“Beka!” (“enough”). Will Ethiopia be next? | Addis Neger
René Lefort
Meles Zenawi has been protecting himself from any Arab-spring copy-cat movements in Ethiopia. On balance, it is unlikely that the opposition is strong enough to mount the kind of challenge seen in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions are not seen to be as brutally unjust in Ethiopia, and no one doubts that the army would be loyal to the Tigray-dominated regime. But there may be surprises yet.
Read More:
http://www.opendemocracy.net
Berhane-Aymero
Friday 27 May 2011
The Paradigm for Africa and Ethiopia?
"Make it as simple as possible, but not less simple" (Einstein)
"Oh," said the mouse, "the world is becoming tighter with each passing day. First, it was so wide that I was afraid. I ran and ran on and was happy to finally find a wall in a distance. Left and right in the distance I saw the walls, but these long walls rush so quickly to each other that I already find myself in the last room, and there at an angle, is the trap in which I run."-
" You only have to change the direction, „said the cat and ate the rat. (Kafka fable…My translation; 1/)
OH! POOR AFRICA?
Lacks the State,
The “Stick and the Stock”?
Lacks the State,
The “Stick and the Stock”?
The Paradigm,
The Shift and The Dead Ends
Oh! Tiny and Mighty!
Would you Change your mind?
1. Social
Change your mind
Challenge your head.
Don’t ache your head,
Don't break your heart,
If you still, feel the heat,
If you indeed hear the beat.
...
Tiny and mighty!
Aren’t you happy!?TAKE A BREAK! And scream,You need a therapy!
...
Challenge your head,
You will get your bread.
Change your mind,
You will get your state,
You are now at stake.
If you have in mind,
The dead end and the rat
In the KAFKA FABLE (1),
The wall and the cat...
The cat, ... is just a cat
Not a friend not a rat.
It is good for the rat
Not to follow suite,
Not to consult the cat.
***Don’t ache your head,
Don't pose like a cat,
You can live like a rat,
If you are not a cat!
If you are not a rat, nor a cat,
Make a leap, take a ride,
You may not need a state,
You may not need a state,
Nor a shift, ...not a shit or a sheet!
Change your mind,
Challenge your head,
Mold your set.
Build your head,
Right and left, left and right
Right and left, left and right
Build a mind, make a set;
The Dead Ends are your Heads
In your Heads,
THE DEAD ENDS ARE THE HEADS.
Not the STATE, nor the RENTS.
Soft is, ... the conflict,
The state and private.
Hard are the rocks,
Concrete, the cement, the matter,
The grey in your heads,
Need the shift.
2. The Human
Change your mind
Challenge your head.
Don’t ache your head,
Don't break your heart,
If you still, feel the heat,
If you indeed hear the beat.
...
Tiny and mighty!
Aren’t you happy!?
TAKE A BREAK! And scream,You need a therapy!
...
Challenge your head,
You will get your bread.
Change your mind,
You will get your state,
You are now at stake.
***
You may change,
The waters in the seas
A thousand, and a hundred times.
Never could a rock,
And a dead fish swim.The Shift, the Rift,...the Move,
And the PEACE you lack,
It's in your MIND.
Not the STATE,
The “Stick or the Stock”
YOU! You have to “develop”!
Make your mind,
Mold your set;
Build your head,
Right and left, left and right
Make a set.
Step ahead or backward
Ask the dead or the old,
The Antic, the Polis,
Your meta - the Physics,
Paradigm,
The maxim,
Is as old,... as Mankind.
And the DEAD ENDS,
Are your heads.
Africa, has a LOT,
Of your sort and your lots.
It is You, the DEAD ENDS,
THE DEAD HEADS.
Africa needs, not a shiftIn Para-DIGM,Is a shift and shuffle of your kinds,
That it lacks.For its peace, for its fate,
Rich in bread.
Healthy child, best mind...
Call it, if you like, Demo-Cracy,
But Attention! Demagogy,
“Z” and “c”, Philology.
At times and History,
Demo-craCy goes craZy…
…
At such moments,
Stop TIME,
Go and Go ahead,
To the SOURCE....the best b-reed,
The Origin, the best c-reed.
Change your mind
Challenge your head.Don’t hesitate,
Break your head,
Break your heart
You would have IT,
It is THE HEAT
A MOMENT bit,
universal, AFRICAN BEAT.
3. Cultural
Change your mind
Challenge your head.
Don’t ache your head,
Don't break your heart,
If you still, feel the heat,
If you indeed hear the beat.
...
Tiny and mighty!
You aren’t happy!
TAKE A BREAK! And scream,
You need a therapy!
