RAISON D’ETRE

By Ketsela 

“I am a man: I regard nothing that concerns man as foreign to my interest”

A Latin proverb  

On many occasions I feel we Ethiopians are in the west with one purpose in mind, to some day return. However, there seemed no time limit for our actions to date. It has never crossed our mind as to what? When? And How? I do not know about many of you but I always feel that it was only yesterday I left the country. Time continues to travel faster than the speed of light. What happen to it? When I was back in Ethiopia the day kept lingering slowly; forget about the week and the month. Then there are so many things that do not equate with the reality of life. Am I really the owner of the house I just bought? Or am I that much secured in my career and employment? Or do I really have an Ethiopian friend whom I met here in the U.S. All these and other positions or combination of circumstances at this moment brought me to only one question; what are we?

Are we for real what we claim to be? Rich, intellectual, maker and breaker of the market. I ask all of you to sit down and right ten things about you both positive and negative. Yes, ten is enough. What is important here is you are not the only one with these many negative characteristics; any human on this earth has the same problems as we all do. But I feel many of ours problems could easily be solved with a goal in mind, a time management and the unnecessary competition amongst us. The average Ethiopian, if seriously considered his life he or she can attain success in life be it educational, spiritual and financial. Yet on a daily basis we engage in looking better than the person next to us. Let me bring the most important things for our objectives.

First, in the U.S. education is given to all who deem to enroll in any capacity. Our purpose to come to America includes first and foremost being someone educationally successful. Many parents left their well-to-do life for the sake of their children to be able to go to school to become “Doctors”. However, children who came from Ethiopia assimilate with the existing youth culture and continue to disappoint the parents. The result of these actions by the children ended up in absolute hopelessness and many of the parents ended up being mentally unbalanced. Some had committed suicide.

Second, many of the young men and women of college bound ages cover their shame of being illiterate by accumulation of clothes, furniture and brand new Camry’s and lavishly spend their hard earned money in highly crowded Ethiopian restaurants and bars as if there is no tomorrow. Many act and falsely feel well dressed, impressive manner and act to be role model but who are nothing but illiterate in both reading and writing. Trust me; I used to test math and English for Vocational Counseling agency where many Ethiopian come for job search. The max score they make was third grade level.

Third, competition, competition; that’s all we do to ourselves. Someone buy a house, we go and buy one. Designer clothes, we go and buy it. Education, are you kidding? I believe there are many things good about competition; it has a social facilitation effect if intended for personal improvement. Not with us Ethiopians. Actually for the purpose of defense mechanism, we whole-heartedly engage in political argument (mind you I did not use the word discussion) or become abusive by merely using the little English they know by responding “I don’t speak that language”. Forgive me, sir do you speak English?

Fourth, our union by marriage has a trend of avoiding our ignorance and lack of knowledge by jumping on Ethiopian Airlines to go back to pick and choose a younger and presumably innocent young lady, far younger than ourselves. Yes, readers I am aware of the young ladies’ objectives and ulterior motives but the desire of the man was that the new bride is going to “love and obey” him. I am reminded of the adage “you can’t teach an old dog a new trick”. And so the new life begins when the abusiveness of the man of accusing her of ogling and leering other men. This accusation does not have any ground. Yet, the fear of the husband is rooted all in his mind. I do not know about you but I know for sure women tended to acculturate with the American life style far better than men. It could be the fact men tend to waste their time in an Ethiopian restaurant and bar and women tend to befriend with American women. Now what seemed to be wrong with this picture? Can someone tell me as to why they do not look for a significant half here and now in America? My assumption is that the ones here are better in their life style, language, culture and hey, most of all the women know the legal system. Well, as long I am guessing let me add one more fear men possess in general; due to their educational level they have to go to places to avoid being a subject in their absence. I remember one night at an Ethiopian restaurant I eavesdropped the conversation of men in their forties; there were two women sitting and having a good time with dinner. The women were drinking Black label with beer chaser. Yes, it was Becks too. The three gentlemen actually were counting the number of drinks the ladies were drinking. Of, course they were drink themselves Beck’s every 20 to 30 minutes. Why? Then in a good Ethiopian nightclub the place is always crowded with both genders but nobody is dancing to the tune of the music. Men like to have the courage to ask soon as they are loaded. That brings another subject of fear of rejection.

Fifth, the churches, Mosques and community agencies are mostly led by individuals who had been in this country longer than most people and never in actual fact were exposed to the real American culture and sub-culture. They can easily be the judges and the jury on the young women in general. These community leaders may have been here in person but I guarantee you they have not left their country in their mental state.

Finally, I understand many are tied in their duel life they live in this country supporting two homes, here and in Ethiopia. Bless them! But they have to start to think “give a fish I will eat it today, teach me how to fish I will eat it forever”. It is time to think to send those means of making money. Copy machine, sewing machine, tools, etc.

This is my side of observation. I seriously believe we have a long-standing belief that we are afraid of changes. It will never sink in us that one day the change is for the betterment of all of us. Think about it.

WHAT DOES SEPTEMBER 11 REPRESENT AROUND THE WORLD?

