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This post and many other articles in this directory are from EthioForum discussions. Join!Thank you, Ammanuel,
I am glad that this exchange goes under the heading "The Colonialized Mind" ("Colonized Mind" would be better). Somebody in the future who wish to know what people on EthioForum has to say about it at the end of the 20th century, could find it in electronic archives. What will our grandchildren will see?At that time they will know that if one to better a better human, he must member that he belongs to one race of humans, that if he wants to be African, he should remember that he is Ethiopian, he better remember his last name and generations before him. At the time when African Americans are searching for their roots, why would anyone want to be a generic "African"? In fact, I believe that one who wants to be true Ethiopian shall remember any and all bloods in him. Amhara or Oromo, without memory of it being Ethiopian is an empty sound.
This is the only answer I know to have an alternative to tribalization, especially in the governmental forms. Arise the past, including kings and queens, and see how far into history the memory of your social security number will take you. I just staged "The Three Sisters" by Anton Chekhov and for all the cast, crew, and the public, it was an encounter with the Russian culture. I want them to have the best of Russia, I want the Russian culture to live. The same with Ethiopian culture; that is what they did before us and that's how we know about it.
What is "Africaness"? It's how Europe saw Africa, when all Africans had one face -- black. That is the foundation of racism and cultural reasons for colonialism. The Marxist thought that they can overcome it with the sameness under the name "comrades" -- what do we have after half of the century in this experiment?
If you are African or friend of Africans, you better be friend of Ethiopians or Eritreans and discover them under the covers of ideologies. There are cultures, not ideologies in people's hearts. There are no colonized hearts, only brains with broken links to the hearts. Before you can talk about The United Nations of Africa, there must be those nations to unite -- and in peace, not at war with each other -- but with themselves.
The best cure from hate is love, and the best remedy against envy is admiration. Take a close look at your enemy's culture and you will find something to admire. Maybe you do not have enemies and it's only your mind which is your own enemy.
Dear Shiferaw, Thank you. Confusions is a part of the process of understanding. I try to keep a distance between what I say as a member of this forum (Anatoly) and what has to be said on behalf of The House of Sellassie, when we do work on the drafts of each statement. If people on the List do see Charles' or my frustration from time to time, please read it as a plea for help. Very little was done by the Imperial Family since 1974 and to put it right, is rather complex task. You don't have to be monarchist, royalist or nobility to see that the exclusion of Emperor Haile Sellassie causes the ommitence of most of the century's Ethiopian history. As the result -- the broken lines with the rest of the Ethiopian past. It's only American diplomats with no knowledge of it that could think that they can with the quick fix for Eritrean problem, which wasn't solved at the time of Menelik. Only the new generation of leaders with no Ethiopian or any other education, might think that their problems are new.
In 1995 I offered the National Theatre to work on the show about Haile Sellassie and they told me that their proposal to stage the play about Adwa was turned down because the name of Menelik is too hot. "How do you plan to teach Ethiopian history to the children?" The theatre was full of them. To have a society, people must reflect on their past and present, art being the best way to do it. If you don't you, another generation will be raised without knowing who they are. The children will never have notebooks and pencils without right textbooks. It is time to get out this vicious cycle when the next government denounced the previous and everything before them.
Maybe I am an American and I don't understand the attitude that nothing could be done. Can we solve all the problems. No, even after tomorrow and ten years from today. But there are many things which can be done today and should have been done yesterday.
I am not an Ethiopianist and Esther had choose business career over academia; we have to rely on the expertise of others, Dr. Charles Bryant-Abraham is a philologist, one of them. How do I know that they are right people? I trust. They came to us on their own will and nobody pays them to do what they do for Ethiopia. Why shouldn't I trust?
What can I do? Esther's master thesis was on the analysis of Ethiopian Diaspora in US, which proved to be very successful, maybe the most successful immigration from Africa ever. I think that it could be aneye-opener for many, but there is no such book that exists, I don't foresee that she will finish it. Another important work that could change the perception of Ethiopia and Ethiopians won't be done.
Do you know what I did? I opened another website "Sellassie Books" with an invitation for authors to web-publish their books. Do you know why people talk? Because you plan to work together. I trust people who work.