***
ENOUGH is Enough!
Call the spade by the name!
Let the cat be a cat!
Let the rat be a rat!
For a sufficient LIFE;
Like the Yin and Yang
In the Eastern Wisdom,
Like the Son and Father
In the Christian Faith,
Like the Star and the Moon,
In the Sufi mystics,
In the Muslim Belief.
If you are,
Neither Cat nor a Rat!
Make a leap take a ride!
Mold your lot, blend your set!
Change your mind!
Change your head!
Feel the Spirit!
Lest, You are NONE!
Or ‘Orbis’ and A MAN!
Of the laity....the clergy.
The Light, the sound or the beat.
It’s the moment TO BE,
At NO TIME, at a Point.
The Para- the Plasma-
The Laicus’ -COMMON SENSE.
THE SPACE, The quantum and,
The Para-SIGHT.
4. Material
Tiny and mighty,
You're not happy.
TAKE A BREAK! And scream,
You need a therapy!
***Sing…a Song….and
scream…Hi Hi Loneliness!!!
Bye Bye Happiness!!!
So far, the lay,
It's Sell and lie, Lie and “Buy”
No SHIFT no HEAD,
*
MAY DAY! MAY DAY!!
Poor Africa! Cry and Die!
You never know.....
May be......FLY
Maya ... F......L.......Y.....!? (2)
High, Higher and High.
*
And "ETHIOPIA" !!?
Do You still sing and cry…….only cry?
…….08.08.08..… “WAAAAAAAI” !
And ….AI !?
Always I AI …
Nothing but WAI….and …. I.
5. Spiritual
Tiny and mighty!
TAKE A BREAK! And then scream,
You need a therapy!
The Greed or the Head,
Lacks the Remedy;
FROM THE ALMIGHTY?
OH NO! Tiny and Mighty!!
COME ON Move,
To the GOLDEN MEAN.
To Harmony,
To the cosmic,
The DIVINE Proportion,
THERE,
Is always sufficient room!
6. The Absolute
Change your mind,
Challenge your head;
“The TEACHER comes, only
When the Student is ready!” (3)
For a discourse – in common sense
Philosophy, the Therapy.
From the Laicus….to the Expert
Notes:
This piece, *Words of emotion” is a tiny expression of rage, in memory of the classical “Berekete Mergem”, which gave birth to “a generation of emotion”, in vain sacrificed and the African-Ethiopian lot still without its bread and appropriate head. It is conceived in the tradition of “Semina Work”.
The Kafka fable in the original German:
" »Ach«, sagte die Maus, »die Welt wird enger mit jedem Tag. Zuerst war sie so breit, dass ich Angst hatte, ich lief weiter und war glücklich, dass ich endlich rechts und links in der Ferne Mauern sah, aber diese langen Mauern eilen so schnell aufeinander zu, dass ich schon im letzten Zimmer bin, und dort im Winkel steht die Falle, in die ich laufe.« – »Du musst nur die Laufrichtung ändern«, sagte die Katze und fraß sie."
1) The MAYA Calendar, which is referred to end on the 21. 12. 2012 is considered by astronomers and mystics to be a special date, when an extra ordinary celestial constellation would take place. “On the winter solstice in 2012, the sun will be aligned with the center of the Milky Way for the first time in about 26,000 years.” http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-03-27-maya-2012_n.htm
2) “The Teacher comes only when the student is ready”; interpreted from… A Buddhist Proverb: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. ... meaning that “Peace and change come from within. Do not seek it without.”
Sunday 15 May 2011
TEZA made in Ethiopia & Herr Fischer made in Germany!
"Joschka und Herr Fischer" - The „Super-Model“ & TEZA
These days one film, -Joschka and Herr Fischer- of the same category like TEZA is making such an audience in Germany, even before it comes to the public, rummaging around my emotions to force me to break my silence. In my opinion, TEZA makes a contrast to the former, quite in a fine manner, making somehow fool of us, Africans! The beautiful moving pictures, the nostalgic Ethiopian musical tones interacting with sound and scenery of the virgin country side of northern Ethiopia, accompanied by the impressive local actors (like the old mother), colored with the highly zoomed and dramatized urban story of the film, depicting some of the terrible days of Ethiopia during the last decades, cannot change the crux of the matter; I would say.
*
THE POINT:
*
“Joschka und Herr Fischer” vs "TEZA"
TEZA made in Ethiopia & Herr Fischer made in Germany!
