Right speech comes out of silence,
and right silence comes out of speech.
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims
beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive
a spoke into the wheel itself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer Continue reading “Let us widen our horizons without compromising our basic human rights”
Do we have to go to neural science to understand the politics of the Abyssinian elites? I never underestimate, as is usually the case in the Oromo paltalk rooms, the capacity of these elites to surprise and busy their supporters as well as their victims everywhere with ever new self marketing coups and propaganda turnabouts- to cajole, to mislead, to divide and to confuse their critics and admirers ad nauseam. Continue reading “Puppets can make only moves dictated to them by their manipulators and apologists.”
Many of us must have heard of a Janus head, a sculpture typically found at at the gate of a house. In the Greek mythology, the god, Janus, is two headed, with each face looking in the opposite directions. Today the phrase “ Janus faced” means deceitful. However, the original meaning tells us a different story. According to Evan’s Dictionary of Mythology, “ It was a peculiarity of the god that the doors of his temple were kept open in time of war and closed in time of universal peace. They were rarely closed”. Continue reading “Briefly how OPDO is playing double and dangerous games”
The present Oromo mass protests led by Oromo students is sending a clear message to the world: the Oromo people are saying no to their Abyssinian overlords, conquerors, and tormentors. They are saying it loudly and unanimously, in unison. They have spoken the truth. But they have no other power than speaking the truth. And they are paying in blood for just speaking the truth. Whether the world hears them is another matter. Continue reading “The painful irony of the Oromo predicament”
The Oromo people are trying to release themselves, as never before, from the shackles of fear in the cage of death that is the Abyssinian empire of Ethiopia. Continue reading “Oromo self awareness is developing at breakneck speed”
“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
-Lao Tzu Continue reading “Anything goes when it comes to greed for the pleasures of empires.”
This morning I woke up early. As I sat sipping coffee, I was thinking that the here and now needs to be appreciated and honoured for its own sake. It gives us too much that we usually ignore in our habitual conditioning and haste. There are countless problem-free zones in existence no matter what a particular negative situation may be. For some time, I have made it a point of thinking or singing to myself, when waking up in the morning: “ May peace fill our earth”. Children’s play, you may think. Sure, it is easy to think and say that. But to feel its reality from a certain angle of my own daily experience works like a balsam for me. It is more than a balancing act. I even enjoy to extend it a bit accompanying it on a keyboard or a recorder. It is pure joy.
It would be extremely naive for the oppressed nations and nationalities of Ethiopia and their political elites if they looked seriously for any breakthrough by way of a democratic election under the legacy of an Abyssinian dominated empire built and maintained by pure violence. How did we get here, at this stage, talking of elections now under fascism? Without mincing words, I can say it is the result of the ever growing militarization of American capitalism especially in post soviet era.
“I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope
would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for
love would be love for the wrong thing; there is yet faith but
the faith and the love are all in waiting. Wait without thought,
for you are not ready for thought: so the darkness shall be the
light, and the stillness the dancing,”
-T.S. Eliot
Continue reading “The past and the present seen together, in honour to the memory of my parents.”
It is nature at work and cannot be eliminated altogether. Even in the most closed, brutal and suppressive empire in history such as Ethiopia changes are inevitable. If I ask myself what is the story I know best, the answer must be, of course, my own story. I was born in an Arsi village in Bale in a house where there was, of course, no question of running water or electricity. To me candles were, for long time, more precious than things like gold. As I grew up, I realized some wells were strictly avoided because they were poisoned. I was moved to another village. The first cruelty I experienced in my life was when I started learning Qur’an. I had two teachers at different times. The first one was an extremely kind person, a sheikh with great insight into Islamic teaching. He did not demand the learning of the text by heart. Besides, he entertained us humorously with various constructive stories from the early history of Islamic tradition. However, he left the village to take care of the family of his brother who died in another part of the region. The second teacher was the opposite. He had himself most probably learned the Qur’an by rote and demanded the same from us. His violence and terror took a real toll on the children. Decades later when I met him, I found him transformed into a mild person by old age and experience.