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mind entropy of the ethiofrican

to listen….is a peace action

30 September, 2007 | 2 comments | Category: ethnicity, I.dentity, peace & conflict, thinking...

talking with a friend made me think about the ways & reasons people listen to others

one clear reason being, harnessing a real desire to experience the other’s perspective… to walk in the other’s shoes (experiencing the blisters caused, waddling in the luxuries and feeling textures of the rocks under the sole)….

that actually may be the only way out of conflict…

~~ October 2, 2007: EDIT

interestingly…this makes me think that dialogues about conflict/differences, toward peace should be about feelings and personal experiences…not the intellectual/politico mumbo-jumbo replete everywhere we look… its about common ground and commonalities. about individuals and a grassroots change in ways of thinking.

call me a dreamer or call me something else… but i believe in words and pictures about imaginary worlds that encompass common experiences. for instance, “a nation- an imaginary world” where the experiences of a young nomad boy in Melka Jebdu are readily encompassed as are those of a city waitress who works @ kalid‘s in Addis Ababa.

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Merck abandons HIV vaccine trials

26 September, 2007 | 2 comments | Category: thinking...

Out of the 39.5 million total people living with AIDS 24.7 million were in Africa at the end of 2006. Even though I am too skeptical to look past disparities in the politics of medicine, strides in science offer no fleeting consolation…

This is the BBC article documenting the Merck decision:

“International drug company Merck has halted trials on an HIV vaccine that was regarded as one of the most promising in the fight against Aids.

Merck stopped testing the vaccine after it was judged to be ineffective. In trials, the vaccine failed to prevent HIV infections among volunteers who were at risk of catching the virus, including gay men and sex workers.

Merck had previously expressed high hopes for the drug, which it spent 10 years developing.

‘Headed for failure’

Merck’s international trial, called Step, began in 2004 and involved 3,000 HIV-negative volunteers from diverse backgrounds, between the ages of 18 and 45.

Merck said that 24 of 741 volunteers who got the vaccine became infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids. Out of a group of 762 volunteers who were given a dummy version of the jab, 21 became infected with HIV.

An independent monitoring panel recommended discontinuing the vaccination of volunteers, saying the trial was headed for failure. Most of the volunteers were at high risk of HIV infection. They were repeatedly given advice about how to practise safe sex, according to Merck.

The vaccine contained a common cold virus loaded with copies of three HIV genes. The hope was that exposure to the genes would prompt an immune response in the body so that cells containing HIV virus would be recognised and destroyed.

“Today is a very sad day for the industry because Merck’s vaccine had shown an ability to turn on the immune system, which gave many people optimism it would work,” said Sarah Alexander, from the HIV Vaccine Trials Network.

Doctors have said a preventative vaccine would be the best way to control the spread of HIV.”

Trails started in South Africa

early article about how the vaccine was projected to work and all…

ABC’s report on the Merck decision

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Cartoon starving ethiopians

24 September, 2007 | 6 comments | Category: I.dentity, i.mmigration, peace & conflict

I am not even sure if the publication of this cartoon in a student newspaper @ UVA, a huge academic institution outweighs the apology that followed, in levels of preposterous prejudice…

it’s curious what is ‘funny’ about this image? the food fight without food? offending about this cartoon…the loin cloths? the thin bald bodies?

news story

“We apologize to the entire University community for the poor editorial judgment exercised in running a comic that is so clearly inappropriate and hurtful. Understandably, the comic upset and offended members of the community who thought it unfairly depicted victims of horrible tragedy as savage and violent — reducing starving people to a punch line...

The Cavalier Daily’s policy regarding censorship was published in the lead editorial of April 24, 2006 after a different comic sparked similar discussions. The editorial read: “First, does the author truthfully depict a verifiable historical or contemporary situation? If not, and the context of the work is creative, we ask two more questions. Does the author make a serious, intentional point, the censoring of which would constitute viewpoint discrimination? Also, does the author criticize or make light of a group of people for any reason other than their own opinions or actions?”

The comic in question clearly violates the third criterion. That is, it criticizes people for circumstances they cannot change.”

Did the Cav Daily apology “Worth 1000 words” not address the equation Ethiopian people = starving…? and am I the only one hearing the helplessness in the critiqued people’s inability to change circumstances… or is it just my cynicism reading too much into it? really…? Please humor me because I have no idea!

Cartoonists’ statement:

“This was by no means intended to negatively portray Ethiopia or its people,” Woolard wrote. “[T]he term ‘food fight’ was not meant to imply that the figures were fighting for food, but rather with food, as the common usage of the term suggests. In the most extreme cases of famine in many parts of the world, people have had to resort to eating what would otherwise be considered inedible in order to survive…. This surrealistic hypothetical situation invites the reader to realize that what initially appears to be a joke reflects a sobering reality.”

Paulos put it this way: “The University of Virginia unfortunately has a history stained with dark memories. The level of ignorance and racism prevalent on these grounds cannot be sufficiently expressed in a few sentences. The comic strip is indeed indicative of the larger racial climate existent on this campus. It is suggestive of a broader question of black marginalization; whether it’s the treatment of black staff or the hiring and retention of black faculty, students of color continue to feel excluded from the larger community as a whole. As long as these larger issues are not addressed and resolved, smaller institutions such as the Daily will remain ignorant to the concerns of minority students at the University of Virginia.””

