የስደተኛው ህጻን ጸሎት

ሰንዱቅ አልጠይቅ ብር የተሞላ
ሱሪም አልፈልግ ከሀር የተሰራ
ይቅርብኝ 'ልልታችሁ ይቀመጥ ለኋላ
ግና...
ስጡኝ መሬት 'ትብቴን ምቀብርበት
ስጡኝ አገር እንድኖር ሣላፍር

እኔም አይደለሁ...

የማር የወለላ የጥፍጥና ገንቦ ተነግሮኝ መሆንሽ
አንዳች ጭምብል ሳይኖር
ማር እቆርጥ ብዬ ብጠጋ ከቀፎሽ
እባጭ ፊቴን ሞልቶት ሸሸሁ ከሠፈርሽ::
አንዴ ከመቅመሴ ከወለላ ማርሽ
ሰው ፊት እንዳልቀርብ
ከውስጥ የመሠጉ ነድፈውኝ ንቦችሽ::

The Kids are not alright

I

t is too depressing when you see that we live in the era of tabloid lifestyle- a lifestyle without philosophy and substance. Preachers preaching about money and boasting about their mansion and limousine, people going on television to sell their personality- a personality molded by others, nothing original. Everybody copycatting that lifestyle- and somebody who shuns it- thrown to the corner and patronized.

Everything is commercial. I wish I could travel back to the sixties and seventies. I wish I could buy a ticket for songs with deep message. Where is that all now? Every song about money and sex, every book with a title "How to..." as if there is a simple remedy to solve every question or as if we all are from the same cast. We are fed stories about someone's embarrassing act, tickets he was served, his sexuality or marriage failure. We know about his previous night even before he gets over the hangover and learns whatsoever happened to him. Even those deceased are not spared. If you have a page on Wikipedia, know that your bedroom story is also included.

As Shelley Berman put it beautifully "As a culture I see us as presently deprived of subtleties. The music is loud, the anger is elevated, sex seems lacking in sweetness and privacy."

I think we are going dumber and dumber as what we read, we listen and watch is anything but with substance. We don't know that we love or support, hate or admonish. We are not sure about what we believe, and everything we say we know is superficial.

The system has made us indifferent to knowledge much less reactive to a challenge. Our dialogues are about the pockets of others, or about their bling and swag or who is gay, who is straight. We don't care about issues we say we care. The Future, Racism, Sexism, Poverty, Liberty, Equality? No we don't care about all these stuffs. We just avoid all these topics. And if we somehow talk about them, we don't reason-we just use a vulgar language to tell it. We swarm a provoking statement from someone with more hateful comments. Our skin is thinner than our fathers', our scope much shorter.

It is not a coincidence that now we hear many in the showbiz business confessing that they suffer from bipolar disorder. If we continue like this- I am afraid- we will end up LITERALLY slaves to those who are feeding us this lifestyle while they indeed keep abhorrence towards it. Perhaps, it is that either I am melancholic or getting older.

Love In The Woods

Last time I told you that at least a couple were my envy in AWTI.In fact, there were a lot of good couples. You would see some in Zebra frequently, or having a walk in the evening. While you are in Space,You would be no more absorbed in what you read being interrupted with frequent giggles from some chicks whose heart is taken aby may be your dormmate, to be honest these chuckling sounds were sometimes far more disturbing than those Space Vampires, The Mosquitoes
But for me, there were a couple. I pass by the Beg Tera, I see the boy, I greet him. I finish taking shower, and return to my dorm, on my way I see this boy again but this time with his girl. I greet them and pass. I get dressed, come back to Beg Tera, oh man, while I hold my own, I will see that "Woret Yaldasesew Fikrachin". The boy hugging his girl, drinking from that Beso, greets me again but this time me and, you know,...whatever.That does not last long, 10:00pm the second phase takes place.

Well at 10:00pm you might not see that couple sharing Beso...You rather hear the girl yelling, the boy answering back, and then the girl lunging at him, and then the worst..That is why I say, This time, they are no more a couple. But every single time I said this, they proved me wrong. I left AWTI before I had one chance to prove myself right, lol . But the point is that, this couple was natural, was authentic, and of course pure Ethiopian-way couple.

Something to Share

You had probably parents who told you the whole eighteen years of your life how special you are, that nobody is like you! There is always at least a little shame when you fail to get what makes you special except the emptiness deep inside your heart. Emptiness that you don't see in your surrounding, which makes you somewhat static in the dynamic world. But all of a sudden you start to grin as that emptiness-the only resource you have- begins to fill your environment. Perhaps you are laughing because you shared something, probably everything you have, or perhaps because you are now less emptier and them-more emptier. But the question is do they laugh with you? Do they like the taste of emptiness?

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

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.