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Letter From Addis

5/01/2007

The country is at war. Attrocities in Somalia are broadcasted by Eritrean TV, Al-Jazira English. Who has the money to watch satelite TV? Yes, the traders of Addis Abeba Mercato! There are more Somalis living in Ethiopia than in Somalia itself. Their first & strongest affiliations are with their hamule in Somalia. Refugees are pouring into Ethiopia. Wer're living nearby the British embassy & the whole harat is flooded by "rich" Somalis who're hoping to get a visa for Britain tomorrow. But most are waiting for months.
The local mosque is full of Somalis & would-be-Wahabis with wild beards & full of hatred towards anything Habesha culture. The Habesha moslim are all more or less against the government, because they know it's them the traders who are going to pay the bill! I should have left for the mosque 15 minutes ago, but I'm sitting behind this machine. Later on I'll leave to Mercato to chew tchat & point 5pm relative silence will befall the buzzing market when all radios will be tuned on Deutsche Welle Amharic programm & today it's quite possible the current will be cut off.
Third world, yes, but with a dictatorship under growing pressure! The expatriots are warned by their embassies not to join in political dicussions & keep away from public gatherings! Even in their NGO's every sixth Habesha might be a government informer! In tchat bet all mouths are shut tight when somebody unknown enters or is standing next to the door buying tchat. Even Tigray muslims are not welcome anymore & are treated like lepers.
The old bugger who came to pen down the telephone pole number next to the house didn't make any effort in direction bakshish. For somebody - yes third world - who's earning some 50 Euro a montgh & seeing himself doing a favor job for a ferenj somehow extraordinary. My friend Ahmed was sitting with me on the veranda chewing chat & he didn't know where to put the guy. He didn't wear a telecom grey duster or overall with their logo, but a red coca cola overall.
Whatever! The moment will come & somebody will utter a threat & perhaps will be stupid enough to think he should accompany his words with a move towards his armpit... It will give me the chance to throw my knife! Our road is after 7pm when I come home pitch dark & towards 8pm the first hyenas are coming down from the mountain. Not even his skull will be left over the next morning.
Third world!    
Allahum assala ala seyidna Mohammed wa salla ala ali seyidna Mohammed ...
selim taslimen aktiren!

My regards to madam the president!

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The Lion and the Lamb
3/13/2005 -
By: S. A. Abidi
IslamiCity* -

 

 
Philosophers and sages of the past have often stated the bitter realities of life in parables and fables, to help the common man understand and reconcile with the facts of life. But it would be wrong to accept them holding good forever and universally applicable, because the realities change with time and circumstances.

Take for example the story of the lion, who was drinking water from a stream. Seeing a lamb having a drink nearby whetted his appetite. "Why are you making the water dirty?" he roared.

"But I am down stream while you are drinking water upstream" said the lamb meekly.

"Maybe so, but you called me names last summer when I came this way" said the lion visible annoyed.

"It could not be me, because I was only born in spring this year" said the lamb somewhat relieved.

"If it was not you, it must be your mother" roared the lion again before making a short meal of the lamb. 

Things have changed since the story was told about a thousand years ago.

Progress has helped the power to grow into the status of super-power, with the freedom to do whatever that suits it. Using the idiom of modern power-play the lion would have neither the patience nor the time to waste on the weakling. The king of the jungle would have cut the conversation short in the first instance saying " That is enough. I know that you intend to call me bad names now" before eating up his prey in his pre-emptive wisdom.

But new knowledge has also provided counter point to every point made by the history. The cliches of the past like the lion being the "king of the jungle", the world being run according to the "law of jungle", and "might is right" are thus open to question. 

One can see how the arrogance of the mightiest powers has brought them to their own destruction. The law of jungle is not unilateral but based on balance that helps to sustain it self. The ferocious king of jungle was dethroned the day he was seen running for his life, chased by an angry herd of grass eating buffaloes. Power does not lie in the weapons of tooth and claw but in unity and resolve of the deprived ---- a lesson that the powerful must not forget and the weak must remember.
 
The author is an independent commentator based in Karachi, Pakistan

 

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