Deep from an Ethiopian - An Ethiopian blog

Showing posts with label Ethiopian. Show all posts

Monday, November 5, 2012

Ethiopia: soleRebels Footwear in Taiwan

soleRebels Footwear, Ethiopian artisan crafted shoes, are now available for purchase in Taiwan as the first standalone retail shop opens in the Asian country.

Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu - soleRebels

soleRebels Footwear is the brainchild of Ethiopian entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu. It is a footwear company that produces handmade shoes out of recycled materials. These artisan crafted shoes have not only become quite popular in Ethiopia but have also made a global impact: they are now available in Taiwan.

Bethlehem is one of the most prominent personalities when it comes to entrepreneurial innovation. She has been the winner of many prestigious awards among which is the Most Valuable Entrepreneur (MVE) that was awarded her at the Global Entrepreneurship Week in 2011. soleRebels Footwear is not only Ethiopia’s sole business that is a recognized Fair Trade Organization (FTO), accredited by the World Fair trade Organization (WFTO) the global authority in fair trade but also a
global first in the footwear industry. It is these recognitions and achievements that have made Bethlehem an active voice for not only young entrepreneurs but also women entrepreneurs in Africa.

Founded in 2005, the organization makes shoes from recycled materials as well raw materials that are manufactured and bought on the local market. The employees are all considered to be stakeholders and are paid wages that are 4 times Ethiopia’s legal minimum wage and thrice the industry’s average wage not only giving them a steady occupation but also allowing them to make use of their creativity in a profitable way. But more importantly it is one of the very few fully eco-friendly organizations in the country.

Men's Riff reVerb hi

Starting from humble beginnings the organization now commands a market turnover of millions of dollars. It is this entrepreneurial genius that has made it possible for her to appear and rub shoulders with famous business leaders like Richard Branson and to also take center-stage at global conferences all over the world.

While there are several retail soleRebels outlets in countries like the United States, Canada, many locations in Europe and also in Japan, the new outlet in Taiwan is the organization’s first standalone international retail store.

soleRebels’ new store is located in Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan. The organization has plans to open a total of 30 outlets in the country, with three more locations expected to open by the end of 2012 alone.

Women's tooToo moc UP

Talking about her unique entrepreneurial spirit, Bethlehem says: “Love what you are trying to do. If you don’t like what you are doing, you are not going to be successful”.

soleRebels shoes can be bought in Addis Ababa at Adams Pavillion – 2^nd floor, right above Kaldi’s.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Ethiopian Kids on Computers Excel without Teachers

Ethiopian kids on computers would probably be the last thing anyone would consider to be something that would neither make headlines or even be something that was possible. Until now...and what a surprise it has been.

The OLPC Motorola Zoom tablet

Imagine your surprise if you were to go to school to find a box of goodies left at your doorsteps. Now imagine that this was in a rural village where the children had hardly been exposed to electricity let alone modern gadgets like computers and laptops. That’s exactly happened when students in Welenchiti and Wenchi in Ethiopia, about 150 km south of the capital Addis Ababa, came to school one morning to find boxes left at their schools’ doorsteps. Opening them, they discovered that they contained laptops but there were no instructions about how to operate the them included in the packages.

The laptops were part of an experiment being conducted by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization. The devices are Motorola Xoom tablets that are solar powered and designed to be wear-and-tear resistant. They have software installed on them that allow children to learn the basics of their school curriculum and also allows them surf the internet (wherever access points are available.

The aim of the experiment was to find out if kids on computers would be able to take off as they would in any western country. But in this case the hitch was that the kids had no previous exposure to technology whatsoever, they barely - if at all - knew how to read and write and there was no one there to teach them.

In short - they were expected to not only read and write but also learn to operate a technologically advanced gadget without having a sense of what it was in the first place. Every week an OLPC worker would visit the children to swap memory cards that registered how the computers had been used. The results were amazing:

The kids were found to be singing the alphabet song in both villages.
A child that could neither read or write at the time of receiving the laptop, after playing a literacy game, was able to spell “LION” under the correct animal.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC, while describing the Ethiopian experiment at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Conference, said that the results were encouraging. He went on to add:

The One Laptop Per Child logo

“I thought the kids would play with the boxes. Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android,” Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked Android.”