It is a coincidence, without explanation, that I happened to see „TEZA" (a film by Haile Gerima) just a few days ago; a few years later after its production and the awards it collected at some festivals; while a new German documentary film coming soon, is being inaugurated. With "TEZA", now (May 2011) running in Berlin, these days the new documentary film of a similar category is making the headlines of the German film-public; beginning next week (19.05.2011), may-be awaiting its awards too! -Awards, it would certainly gather for the “objectively modulated” narratives of 60 years protest, which produced “poli-superstars” like Herr Fischer, the realist "rebel”(cf. Project Syndicate); depicting the substantial share the protest movement takes in the formation and development of the post-modern German state. -The German post-modern state, which has sufficient room for its realist “rebels”, who would not mind turning unscrupulous, if need be, in the interest of their nations, to support any war resolutions of NATO and EU.
For me, an opportunity to think twice, to produce the following notion out of the backdrop of the mind: - I remember an age-old comment of a friend in this context. Some decades ago, fascinated by the help I got from some Germans abroad, while I was in a critical plight, I almost praised, "the Germans" in a nut shell to be the only "Engels on earth". But a sociologist friend of mine, who has enough experience in their community, countered vehemently saying "No! No!"; "the Germans are only shrewd enough to send their "Engels" abroad to work as "aid" workers and to engage their "devils" as immigration clerks."
This is true! The Germans are masters in subtlety and “functionalizing professions“!
Therefore, I said to myself, beware; simple and sweet "traditional" ideas of the film TEZA could have been undermined by the small capital of the donors!
In spite of some well-meant cultural seeds (Ethio-North-centered), which TEZA tries to promote; I simply feel that "IT" has fallen in the “fate” of being undermined by the small "free" capital it managed to get for its production. In my perception, the film is full of caricatures and simple "parodies" on the "Ethiopian Revolution and social movements" of the last 3-4 decades, subtly suggesting "something" like "you would rather go back to your cultural roots" instead of ransacking your (the Ethiopian) community with "modern social notions, you would hardly understand", promoting the philosophical bias we know and established "western prejudices" about the "brutality „of "African origin"( ex. out of place and areal, like the victimized young mother, who killed her own illegitimate child in front of the landlord, who abused her !).
Like most of the global protest movements of the period, given the “violent turn” the social movement took in its consummation, the film was intensively keen to demonstrate the brutality, the Ethiopian revolution contained. It has on the other hand clearly failed to show the social forces, relations and causes at work behind the phenomenon (for ex. Southern Ethiopia simply neglected in the narratives).
Moreover, for the critical mind, considering the perceived subtlety remaining in the mind of the observer, I am afraid "TEZA" has even failed to achieve its anticipated exposure of the „Western Racism" – abundantly alluded in the film, -one of the big objectives of the film; - let alone showing the extensive shortcomings and ideological blunders of the Ethiopian „leftist political movement", mostly lacking national touch in its application or the necessary embodiment of all the diverse cultural indigenous faces Ethiopia could have provided.
***
To appreciate or understand this notion, after "TEZA", one has to see by all means the new German documentary film on the polit-star "Joschka and Herr Fischer", who is neither better nor worse than his "Ethiopian" companions. It is just unfortunate, that most of the "outstanding" ones of the latter, to make it better, have not survived their regimes or the violence they themselves promoted. Regimes and political environments, ransacked to go mad, not only due to indigenous "stupidity"/"Gedankenlosigkeit"(cf. H. Arendt)/ but also substantially influenced and destabilized through global policies made in the "WEST" or "EAST", in their bitter political game for global hegemony!
And "Herr Fischer", who has made it to the level of a higher political caliber, is being reinvented to be the "super-model" of the protest generation; while our TEZA is given the role of the blunt political "deconstruction" of modernity.
***********************************
Tuesday 10 May 2011
ኤፍሬም ስዩም / EPHREM SEYOUM - A New NAME for Ethiopian Litreature...
For those of us who were so far limited to hailing, and sailing solely on none-Ethiopian celebrities of literature and poesy, I feel that Ephrem Seyoum, for sure, the would-be Ethiopian laureate of literature from the new generation is beginning to become a treasure, introducing us to the beauty of our own roots; - not only Ethiopian but an African intellectual treasure too! - A beautiful mind. How tedious and boring would nature be without such beautiful minds of humanity! – As far as I am concerned, I somehow feel rather pale that, this beautiful Mind came to my attention -"out of the blues", just only a few weeks ago, (via Luzyzare.com). Nonetheless, Thanks for the “back to the roots”!
Infatuated through his works, a vibrating poesy of music, colorful sound, word, tone and content - the ቅኔ/"qine" – yes ቆንጆ ወይን /“qonjo wein", interacting in an articulated air of harmony, I just humanly felt obliged to do some promotion via this blog– http://berhane-hiywot.blogspot.com/
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