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yester-wheres

21 September, 2007 | 3 comments | Category: love.of.words!, nostalgia.personal, prose.tales

A hush caresses the morn with a whisper only momentarily, as a slanted ray illuminates the landscape. Speckles of sand dance spinning twirls in the wind.

The smell of early morning dew in the air wages battle with the pungent stank of rubbish along the floodplane, a 5 minute walk away… Where waste decorates the lush soft yellow sand of the ASHawa: the coveted playground of aspiring football stars who are daily baked by tropic sun, their hopeful dreams smoking up aerodynamic dust lingering in the air well into the early hours of the evening- every day.

Here and now, there is fresh crispness and a sparkle of energy. The coolest part during day-light is almost over before it began… As the birds chirp a call-response rendition of a tune, an Acacia twig swims through the wind, dancing an early morning fox-trot before the burning heat of the sun silences its stamina.
In a part of the world where neighbourhood noise pollution is a foreign concept, houses of worship recantations, rooster crowing, “harun harun! harun dabo!” “shieka pasta buLa! shieka pasta!”, horse buggy bells and kur-kur horns ring in the day.

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grey & worn ethiopian tales

18 September, 2007 | 10 comments | Category: ethnicity, I.dentity, peace & conflict

i did not know u could do me like this!!!

how dare u let my dreamlands…my neverlands disappear? how could you let reality bite me from behind without warning?…i thought u had my back?! what have you been doing all this time?

yes you! you, who is supposed to keep weaving fairy tales, myths and stories about a country inclusive of diverse people! yes! you! who is supposed to draw, paint and sing, tell history and folktales…You are supposed to create the imaginary community in which; a lady home-maker who lives near Lake HayQ and I, an Ethiopian in the US share a bond? i don’t need to know her name!! I just need her to hear the same stories, to believe in the same country where her family, traditions and way of life are included!! beqa, that’s it…that is all I ask and what do you do? other than stubbornly clinging to old and grey fairy tales, proudly sticking to your righteousness & not pausing to listen? u tell me!

when i think ‘ethiopia’, instant images flash before me: agerlibs, injera, bandira, ethiopian orthodox church, warriors (tewordros, menilik etc…), gonder and axum…not other images…

my granma/ayate used to tell me tales about my patriotic great-grandpap. ‘He was a great warrior who died fighting against the somalis!’ she said. Truth be told, my granma’s heart was soft for the Somalis, she understood it was a matter of fighting for pride and such was life…She had grown old, with them as her neighbors and friends, after all. And yet, as our storyteller, passing on the family history she tells the story of patriotism, of glory and country -Ethiopia.

I remember history class when I used to learn about the beauty of a glorious land I happen to luckily be from!

i remember teacher talking about great civilizations that competed with those of the greeks and romans, he talked of the king of “ethiopia”, Ezana conquering yemen and sudan… Then came the defiant Zagwe and…the history of biblical ethiopia: solomonic dynasty. And then Adwa and victory! All these fairy tales propped my young patriotism, hugged my self-esteem and handed me validation for living in the country now ranking 7th poorest out of 170, with the 16th largest population. This same country, my country was/is glorious and victorious?…My, life was actually splendid! I felt proud!

And then…the uncomfortable grey areas of history swept their way into my conscious. Making me say ‘Why did I ask questions?’. It is possible that…”ethiopia” is an ambiguous name that Ezana plagiarized from meroe to puff up his grandeur, the word originating in the greek term for the burnt faces of subsaharan Africans. it is possible that the solomonic dynasty is based on a legend later written as the Kebre Nigist during the 14th century (story of Queen Sheba, Menilik I). It is possible that the civilizations, languages and glories of this flimsy “ethiopia” happened through regional collaborations; naturally! Technological & cultural contributions of the others planted the pillars: sudanese, kenyans, somalis, egyptian, yemeni…everyone within and beyond the area, with and without names….! it is very possible that zagwe and solomonic dynasities were very localized in the north. And anyhow, the construction that is “ethiopia” may very well be very recent…and a simple, creative solution for a state looking to legitimaize becoming a nation. It is very possible that while the Italians were kicked out the first time round; 5 years of occupation may question the “never colonized” myth about Ethiopia. Talk to an Italian!

It is most definite the histories of this state came about through the blood and sweat of those other than the valorized, victorious “warriors”. It is definite that some were exploited, enslaved and even forgotten!!! The cunning forgetfulness of historic fairy tales, discarding failures and injustices laid a foundation for a national vanity which worked for cohesion in the past. Should we continue to discard the past, or acknowedge and hold it as we sprint forward?

Now, I choke when I read accounts of history because: “History is written by the victors”. I know this too well when most history books, written by the colonizer/westerner talk of African solutions to daily challenges as savage, barbaric and primitive. I feel it when it’s apparent that colonialism sculpted Africa into a quintessential poster child for “feel-good” anti-poverty projects; our hands extended for aid.

so…it is… OUR fault for being negligent and stubborn about OUR fairy tales. We need to mind the gap! There’s a real need for re-invented folktales and fairy tales…Changing times call for new solutions. We need an Upgrade!

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