Elaborating further on the comments made by Negroponte, OLPC’s Chief Technology Officer, Ed McNierney added:

“The kids had completely customized the desktop—so every kids’ tablet looked different. We had installed software to prevent them from doing that,” he said. “And the fact they worked around it was clearly the kind of creativity, the kind of inquiry, the kind of discovery that we think is essential to learning.”

So, this begs to challenge the old beliefs that children always need the guidance of their teachers and that not being exposed to something doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will not be able to not only figure out how to use it but also how to customize it to cater to their own needs.

Maybe seeing kids on computers will stop being a status symbol and more of a new way of learning. It is about time.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 787 – Africa’s First Dreamliner Delivered

Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed in the history books as it arrived at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport on August 17^th, 2012. The aircraft, named “Africa One”, is the first of its type in Africa and the airlines is only the second in the world to own these technological marvels.

After a welcoming ceremony, the aircraft with the tail number ET-AOQ was put on display. People were excited to be inside a Boeing 787 and there was a queue several hundred meters long. Everywhere flashes were going off as people took pictures of its interior and exterior and other amazing features.

Shared below are some Boeing 787 pictures of the interior and exterior. Click on the pictures to view in album mode or enlarge.

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787

Ethiopian Airlines is a member of Star Alliance

The lion logo on the exterior of the 787 Dreamliner

Side view of Ethiopian Airlines' 787 Dreamliner

Fore view of Ethiopian Airlines' 787 Dreamliner

G&E left engine on Boeing 787

First Class seats inside a Boeing 787

Boeing 787 pictures of interior

787 Dreamliner windows

Overhead storage inside the 787 Dreamliner

Personal entertainment systems in 787

ET-AOQ Tail

Boeing 787 Dreamliner ET - AOQ

Aft view of the ET - 787 Dreamliner

GE engine on ET Dreamliner

Another side view of the Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner

Cockpit exterior of 787 - Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines 787

Forward pic of Boeing 787 exterior

Front view 787

Front view of the Ethiopian Dreamliner

Engine close up of Ethiopian Airlines 787

Right aft landing gear of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Under the left wing of ET - AOQ

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787 (Dreamliner)

Boeing 787 Dreamliner - Economy Class

Economy Class - Personal Entertainment System

Aisle of Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Exterior of 787

Front - Side view of ET 787 Dreamliner

Ethiopian Airlines - Dreamliner side view

Underneath the Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner

Landing gear of Ethiopian 787

Close up of 787 Landing gear

Cockpit close up of Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Black Eagle: High Flying Love for Ethiopia and Ethiopians

There are some interesting facts about Ethiopia that the world is yet to realize and hear of. The country’s three thousand years of history are bound to hold some mysteries that are yet to be discovered and told. But, there are some people, who although not Ethiopian or of Ethiopian-descent, have loved their country blindly, without knowing or hearing of these trivia and historical facts. They have enriched the country’s history by becoming a part of the country’s legacy.

One such person was Hubert Julian - “The Black Eagle”.

Hubert Julian, waves from his plane

The Man

Hubert Fauntleroy Julian was born in Trinidad in 1897. He was the son of a well-off cocoa plantation manager and had opportunities to study in London and then live in Montreal, Canada. While in Canada he learned to fly an airplane and then served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

In 1921 Julian immigrated to the United States and concentrated on flying and promoting black aviation.

In 1924 he came up with the idea to fly across the Atlantic: from New York to Liberia on the West African coast. Towards this end he named his airplane “Ethiopia I” and set about collecting money to finance his trip.

The plane took off on July 4^th, 1924. Sadly, shortly after takeoff one of the plane’s pontoons fell off and it crashed into Flushing Bay.

