damage and good they are doing.

Perhaps in a country and culture like ours and many others in the developing world individualism is not allowed to be expressed- you belong to this tribe, that religion etc.; from the minute you are born your life is mapped out for you according to your gender, your family’s social status and whatever arbitrary yet deeply ingrained notions.
The need to show yourself to the world for who you are is quite a human need, but within the bounds of your culture’s norms and values you can only go as far as the next one your age and gender has gone before you get bored. What others live out by thinking they’re punks, hippies, mods, beatnicks, grungers, rockers, rasta, vegetarian, vegan, fishitarian, that version that only eats stuff that has fallen off its tree naturally, gay, lesbian, bi; some live it out using ethnicity as an obvious means to show off their values and pride-metaphorically they quiver spears, shake their mane, bare their teeth and roar! I’m all for a bit of national pride and am not belittling the photogenic “ethnic-tribal” stuff- I used to strut around with shema-scarves and zagol jewellery back in Europe; and I still wear shirts made of Ethiopian fabrics and have switched to Ethiopian silver. However I would never dream of stating proudly that I am of this or that tribe; that Ethiopians are more superior to “other” Africans; that “ferenj” are strange and crude etc.
Being a bombastic, arrogant, aggressive, ignorant bigot who subscribes to dubious “theories” about the origin of humanity and ethnic identity is not taking pride and joy in his heritage, rather it somehow reeks of a desperate attempt to cover up insecurity and shame at what is imagined to be target for ridicule by someone we (secretly) suspect is superior.
I met an Ethiopian in London once and while we were out and about using London’s admirable (…) public transport system he was there commenting on how rude west Africans are, how jealous of Ethiopians they are with their kinky hair and swarthy complexions, how they really hate the women (women) and how they secretly hanker for some good mannered Ethiopian Sheherazade (men). Then he moved onto calling the Europeans foul-smelling (all that dairy and pork making them smell of goat- huh?) and look at how pink they are- blahdiblah… On it went, and the sad thing was that he himself was a very ordinary pot-bellied short Ethiopian man with bad table manners and who couldn’t take “No” for an answer. Jumped- up national pride led to the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and the brewing unrest here in Ethiopia.
Religion is a similar target -if someone is muslim they’ll face some derision and silent discrimination- but boy if you’re a “PENTE” you’re the devil’s own seed and have to be put down. We all act as if we have been spoon-fed religious truths by God Himself and are in constant communion with Him about any updates.

As Ethiopians we have not just responsibility for our individual selves- right now, when it comes to what makes up Ethiopia is not that we are governed by Tigrayans trying to avenge the Derg’s atrocities by oppressing Amharas and all other tribes, with the OLF waiting in the wings. We have to see that if we carry on like this, scowling at Amharas, Tigrayans, Oromos, Guraghes because we suspect them of abusing our Itiyopia- we ourselves are abusing Ethiopia by subjecting her to a fate of Rwanda. Our responsibility is for 77 million and the future generations to make the best of what this country is, whether they choose to be Pentecostal hippies who only eat orange foods or whether they stick to being what their families have handed down to them.
Also, in the end there will be everlasting guilt for having been so narrow-minded and ignorant. See Germany and its guilt- ridden fear of displaying any national pride; if, as a German, you ran around with the Black-Red-Gold as we do here with our Green-Yellow-Red you’d be deemed a Nazi… And that breeds backlash in the form of youths being sick of being told of how bad their ancestors were when all they need is a job- so the cycle continues in many variations.

SHTOOPID ATTACKS

Well, well, well so there’s this well-dressed guy sauntering down the road in the hottest part of Addis. He looks proud and dignified, cool and groomed. Then a transformation comes over him- he looks possessed, his arms gangle high above his head, his face is contorted and his cracking voice is heard shouting “Hey, you, wazzap, whereyougo?” You turn into the direction the shouts are headed for and you see- a foreigner walking down the road, minding his/her own business. Worse if it’s a she trying to mind her business- what these idiots do would land them a fat court case for sexual harassment elsewhere; being a “she” let me recount the multiple ways with which people try to “befriend” me (I’m not hot, ok, so it is a measure of the idiocy) :
1. Staring at your face, your tits, and probably your ass
2. Walking up way too close to you and then staring at your face
3. Walking up close, staring and maybe even managing to brush against any part of your body
4. Sitting too close in taxis, checking you out as you get off
5. Driving up fast behind or towards you, hitting the breaks, hanging out of the window and saying (see item No.6). In a terrifying incident in Arba Minch some guy tried to block my way by veering his car around- twice (whoa, man, I was totally melting in the face of such romantic overtures!)
6. Saying the following words in any order and combination:

Qey, humpf, Qeyo, you, bitch, hey, saxy [sic.], money, laaaadieeee, give, ferenj, wazzap, fuck you, comehere, where you from, ugh, hiiiiiiiii

This is hardly ever alleviated by being in the company of a guy, especially if he happens to be ferenj.

I’ve always been keen on being left alone by strangers in public spaces, and having grown up in Europe I see it as my right, so even just a child trying to be friendly or practice English makes me scowl- I’ve only just learnt to respond with a little smile and a response in Amharic. So the idiot attacks, coming from street-wise Addis Ababans (both sexes, the girls being worse with their bitchiness), beg the questions:
Are you being like this because you hope to be my friend? Are you trying to be cool and impress someone? Do you think I’ll take pity on you for being obviously better-off in this poor country and give you more money to alleviate the pain? Are you, after all, practicing English? Oh, I geddit- it’s Tourette’s Syndrome! No? Perhaps you think this is how friends are made? OR MAYBE YOU’RE JUST AN IDIOT?!??!

I resent this, I feel sorry for all those who have to suffer daily insipid comments and remarks. (Though someone told me that some women in Addis actually worry they’ve not taken care with their appearance and grooming if they’re ignored. How can you rest your self-esteem on some serial Skirt-chaser’s behaviour?)
In some cases it’s actually better in the countryside, although it depends on where you are, people just take a closer look and mutter something to themselves and each other.
But my main reason to resent this is the question: how can a people renowned for their aloofness and dignity degenerate into heap of incoherent clowns? I know that Ethiopia has more pressing concerns, but a media campaign saying “Don’t be an idiot!” with ads and talk shows should be launched.