In a twist of irony for us Ethiopians, September 11 now represents a bittersweet day. Five years ago, on this day while we celebrated the dawning of a new year, people in the US awoke to horrible news. Two of four hijacked commercial aircrafts slammed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. A third one supposedly slammed into the Pentagon and the fourth one mysteriously crashed near Shanksville Pa.; supposedly because there are too many unanswered questions about these flights. In fact, there remain many unanswered questions about the entire event of September 11, 2001. A recent CNN poll showed that 83% of about 54,000 people surveyed said that the US government has covered up the real events of 9/11 attacks.

The outpour of support and sympathy for the US on that day was unprecedented. The whole world was unified and vowed to stand behind the US to defeat the terrorists. Countries like India and Iran held spontaneous vigils and demonstrations in support of the US. Even poor people from the Masai tribe in Kenya offered to send cattle to the US as a symbol of their solidarity with the US.

Well, leave it to the Neo-Cons in power to squander an opportunity like this to find the root cause of such heinous act and also find extremists and bring them to justice. Now, the trail to Bin laden is ,"stone cold" according to the Washington post, and the world hates the US for its act of aggression and its disregard for international law.

But was it really a squandered opportunity, or was it a deliberate act hubris to execute a pre-conceived agenda? It now appears more and more that the Bush administration has used 9/11 to expand US imperialism around the world, and change domestic policy inside the US. Given what we now know about this current administration, it is not really too far-fetched to at least ponder these questions. After all, this administration is being run by members who wrote the original PNAC , which is the official doctrine for the Neo-Cons and whose stated goal is a total domination of the world by the US. In Chapter 5 of the document under the heading "Rebuilding America's Defenses" , this PNAC document ominously states:

"...the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor."

Even Ethiopia's political events was directly impacted by this event, with the formation of an ‘anti terrorism' task force (CJTF-HOA).

The quick learner of mischief that he is, our own Mr Meles has taken advantage of the event and has wickedly and perhaps predictably used it to forge an unholy alliance with the US to expand his own power and tighten his grip around democracy. We have witnessed the results of this alliance in the aftermath of the May 15 election in Ethiopia. Weapons given by the US government in the name of fighting terrorism have ended up in the streets of Addis Ababa and were used to kill innocent people.

What caused the tragic event of September 11, 2001? What could lead a human being born as innocent as you and I to commit such an act? Unfortunately, questions like these have been missing from the public discussion since September 12, 2001. The people in charge who were supposed to keep us safe and find the truth seem to have moved the country to an opposite direction. Here we are today on the fifth anniversary of September 11, the US just as vulnerable as it was that horrible day, and hated even by people who are supposed to be our allies.

So, it is in this spirit that I decided to post this speech by Arundhati Roy , a writer and an activist from India, from September 18, 2002. A poignant and perhaps self-examining line from the speech:

Since it is September 11th we're talking about, perhaps it's in the fitness of things that we remember what that date means, not only to those who lost their loved ones in America last year, but to those in other parts of the world to whom that date has long held significance. This historical dredging is not offered as an accusation or a provocation. But just to share the grief of history. To thin the mists a little. To say to the citizens of America, in the gentlest, most human way: "Welcome to the World."

ENTIRE SPEECH

May peace and courage be upon the families of the fallen on September 11, 2001 and may the world find its path to peace and harmony.

CHEREKA

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

May the new year bring much needed peace and love to our  country

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR SHAMELESS PROPAGANDA

Keith Olbermann is the host of the show 'Countdown' on MSNBC.  He is probably the only liberal voice on cable TV.  He used to be the sports anchor on one of the local TV stations here in LA.  Being a sports fan, I used to watch all the sports shows including his, but was not that impressed with his dry humor and his style.  He then went to ESPN for a few years and made a national name for himself with the same dry humor. 

Now, he is the host of one of the highly rated TV news shows on cable.  After watching his show on MSNBC for a while now, I have become a big Olbermann fan. He is smart, funny, and has a very engaging personality, better than 95% of the right wing nut jobs that have flooded the airwaves these days, both on TV and radio like Glenn Beck or Tucker Carlson. Tucker!!!  So tempting to change the first letter of his name!

If you have been following US politics, you may be aware that in the last week or so, the Bush administration has been on a tear ramping up its 'boogie man' talk, since it appears that that strategy is now falling on deaf ears.  Secretary of Defense Donald 'Duck' Rummy has likened anyone who opposes his and his boss's miserably failed Iraq policy to 'Nazi sympathizers' and  even the pResident (this is not a typo, he was selected, not elected which makes him a Resident of the WH) has followed up with the his version of rhetoric .  These people have no shame.

Below is Keith Olbermann's commentaries on both speeches.  What makes these commentaries so remarkable is that one, comments like this are few and far between these days, if there are any at all.  This tells you what kind of  'democracy' the US has become.  Opposing voices on TV and radio have practically been silenced.  Second, in the midst of this fear dominated atmosphere in the US, to come out and tell the truth is a brave thing to do and finally and most importantly, it is the truth and it is truly inspirational! 

Enjoy! 

RUMSFELD COMMENTARY VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT

BUSH COMMENTARY VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT

MSNBC VIDEO