While The Black Eagle never succeeded in flying across the Atlantic, he did manage to hold records for brief times. For example, he was the first black man to fly from one coast of the United States to the other and he once held the record for the “world non-refueling endurance record” set at 84 hours and 33 minutes in his Packard Bellanca named “Abyssinia”.

Abyssinia, Hubert Julian's record setting plane

Abyssinia, Ethiopia

But that didn’t matter, because he had become a celebrity in his own rights. And when Emperor Haile Sellasie I of Ethiopia heard about his stories, he was invited to Ethiopia. His exploits had so impressed the Emperor that upon arrival he was bestowed with Ethiopian citizenship and made a colonel in the then fledgling Ethiopian Air Force.

But his flying days weren’t as glorious as he wanted them to be mainly because he accidentally crashed the Emperor’s favorite airplane and had to return to the United States.

When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Hubert Julian rushed to the aid of the Ethiopian government. He was put in command of the Ethiopian Air Force, which consisted of just three airplanes.

Again, this flying stunt too wouldn’t last too long as Hubert “The Black Eagle” Julian was told to leave the country after he got in a fistfight with another black aviator who was flying for the Ethiopian Air Force – Colonel John C. Robinson, who left Ethiopia when the country was occupied by the Italians in 1936.

In 1974, “Flying Magazine” printed an article that said Julian was making plans to rescue Emperor Haile Sellassie I, who was then imprisoned by the military junta (“Derg”). He was 77 years old at the time.

This great flying legend passed away almost too quietly in February of 1983 in New York City.

But to this date, he is remembered as one of the gems that are the infinite interesting facts about Ethiopia.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Trivia and Fun Facts: Of Abyssinia, Ethiopia and Ethiopians ... In Their Eyes

Ethiopia has a very long history – one of the longest in the world. Ethiopians know that. But there are some non-Ethiopians out there that have gotten an insight into that history, have actually liked it so much and have even gone on to name things and animals after Ethiopia, Abyssinia or someplace related to Ethiopia.

Here are some trivia and fun facts; more will be added upon discovery:

SS Abyssinia

The SS Abyssinia was an English mail liner. It was launched in 1870 and was originally the property of Cunard Line, a leading operator of passenger ships that plied the North Atlantic waters for over century (and is still in operation). Among its substantial fleet was the RMS Carpathia that became famous for rescuing survivors from the ill-fated Titanic.

SS Abyssinia, Vancouver harbor - June, 1887

The SS Abyssinia was sailing from New York to Liverpool when its cargo of cotton caught fire off the coast of Newfoundland at 12:40 PM on December 18^th, 1891. Captain G.S. Murray ordered the ship to be abandoned when it became obvious that they couldn’t put the fire out. All passengers and crew were moved on to another liner that had spotted the fire, the Spree, by 4:15 PM.

SS Abyssinia sunk shortly after.

HMS Abyssinia

The HMS Abyssinia was a boat that was built specifically to defend Bombay (Mumbai) harbor which was then in British India. She too was launched in 1870. She was built at a cost of £116,549.

HMS Abyssinia circa. 1870

Sadly, the Abyssinia spent her entire career at anchor in Bombay harbor, apart from short trips for firing practice. She was sold as scrap when the Indian Harbor Defense Service was discontinued in 1903.

HMS Magdala

The HMS Magdala was another ship that was built in 1870. The name was given to her to commemorate the Battle of Magdala (1867) between Abyssinian and British soldiers where Emperor Tewodros II committed suicide rather than face surrender. Ironically, the pistol he shot himself with was a present from Queen Victoria herself – the same queen that had sent the British forces to capture him.

HMS Magdala 1870

HMS Magdala was made as a companion for HMS Abyssinia and was made specifically for the defense of Bombay harbor. She cost £132,400.

She too spent her entire career at anchor in Bombay harbor except for gunnery practice. She was finally sold for scrap in 1903.

Ethiopia – The Australian Derby Champ

One of the most prestigious derby’s in the world is the Perth Derby. Jockeys and horses alike come from all over the world to take chance at the $1.5 million purse.

