Thursday, April 13, 2006

Ah, ኮምጣጤ!

I bumped into this hilarious parody at Yekolo’s blog, which led me to a Website of The Nonsense (Warning: approach in full armor! Rudeness, acrimony and obnoxiousness, all in the name of good humor, abide) and then to a discussion which revealed the source of the parody, an interview with Zeritu Kebede, at the one and only, Addis Live! (Warning: if you’ve not been there already, then you’re missing the essential some-some of habeshatude!)

So … the interview was … ምን ልበላችሁአለ አይደል … umm … በቃቂቂቂቂቂቂ ….(Ok. There’s only so much Zerututalk I can write!) … excruciating! It was insufferable. Agonizing. It brought back memories of first days of ፍስለታ ጾም when I was a kid, you know, right around 2PM, in time for የምትፈናከት የቀትር ጸሃይ, when they’d start lining us up, all unknowing, sin-less, ረሃብ የቦጨቃቸዉ kids so we can መቁረብ, and for one moment, ግዜር ተእምሩ እያልቅ, there’s … harmony, as discord ceases to exist in the minds of millions of Ethiopians – albeit all children – across the country as they stare up at the adults, making it seem like their stares were actually directed to the heavens in piety and awe, while in fact all were whishing that this process would end, like, now, as in አሁኑኑ፥ በቃን፥ ደከመን፥ ራበን፥ ሰለቸን፥ ቄሱም ጉሮሯቸው ነቃ … where is …ንትን … what was it …why are we here … ረሃብ makes one delirious … eh …አዎ … where is … ቁርባኑ? Give me .... whatever it is now and let it all be over. Now, goddammit! (and BTW, ግዜርዬ ይቅር ይበለን for having these thoughts). Yup, that was her interview. Where exactly was it going, and why was I following?

Every whisper (“Baby”, not seductive!), laughter, ‘Arif’ …. አሰቃቂ … goddddddammn. The thing was supposed to last 1 hour and I was watching the time counter on WinAmp tick, thinking እውነት? .. ሌላም ልትይ ነው? ተይ ንጅ? ወይ ጉድስቲ? So I kept going. Sadomasochism 101: Theories of Habesh Molqaqification.

Then the time hit 33 minutes and something changed. Nothing really happened - I just came to the realization that this girl was …. f***ing crazy! They say ማር ሲበዛ ይመራል … well, here’s one for you : ኮምጣጤ ሲበዛ ይጣፍጣል. I LIKE HER! Me like crazzzy. She’s crazy. Have I stressed that enough?

We keep complaining about how habesh are bound and held back by ይሉኝታ, “ሰው ምን ይለኛል” mentality, unfaltering attachment to our “Ethionpian-ness”, our great history and long traditions, that we have an unfaltering definition of education as the fields of science, engineering/medicine and success is defined by those and only those.

This girl doesn’t have an ounce of ይሉኝታ left (or born) in her, her Ethiopian-ness needs a classification of its own. She is more of a candidate for a ፈረንጅ whose soul was stolen by aliens, implanted into an Ethiopian skin, and dropped on the Abyssinian highlands by some cosmic fluke. She has an unabashed lack of appreciation for … almost anything Ethiopian (oh wait, no … can we surmise that she likes አንጀራ, but obviously not ዳቦ?). This girl … has almost no appreciation for education, nor does she seem to have had much of it, for that matter. Not only does Zeritu not care about what the public says of her, she doesn’t seem to care what her አብሮ አደግ thinks of her (or what Zeritu says of her!) Above all, we’ve to give this to her … she’s young, successful and ደፋር to the point of አይን አውጣነት!

Well, አዳሜ ሃበሻ … be careful what you wish for … the 21st century delivers to you, “Baby”, with a banging style.

Having said that, I should also note that I don’t like her music. Here’s the problem: you know those Ethiopian songs that are so looooooong that even if you start off liking the song, 7 minutes later (Efrem Tamru is notorious for this) you ready to break the radio, or into a deliverance prayer, because you feel … nauseated? The problem with her music is that I can only listen to the first one minute before the impatient brain cell starts screaming ‘next!’ Her stuff is mildly refreshing, but not captivating.

Unsurprisingly, her music reminds me some pop songs I’ve heard on some US rado station that never quite made it to the top charts. Now, I didn’t even listen to Britney at the height of her career and I was still a teenager. When I listen to Zeritu’s music, I feel like I’m doing it a favor in the name of it being Ethiopian (and damn – she doesn’t even care!) I fear that one way favors can only go for so long.

I may refrain from listening any further interviews with Zeritu (coz now it’s flipped back to ማር ሲበዛ ይመራል, you know), but I will look forward to her next album. I hope that by then she’d have grown a little bit more of … substance, while maintaining her dis-Ethiopian Ethiopianness intact.

