Tuesday, December 29, 2009

We all are too important to fail!

"Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite" Kahlil Gibran- "The Prophet"
Gibran might have used this statement to say something else, but I just got it suitable to start my letter.
Friends, Now I see that most of us are in different tracks of life, I ask my self what if we all were in the Ethiopian Airlines, or Graphic designers, or preachers, or singers, or medical doctors? What if we all were the prime minister? What if I were you or you were me? It would have been as if all of our body parts wishing to be our brain. No skull to cover it, No heart to feed it, No nerves to deliver its order. Our brain would have ceased to exist.
So dear all friends, I urge all of us to forget all the cynicism, to elude the voice of the trumpet which feeds our ears that things can not be changed,that there is no tangible solution for the existing problems. Yes I know that we have different political and religious ideology. Yes I know that we have different background, that we came from different types of social structure. But I am sure that we all want to grow, to prosper. There are a lot of past mistakes which caused the current problems. But we can not continue to blame our fathers and do nothing. Neither should we wait a liberator and amass around him. One of Obama's themes during his primary campaign was "We are the one we have been waiting for". Let us forget the mistakes of the past. If those who suffered from the Apartheid were able to forgive, why not we- we people of the same color, the people who equally suffered from the atrocious past- Why not We? Let us stop having a scornful attitude towards each other. Let us not ask others' motive. Let us not take it personal when we debate. If we are apathetic to the current politics, let us not stay indifferent when our own flesh and blood suffer from poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, or diseases. I ask us to to contribute a fraction of our knowledge, forget the billions of birr we can contribute.If the engineer can design simple but more productive tool for the farmer, if the doctor can treat patients from his hometown during his vacation time, if the economist is willing to propose some sound fiscal policies, if the preacher preaches love, hope and faith without alienating ourselves then our prosperity will be eminent.
Finally I say that stakes are very high for us to sit idle. Those who suffer back home are our own people. What we have acquired in the western world can help millions of people in our dearest country. Don't forsake our own people. Whether we like it or not we are here because of them. Let our generation be a generation which acknowledges that we all are Ethiopians, and above all children of God.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Now ~Dylan Thomas~

Now
Say nay,
Man dry man,
Dry lover mine
The deadrock base and blow the flowered anchor,
Should he, for centre sake, hop in the dust,
Forsake, the fool, the hardiness of anger.

Now
Say nay,
Sir no say,
Death to the yes,
the yes to death, the yesman and the answer,
Should he who split his children with a cure
Have brotherless his sister on the handsaw.

Now
Say nay,
No say sir
Yea the dead stir,
And this, nor this, is shade, the landed crow,
He lying low with ruin in his ear,
The cockrel's tide upcasting from the fire.

Now
Say nay,
So star fall,
So the ball fail,
So solve the mystic sun, the wife of light,
The sun that leaps on petals through a nought,
the come-a-cropper rider of the flower.

Now
Say nay
A fig for
The seal of fire,
Death hairy-heeled and the tapped ghost in wood,
We make me mystic as the arm of air,
The two-a-vein, the foreskin, and the cloud.

some summer dishes( it is written in half greek and half eng.

I am writing this post just because I want to remember the ingredient and the steps of the food I have been cooking in Sifnos Island while i was the assistant cook in the restaurant. It is broken greek mixed up with some english. It does not bother me because its purpose is not to be read by you. am trying to be cocky...