Ethiopia and his Jockey Rhys McLeod

The 2012 champion was a four-year-old horse named Ethiopia. He caused a major upset by beating all the favorites, who had more experience racing, after only four starts – not unlike the Ethiopian athletes that continue to upset world record holders time and time again.

Abyssinian Cat

While Ethiopia is blessed with abundant flora and fauna, the Abyssinian cat isn’t one of them. Although the name suggests that it came from Ethiopia, it actually never did - or so they say.

An Abyssinian Cat

Scientists claim to have followed the DNA of the cat and traced it to the coast of the Indian Ocean. But the first cat to be named an Abyssinian was a kitten that a British soldier brought back home when he returned from Alexandria, Egypt in 1868. The kitten’s name? … It was “Zula”. Coincidence?

For those not in the know, Zula (Zeila in Amharic) was the main port for the Axumite Empire and was a part of Ethiopia.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

eLance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Finding a Job That Requires No Work

One of the best jobs that any person, Ethiopian or otherwise, can wish for is one that allows the employee an opportunity to do what he or she loves to do. In fact, someone once said something to the tune of: "Find a job that you love to do and you won’t have to work a single day". The joy of being able to do exactly what one wants to do is today coined as "freelancing".

As if working as a freelancer, whether full- or part-time wasn’t enough, being able to do it online – from the comfort of your home, can only add to the pleasure of making money. In a world where jobs are getting scarcer by the minute, being able to work from home and in Ethiopia, indeed Africa, comes with a couple of advantages:

1 – Only an Ethiopian can describe about the complex cultures and traditions that Ethiopians have; as the same applies to each African about his or her country’s culture or traditions. It is only today that website owners are turning to the last frontier in the online domains: Africa (So, what else is new?). And as the owners look towards genuine content for their websites, they are turning to Ethiopian and African bloggers, writers and researchers that can give them content that is as genuine, original and unique as possible.

2 – One advantage any developing country has over the rest of the developed world is the fact that the exchange rates of major currencies (USD and Euro especially) works towards their advantage. At the time of the writing of this article, 1 USD had the exchange rate of approximately 17 Ethiopian Birr. Anyone can do the math.

It is with this in mind that good news is being heard around Addis Ababa. A workshop on freelancing is being planned to be held in Addis Ababa one how to work on one of the world’s most popular freelancing websites: eLance (elance.com). Organized by Pat Walsh, of Sky Business Centers and Diaryplan.com who is also an Irish eLance.com provider and buyer, this two-day workshop will enable Ethiopians, and any other interested expats to be able to grasp the wonderful world of opportunities that online freelancing can open to people that would love to work in almost any profession that can be done online. Writers, IT developers and administrators, researchers and just about anybody that can access the internet and use the basics of Microsoft Office can have a chance at pocketing an extra income.

So, what’s the catch? Well, there aren’t any. It’s absolutely free and all you need to do is fill up a simple form and you’re home free. Attendance of both days (09:00 – 12:00) of the workshop is mandatory, if you do not think you will be able to attend both days then please, do not waste the opportunity for others that would love to be in your seat.

If you, or anyone you know, are interested in attending this eLance workshop here in Addis Ababa, then please contact DeepEthiopian with more information. Registration date is until 09^th November, 2011. Also, as the number of seats is limited, please make sure you hurry as admittance is on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Launch your online career today!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Deep Ethiopian - now looking for writers and bloggers

መልካም አዲስ ዓመት !!!

This blog has been my personal pride and joy for a little over three years now. I love writing posts on it more than any work I do today. What started out as personal joy has moved on to become the ultimate life experience that opened the door to a great writing career. This blog has made me to good for its own good - so much so that it has led to this point. It is with mixed emotions that I say I can no longer keep up the submission of posts to this site as often as I would like to, and would like to have some help from other writers that would love to contribute posts.The only option that is left to me is to open it up for people that have a passion for this beautiful country – Ethiopia.