Speaking of confusion... To avoid it, we celebrate it all -- the Western Christmas, then later the Ethiopian and Russian. It's not so bad.
Yours,
Anatoly & FamilyDon't let them hijack your cause
by HauariaThe inlet to my brain isn't wired to TPLF headquarters. Nor am I under any spell to be a prisoner of anyone's emotions here. I don't want to be only a "condemning bastard!" Critical thinking, I believe, will help. Critical thinking is the depth in which you see the degree of good in bad and the amount of bad in good. If you hate the sea because it breeds sharks, you will condemn yourself not to swim in it for life. For those of you who think 'to oppose' by itself would bring 'redemption', here is a historic reference, a no brainier. Don't fail your country in wit.
Dumb and smart went to hell. They were put in the snow. It was too cold and Dumb started to complain and to shout: "it is too cold here, I want heat now.." God was fed up with Dumb's noise and took him to the fire. Smart asked God "can you tell me what melts snow.' God replied, "Salt." Smart asked God for Salt and God gave it to him. Smart melted the snow and lived happy ever after. Dumb was unhappy with the fire again and he started to complain and to shout: "it is too hot here, I want it cold now.." God was tired of his noise and took Dumb back to the snow. And God said to Dumb, "you made your way to hell, you will have to make one out of it."
That is not just a fairy tale. If you examine your past you will see it. We quivered with rage to abolish the Monarchy of Emperor Haileselassie. Our fury was so furor that we opted for a complete annihilation of any of the elements therewith, person or institution. We got a magnitude of response equal to our intent. We got the Dergue. The Dergue said, "you hated the monarchy, I ousted it for you. Now rejoice!" The Dergue in cold blood executed sixty of Ethiopia's extremely precious talents in just one evening. Now I tremble in shock as I learn about the prolific talents of such officials like Endalikachew Mekonen and Aklilu Habtewold. Then came the killing fields, the free shots, the red terror and what have you! Ethiopia, in a speedy course of time, lost its young, its talent, its glory and its innocence.
We were bitter. We shouted, we condemned, we hated the Dergue. Our rage at the Dergue was so ferocious that we didn't care who ate it. We got what we wanted. But we forgot that it mattered more who ate it than it was eaten. Woyane came about with Sheabia and took our people and our ports away and congratulated us. They said "rejoice, we ousted the Dergue for you and we gave you peace. Don't worry about the sea, there is many a country without it."
Let me wrap your ongoing story with a title: THEY USE YOUR CAUSE TO SEAL THEIR CASE. Who benefited from your grievances of the Emperor? The Dergue. Who benefited from you grievances of the Dergue's cruelty? Yes, you know who. Now Sheabia is hovering all over you to use your agony to seal their case, to make you forever landlocked and poor. You have seen it. They perk with plea cards around the world bearing pictures of our malnourished with profuse insults. They proffer to the world to pressure us to give up our rights for Eritrea because we are hungry. They have made our hunger their sauce. I will have hated my peers if my country loses its future because they were outwitted in their own game. The point is not who you should hate more. It is how you get what you want.
-pressure Woyane to repossess our ports
-pressure Woyane to abandon its Bantu Kilil policy-pressure Woyane to concede to free election Nothing should come at the expense of our nation's interest. You don't have to love Woyane to pressure it to do these. If you succeed to secure one at a time, you have done some work. If it wants to stay longer, it will concede to your demands willy-nilly. No injustice can stand the tests of time. But be careful, when you propose, your eternal enemy can dispose. Burn not your house to fright the mouse away.
Can anyone of you tell me how you plan to repossess the sea? My only hope is Woyane. If you have a feasible plan, please enlighten me because I'm in the dark. If you have not then learn how to complain, when to complain and to whom to complain. Know when to thank, and know when to act.
Libertarian: achieving individual sovereignty (liberty) -- live free!
"Those of us on the Internet are privileged - for we are witnessing the birth of an idea whose time has come - freedom.
The rest of the (non-cyber) world may not know it, but the 'net is a practical experiment in "self-governance". It is also a major freedom product.
Have you ever stopped to ponder just how the Internet works? I don't mean just technologically, but as a voluntary, self-organizing entity.
