I grew up in Ethiopia all my life and was a little kid during the starvation in 1984. At that time the world came to the rescue and Ethiopia is always thankful. We always think that this tragedy is felt by everybody in every corner of the world Just to think that somebody out there is using this human tragedy as a punch line for a joke tells everybody that there is something wrong with that person.

Imagine Ethiopians joking about 911 in Ethiopia. Isn’t it the same? Even Ethiopians who are considered to be one of the poorest countries with a literacy rate of 36% and per capital income of $200/year think this is offensive.If you’re out there and you heard a joke about hungry Ethiopians please know that this is tragedy not comedy.

1.the outfit doesn’t represent ethiopian way of dressing.
2. they don’t look starved.
3. where’s the food they’re fighting for
4. stereotypical and insensitive
5.Most of all, what’s he trying to pass across? what’s the purpose of the cartoon.

young mom: this great ethiopian rapper is doing a free show his nickname is the ‘dustyfoot philosopher’…and you know, in this one line he says we in ethiopia so skinny we don’t even need lipo!
Guy in suit: |laughs| oh! that iss true!!

i was like wth? firstly k’naan isn’t exactly ethiopian, though most probably what’s the difference to her anyways right? secondly…to pick that one line to tell someone who’s never heard about this musician out of all the words about the artist when the artist has used so many other words to described his home country and africa
to me…her comment made the infrastructure of the lady’s mind apparent when it comes to ethiopia/somalia/africa. most probably her brain is vacant dry and baren with ‘famine/starvation/war’ blinking in neon signs. i don’t know what paradigm shift it would take for her to pull the plug on those neon lights or for her to enrich her to feel motivated to enrich her knowledge and understanding about that area…but then really from her point of view why should she, right? its beyond her convenience and comfort…eko!

The starvation in Ethiopia and discussing it or depicting it in such dispassionate manner has gotten old.

Some cartoonist who has been swayed by the media, i guess, can use this opportunity to display his/her creativity, without any regard to the countless kids that are affected by poverty.

Let me be the one to say “fuck y’all bigoted bunch”.

On that note, i also would like to say that we should be a society who calls out this sort of irresponsibility. Sort of ‘a voice for the voiceless’

alphy luv ur thought-provoking comments…!