It doesn’t matter if you’re just passing through, and it doesn’t matter which part of the country it is you are in if you have something good to share about your trip and travel, then please, consider becoming a contributing blogger to DeepEthiopian.com.

As long as you write from the heart and about the truth you have actually experienced yourself you will be a writer that is always welcome. The only rules being:

All content that is published shall be owned by the writer and there will be no copying or even re-writing of other people’s contents no matter what.
There will be no X-rated content no matter what. And
There will be no political topics no matter what.

This blog is, and always will be, about Ethiopia and Ethiopians by people from within the country. It is about telling the world what the country really is about via narrations of firsthand experiences.Geography, history, anthropology etc. are the topics that are usually expected, but what is most important is that it is always the truth.

If you decide to be a contributing writer, you will have the right to have your posts published in your own name. While this site will give you a large audience, it is for the time being a non-paying position.

I hope you come aboard and enjoy the writing as much as I do.

Warmest regards,

Deep Ethiopian

Friday, April 29, 2011

Mobile blogging from Ethiopia

One thing that was missing in Ethiopia was the joy of being able to blog from mobile phones. Ethiopian Telecom has granted internet for SOME pre-paid phone numbers. This gives bloggers the opportunity to blog while sipping a cold one.
The configuration on mobiles is quite easy: just use 'etc.com' as access point and you're good to go.
Happy blogging as the cold ones keep coming!

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Sent from my Nokia phone

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Interesting Facts about Ethiopia – Trivia on the Firsts and the Greatest

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Ethiopia is a country that is truly fascinating. Facts about Ethiopia or just mere trivia on the country are a pleasure and sometimes even amazing to read about. Who knew?

- Ethiopia is the only African country with its own alphabet.

- Ethiopia is the only country in the world with 13 months.

- In Ethiopia time is counted on the opposite side of the clock: 6 o’clock is said to be 12 o’clock, and at 16:00 Ethiopians say it is ’10 o’clock’.

- Ethiopia is one of only two countries in the world that have never been occupied. (The other one is Russia, in case you are asked). It managed to stay free by defeating the Italians … twice!

- Although Ethiopia was the first African state to join the League of Nations, it soon became apparent that ‘collective security’ would not be given to an African nation even after atrocities of ethnic cleansing and mass murders were evident after Italy invaded – everyone turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.

- Ethiopia was the birthplace of Pan-Africanism. The belief that Africa should unite and be the master of its own destiny was hailed by Emperor Hailesellasie I. It eventually led to the birth of the African Union of today.

- The hydroelectric dam that was built on the Tekeze River and was inaugurated in November 2009 is Africa’s tallest arch dam standing at 188 meters. Gilgel Gibe IV a dam that will be operational sometime in 2012/13 will be the tallest dam on the continent at 200+ meters.

- Ethiopia and Ethiopians are mentioned in many ancient books. The Bible is one of them. Ethiopia or Ethiopians are mentioned around 40 times in it. It is one of the few countries that are mentioned in both the Bible and the Koran. It is a country where the indigenous people are Christians, Muslims and Jews live together. It was the first country where Muslim prayers were held out of Arabia. Incidentally the first Muslim calls to prayer were done by an Ethiopian. And the first mosque to be built outside of Arabia was the Al Nejashi mosque in northern Ethiopia. When Mohammed and his followers were persecuted, they found solace in Ethiopia.

- The very first and oldest illustrated book on Christianity is found in Ethiopia. This is in the form of a gospel that was written in 494 AD, colors and bindings still intact and was discovered in a monastery – ‘The Garima Gospels’. Abba Garima was a monk that arrived in Ethiopia from Constantinople in the fifth century; legend has it that he copied it in one day.

An Image from the Garima Gospels

- Ethiopia has a long history of war, in Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ in the Trojan War, Memnon was an Ethiopian king. Ethiopia and Ethiopians are also mentioned in his other book ‘Odyssey’. The ancient Greek love for the Ethiopians does not end there; another Ethiopian is in Greek astronomy too. According to legend, Cassiopeia was the queen and consort of King Cepheus in Ethiopia. And long story short, after her death, Cassiopeia was immortalized as a star by Poseidon.