Yup, yup …. I dig this chick, man. She’s crazy.

Headline of the Week

"No African country is objectively spending enough on defense," says Eboe Hutchful, executive director of the Ghanaian think-tank, African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR). This was announced at a conference on military budgetary processes in Africa, held in Addis Ababa. Hmm. Oh, you mean buying Hummers to mow down civilian protestors is not …‘strategic’ enough for military spending?

EPRDF does not have time, need or desire to be objective about its military spending. Why strategize when all you have to do is shoot when in doubt, and also shoot any Ethiopian who dares question this approach. Is ASDR crazy? Advising prodigal African governments to spend more money to better strategize how to blow money … to kill more Africans? I am not sure what I find more offensive – the conclusions of the conference, or the fact that the conference was held in the first place.

What the hell is ASDR anyway?

Also, “Business in Africa”, do a lil’spell check on your news items, please.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Daily Prayer

Ha ha! Funny (minus the part about "thy womb ...")

http://users.evtek.fi/~kibreaba/meles.html

Where is Dedesa, anyway?

Power to the wonders of backtracking URLs. I came across this page that had a good range of oldies that'd eluded my ... pitiful collection. And to think, just the other day I was reading about respecting Ethiopian artists' copyright ... (which, btw, I sympathize with but since it cannot be technologically helped, i think artists should look into other ways of making themselves more attractive... including looking into producing an entire album - or almost - of worthy music so that some of us will actually bother to get off our arses to buy their stuff. How often does that happen in the Ethiopian music scene? I don't mind giving money to charity. But when i give for charity, I'd like to call it charity, not music shopping. I mean, for example, are these people tax deductible? .... pardon me, April 15 ደርሶኮ ነው!)

Anyway, some of the stuff on that page, I don't think most of can go out and buy even if we wanted, or so I tell myself ;-)
አይጥ ሞትዋን ስት ስታበዛ ሩጫ
ሄዳ ታ
ታለች የድመት አፍንጫ
So I continued to dig ...
But then it got better ...
... and better ....
  • Nanu Nanu Naye with Israeli accent. What more can one ask? Good stuff. (No really, it's Mi'Maamakim from Idan Raichel - now this album I will buy).
How was that for random?

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Headline of the Week

I think I should dedicate a post per week to ridiculous news headlines. Last week's was Nigeria/Liberia/Sierra Leone and Taylor. This week it is:

[Drum roll]

[Better yet, imagine the first 15 secs of the song 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday']

I can't believe the news today
I can't close my eyes and make it go away

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4879822.stm

Africa, bloddy Africa.

The man took a shower to wash off HIV? Hmm....

.....hmm. A moment of silence, please. Let's mourn what a life could have been, but isn't.

My defense for Thabo Mbeki on what I believe is a misquoted statement on AIDS from 10 years ago in discussions with Americans (usually neCHoch, lemin yihon? They can't tell Timbuktu from Pretoria, but they all know that quote from Thabo Mbeki.) has not even rested yet. And now this? This?

I considered reading the article again in hopes that I would find a way to justify the statement as another misquote. Then it struck me that ... I really don't care. I give up. But I'm convinced this guy committed the rape. From his actions, he seems so dense that he probably doesn't know the difference between rape and consentual sex.

Anyway, they keep saying the woman is HIV positive. What about Zuma, when was the last time he was tested? He behaves like an irresponsible HIV+.

How long
How long must we sing this song?
How long, how long?

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Blog Stock Market

I came across this ... concept(?) It's a Blog Stock Market. It tells you how much your blog's worth on the 'market' in B$ currency. Apparently this one is worth B$1,402.79. Bicchhhaa? Mts!

The better value for me was that I bumped into a bunch of interesting blogs, of which some ethio-centric ones were ...

Ethio-Probe On Ethiopian current affairs. No joke zone.

Ethiopian Cartoons. Like it says ....

Ethiopia and Me , an interesting Indian woman in Jimma, with lots of interesting comments, and ... some "weTa weTa'na inde shembeqo, tenkebalele indemuqeCHa" ones:
"The people of Ethiopia have been in bondage for too long. They dont have freedom of speech, their democracy sucks, they are not developed..... India represents everything they long for - the right to do what they want, speak what they like, move forward with the world, wear colourful clothes and have pretty women (pretty as in white pretty woman)."
Hmm.

Organic Ethiopia on social democrats, coming to you in Swiss. Few posts, but still interesting. Curiously my kind of stuff, actually. I really think the CUD has some very good people, but some real crazy ones as well. Berhanu Nega would be one of my favorites. I'll reserve the 'Not Favorites" list for the time after EPRDF stops being so ... fascistic.

Elena in Ethiopia". Like it says ...