Midia Axinista

15 midia
2 galisteres
2 xidonia
in small katsarola boutiro & kremidia kai meta fotia kai krasi(leuko) mexri na brazei kai meta ola ta ostraka.. otan anigoune... mikri posotita krema galaktos( se piato pasta... rixnoume maitano)
Bavette thalasina
5 mi. 2 gal. 2 xido and 2 garides me kefali
1. sto tigani ta ostraka kai nero. mexri na aniksoune brazoume. tis garides(me alati kai piperi)tis vazoume otan anigoune ta ostraka. Mexri na einai portokali oi garides. kai petame to nero . BAzoume salsa(kokkini) ligi posotita, ligo skordo kai zomos(bisk). meta apo 1 min bgaloume ta ostraka and tis garides. bazoume makaronia stin salsa. meta to bazoume se piato. ta ostraka guro guro sto piato. maitano..stelnoume gia paso.
bavette garides
3 garides me kefali, roxa, tomotinia 4(ta koboume stauro)
boutiro sto tigani...tiganizoume tis garides(alatismenes) mexri na ginoune portokali. bazoume tomatinia. se ligo bisk.. and roxa. xorizoume tis garides. makaronia and garides. oxi maitano
garides saganaki
se mikro tigani ladi kremidia and prasina piperia. se ligo 6 katharismena garidakia. tis tiganizoume mazi. sbinoume me Ouzo. bazoume mikri pst. salsa(kokkini) and bisk kai feta. se ligo sto saganaki to serbiroume zesto. rixnoume maitano.
Midopilatho
7 midia.
se tigani kremidia, piperia, midia & ladi. otan anigoune.. sbinoume me ouzo. bazoume rizi, ki anetho.zestanoume mexri na zestathei to rizi (ean theloume ligo bisk). serbiroume se bathi piato.
Tiganito rizi me garides
3 garides xoris kefali( otan katharizioume tis garides afinoume to lepi konta sto kefali), oxi alati oute piperi.ladi sto tigani kai garides mexri na ginoune portk. bgaloume tis garides, bazoume to rizi(hdh brazmeno me nero kai boutiro). otan zestathei rixnoume meli kai thn soya(oxi poli afou einai almiri kai kauteri). ta bazoume se piato oval. kai garides pano sto rizi . Sto telos fresko kremidi pano sto piato.
Rizzoto me Garides
3 garides xoris kefali. sto tigani bazoume rizotto(hdh mageirhmeno me skordo kremidi kai krasi) kai nero, otan blepoume oti einai etoimo to rizzoto bazoume tis garides( altismenes) pano mexri na ginoun port. tis bgaloume kai meta rixnoume ligo krema galaktos sto rizoto(mn ksexasoume na anakatepsoume to rizoto me ksilini).me tn ksistra lemoniou ksinoume poli ligh posothta. se piato pasta, to rizzoto kai tis garides. diaskomisi sto piato me balsamiko.
Soupa Tom ka and Tom yum
tom ka
1 xteni and 1 garida xoris kefali. se mikri katsarola tom ka paste( half Tsp.) kai nero. otan brazei arketa, bazoume laxanika(green, yellow, red, orange pepper, ginger, zucchini) kai to xteni and thn garida meta otan einai etoimo rixnoume arketa gala karidas. Se ligo sto piato pasta. no decoration. prepei na anakatepsoume se oli thn diadikasia.
tom yum
3 garides gia saganaki,tom yum paste 3 tomatinia, kai manitaria,
Kalamari meli, kalamri pesto, kalamari skordo
se ola piata mia merida einai 11 chopped kalamari pieces and 1 kefali OR 4 thrapsala with 4 heads.
Meli
ladi sto tigani. kalamari otan den fainetai to nero boukomo, meli kai ligo soya. bathi piato
Pesto
ladi kalamri sto telos. prin na baloume sto piato ligo pesto 2 koutalia. kai piato
skordo
ladi, kalamari piperi sto telos skordo, piato kai maitano
Bavette kabouri kai Rizzoto kabouri, tiganito rizi kabouri olh i diadikasia einai idia me to bvt, rizzoto, kai tg.rizi garides ektos pou brazoume to kabouri gia meika lepta.
Astakos me pasta
koboume ton astako. plinoume(prosexoume na mn petame auga ean einai thiliko) se gog boutiro. kai astakous. meta apo 3 lepta svinoume koniak(metaxa). se ligo rixnoume salsa, tomatinia, maitano kai skordo. kai ligo bisk. otan einai etoimo bazoume se piato to astako kai bavette stn salsa. kai pano astako, decoration me maintano,.
barbounia, alati psari,solomo limoncello me lime kai krema galaktos, solomo me ouzo anetho kai bisk
orektika: tarama, fava, tartar solomo, karpacio solomo/ksifias, blita(xorta) brasta(patzari, karrota, patata, kai blita), athinaiki, kopanisti, melitzanosalata, spanaki, patzarosalata, xoriatiki,axinos, patatosalata me augo.
Psaria: skorpines, glossa, sfirida, gauros, barbounnia, gouna,
epidorpio: pauloma, sika(brazmeno se krasi kokkino, kanella, garifallo,), pagota,katalana me mauri zaxari(burned)
Sxaras: kalamari, thrapsala, xtapodi, astakos, kabouri, psaria kai garides.
salsa:(kon kase, kremidia, skordo alati, sto telos pesto kai mixer)
bisk:( tiganizoume se katsarola karoto, kolokithakia, finokio, selleri,kremidi kai garides gia bisk) mexri na kaiei. kai meta bazoume arketa nero sto telos boutiro.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Still I rise ~Maya Angelou~

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Riots

"The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility." ~MLK~

sometimes riots do not ignite starting from nothing, or better to say, are not the first reaction towards the opposite ideology. They occur after the participants exhaust other means to make their case. So, they are used to get the attention of the "suppressor", or a third body. They are used, as MLK said in his speech( from which I quoted the ... Read Moreabove piece), to throw the very guilt on the system the participants are against to ...so that others would condemn not the sin they committed but the cause for the darkness which their soul is left in. However, their immediate result is another reaction instead of civil debate, a chain of riots and violence, more loss of life and property until the"suppressor" gives in or compromises or to the worst until the "rebellion" is crushed.. But it means that it requires the latter either to have a good will or to be cornered. Best examples are what happened after the murder of MLK and the spread of protestantism(Reformation)...
But what happens if the more powerful does not want to yield?
>>it will get an opening to mention loud the disorder, the loss of life and property. The participant will eventually be an outlaw. Doors will be closed for any progress, the suppressor will be more negligent. That is what happens in the developing countries after every election cycle... Read More.
And as MLK said defeat will be the ultimate result. The defeat is worse because it will come not from the outside but from the participants themselves. Low morale and finally lack of purpose...

FatherHood

We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one." ~BO~

I went through recent statistics about single parents, and watched movies and reality shows which depict about the life of single moms. these products of the show biz industry applaud divorce, undermine the core family value, and presents reluctantly mothers as the only engine in the process of the upbringing of children. While I was left ... astounded with how issues that can be solved with selflessness and little sacrifice lead to divorce which I say it the biggest Personality- Miscarriage, I was equally appalled by the dismaying character of some fathers.The economic independence of females in the developed nations may help them decide to step out of a marriage which they claim abusive, or boring having no space for love anymore and so on and so forth because they know that they can carry on in their own right.
But what about in nations like our own Ethiopia where a father is the sole provider, where he is the rule and the law of the family, where a mother does not know what her spouse earns?
This father treats the family member as his own subject because he knows that they don't have anywhere to go, that they're helpless. He demands apology from them for his own mistake.What about the father who does not know which grade his children are in, who spends most of his out- of- work time outside home leaving his wife with the needy children... ? or the father who has children in every town he visited?..
The Scripture says"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." But say it the divorce case i mentioned above or the marriage with already- separated- 2 ways, the absence of father in ones childhood has enormous impact on the child's future. He'll either avoid marriage fearing of ending up like his father or learn through failure. He will live being angry with his father for he was not taught how to handle crisis..
OR
as BO says in his book:A man's either trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for his father's mistakes.