- The name ‘Candace’ is actually the name given to the line of Ethiopian Queens that ruled in ancient times.

- Ethiopia and Ethiopians are usually mentioned with the words ‘athlete’ and ‘athletics’. The first African to win a gold medal in the Olympics was Abebe Bikila in the 1960 Summer Olympic in Rome; he wan the marathon with a record time of 2:15:16.2 – an even amazing thing was the fact that he ran the whole race barefooted. In the next Olympics held in Tokyo in 1964, Abebe Bikila won the marathon with a world record time of 2:12:11:2.4. Making him the first athlete, and as of yet the only African, in history to win the marathon twice in back to back Olympics. As of date, the marathon world record holder is another amazing Ethiopian athlete, Haile Gebreselasie. He holds the record at 2:03:59.

- Ethiopia is the home of mankind. While the most famous ancestors of mankind are Lucy and Selam, archeological digs have and will continue to show that it was the valleys of Ethiopia that man came out of.

- Ethiopia is the homeland of coffee; it was discovered by a shepherd named Kaldi who noticed his goats prancing about restlessly after eating the leaves of the coffee plant. It is thought the word coffee was borrowed from the southern Ethiopian lands of Kaffa.

- The Mountain Nyala and the Walia Ibex are the two most famous animals that are endemic to Ethiopia. The others are the Semien Red Fox, The Chelada Baboon, Menilik’s Bushback, Wattled Ibis, Blue-winged Goose, Harwood’s Francolin, Rouget’s Rail, Spot-breasted Lapwing, White-collared Pigeon, Yellow-fronted Parrot, Black-winged Lovebird and Prince Ruspoli’s Turaco. In January, 2011 a new member was added to the ‘Endemic Ethiopian’ list – The African Wolf.

- Addis Ababa is the highest city in Africa. And many tourists mistakenly think that just because it is in Africa it is a hot place to be. It is amusing to see their reactions to the cold when they get off the plane at Bole International Airport as they shiver in Bermuda shorts and Hawaii shirts. The city was founded by Emperor Menilik II on the Entoto Mountain.

- The Danakil Depression (also known as the Afar Depression or the Afar Triangle) found in North Eastern Ethiopia is the year-round hottest place anywhere on earth.

- Amazingly, Ethiopians have a very impressive history when it comes to flying. The first African woman to fly was Wro. Assegedech Assefa. There is an argument that if it had not been for the Italian invasion in 1936, Wro. Mulumebet Emeru would have been the first licensed African to fly, but that she is the first to fly – the jury is still out on that one. The only jet fighter air-to-air shoot down by a female pilot is credited to Ethiopian Air Force Captain Aster Tolossa, who shot down her Ukrainian trainer who was flying for the Eritreans.

- The first car to reach Ethiopia was Emperor Menilik II's car (plate number D3130), in 1907. He was the first African Emperor, if not plain African, to actually drive a car.

- On August 12th, 2012 Ethiopia became the first country in Africa, and only the second in the world to own and operate a Boeing 787. Owned by the flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines, the aircraft was named "Africa One" and assigned the tail number ET-AOQ.

- Ethiopia is Africa's top producer and exporter of sesame seeds. The country produces about 8% of the world total sesame seed production.

This list will be added on as information is available. Ethiopia is a country with over 3,000 years of history. Any suggestions or additions are very welcome.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Bruce Parry…an Ethiopian son

Sadly, the image that comes to the mind of many people when they hear of the word ‘Ethiopia’ is a very dark one. And even if they have been to Ethiopia, some people go back with images in their heads from what they’ve seen but not understood.

