So Confusious!

I’m confused. If it’s not something to do with everyday drudgery, it’s to do with those high school (I hope!) kids who smoke pot in the laundry room beneath my apartment (what a choice of location if you don’t want to piss off strangers. ይጨብጨብቸላው), or with rare, but sufficiently convoluted US immigration laws … or something.

ለምሳሌ… when they say, “Those here for longer than five years -- an estimated 7 million people -- could earn legal work status immediately …”, does it mean that one had to be illegal for all of the five years? I’m wondering because suppose I hurried to violate my visa status now, and I have been in the US legally for longer than 5 years, do I still qualify for the amnesty? Alternatively, can I lie and claim that I lied when I first got my visa to enter this country, which will make my visa void, and thereby make my more than 5 years of stay in this country illegal? How about if I became illegal for the next five years? You see …I’m confused … unless I’m confused about being confused.

This, I believe, is the state my fiend calls ‘confusious’. I am confusious!

“ሌላስ?”, you say. I’m confusious because I don’t understand why EPRDF decided to ban all these blogs. I mean … no, I don’t mean … really, just why? Consider how many people have access to Internet. A diminutive proportion of the Ethiopian population. Consider what kind of people have access to internet. I would say Addis Ababans, in general, the same people that voted CUD whole heartedly into almost all their constituencies.

IMHO, all this is what habeshas aptly describe as, ‘He started from the ground and wanted me a thing!”. The government opened and stirred a perfectly content, ተከድኖ የሚንተከተክ ዶኬ. Now all this ሽሮ is መፈናጠቅing around, international journalist groups yapping, apolitical blogs are preaching censorship avoidance techniques, and amidst my confusion I have to go back and ask the basic question: all this for what? If Addis Ababans aren’t busy reading these websites and agreeing, they’re busy writing them. Are Addis Ababans about to change their minds and love EPRDF if they read or wrote less? Um. No. So ለማን እና ለምንድን ነው censorshiፑ?

Anyway, the fact that EPRDF tried to do something about the blog situation means that it’s tickling some people in the government the wrong way … which naturally leads this former Addis Ababan to the conclusion, nay affirmation, that something very worthy is being said here. Something so worthy that perhaps it should be spread beyond the Diaspora and internet-accessing Addis Ababan populations. These blogs should be made into a (bi-)weekly newspaper.

Between Aqumada’s poetry and essays from funny, yet misogynistic students of medicine, Enset's unconventional wisdom, Weichegud’s acerbic commentaries, Ethiopundit’s unrelenting politi-economico-blows, Seminawork’s ፍቺ of ወቅታዊ ጉዳዮች, Bernos’s … well, ምን ያልታሸ መድረክ ቀረ?, Meskel Square’s የአደባባይ ምስጢር, CoffeeChilliSun’s ጸሃይ አያስሞቁ ፤ ቡና አያስጠጡ ፤ ቃተኛ የሚያስቆርሱ መጣጥፎች … እንዲያው ምኑ ቅጡ … herein lie the perfect fodder for a pot luck publication.

I say, somebody should select articles from the past week (with the consent of the bloggers, of course), print it, and sell it cheap, darn cheap (well, no need to pay reporters, after all) just in case those who cannot afford time & money for Internet in Addis miss out on the best of የተወገዙ bloጎች.. .

No?

Yes?

No?

Maybe?

Curiously, I’m now a lot less confusious. Really.

Got my route laid out and my mind is clear
Got my pen and my pad, gonna get it all down
'Cos words are a road that lead outta town