Enter Bruce Parry – ‘explorer and expedition leader.’ Bruce is an ex-Royal Marine, among many other things. But the documentary series ‘Tribe’ that he produced is, by far, the work he’ll always be remembered for. The documentary is about how Bruce travels to the remotest parts of the world, including the eastern and south eastern part of Ethiopia, seeks the most isolated people living there and how he becomes ‘one of the Tribe.’ He stays for one month amongst them eating, drinking, dressing, hunting (sometimes being hunted) with the people. For once, here’s an honest outlook from an honest and humble man.

In the series Bruce visits four tribes in Ethiopia: the Mursi, the Dasenech, the Hamer and the Nyangatom. The videos show the way Bruce won the hearts of the young, the old and all in between. From chiefs to toddlers they all fall in love with him and he is very touched and at times surprised by the amount of love and respect that comes from the humblest abode. Some issues that really need kudos:

- Although Bruce is a physical education man from one of the best trained and toughest armies in the world, he bows down and is thrown around by the warriors. The respect and honour he shows the young warriors is commendable.

- Again, coming from a military background it’s very funny to see him fidgeting with an AK-47 and the locals commenting “he doesn’t know much about guns.”

- It really takes a great deal of courage to run around naked with body parts swinging left, right and all over, especially when there’s a camera that’s going to show it to the whole world.

- Especially endearing is the way he eats what the locals eat, with gusto, and gives an honest opinion. From the pancakes finger –fed to him, which was delicious, to the local beer that tasted like ‘paint-stripper.’

- While the whole world thinks of Ethiopia as a war-torn, famine-ravaged cess-pit, Bruce could see that these people were forced to fight to protect their livelihood, he brings all the ‘chaos’ that any other tourist would see into a pin-pointed perspective: at the risk of being painted as savages, these people have to fight to live. He saw deep inside them and found the beautiful part of them. Another example would be the whipping of female relatives of a person who is having his initiation ceremony. Again to the average outsider what would appear as pure abuse or cruelty, he got to the core of how that simple show of faith and love would be translated later and would be paid back with love and care.

Drinking blood, hunting crocs, eating the ickiest part of an animal and enduring some of the most embarrassing situations like a true Ethiopian in the end open the door to Bruce being adopted by many people as their son over and over again.

This is a DVD collection worth keeping and watching over and over again. On behalf of Ethiopia and Ethiopians this author bows low and says ‘Bravo! And thank you!’

Saturday, June 20, 2009

You MUST be an Ethiopian if…

1. You drive straddling two lanes. To most Ethiopians, the lines that are drawn on roads are either for decoration or just by employees of the Ministry of Transport having fun.

2. You think you’re worth more if you buy an expensive cell phone. This is even amazing since the most you can do with your cell phone is talk and send text messages. Only a few months back was 3G even started. The cell phone costing 350 ETB sometimes out-performs one that costs 3000 ETB.

3. You live in a hovel that charges 100 birr rent and park this year’s BMW outside. Many Ethiopians seem to have their priority wires in a tangle.

4. You are embarrassed to put on your seat belt while driving, but flaunt your thing as you pee in the streets. Many drivers in Ethiopia prefer not to wear seatbelts stating that people would call them show offs. But those same people would forget about people’s opinions when they had to go number one in public.

5. Pronounce ‘the’ as ‘ZE’, spell ‘welcome’ as ‘WELL COME’, forget how to spell words with the ‘e’ at the end and add it when not required. Examples would be “Well Come to Peac Hotele.”

6. You can spell your name, and have documents to prove it, in at least 5 different ways. Example: Biruk, Bruck, Birook, Brook, Beruk, Berook …

7. You open a new business and name it after the city you used to live in while you were in the United States. Addis Ababa is full of cafes, hair salons, hotels and other businesses with names of US states or cities. It wouldn’t be safe to mention them here.

8. You, while in Ethiopia will spend tens, sometimes hundreds, of thousands of birr to get out and once out whine about how you’d rather be back home…

9. …and when you DO eventually come back home you brag about how good you had it in the west.

10. You kiss up to anyone that is better dressed than you, drives this year’s BMW and owns the cell phone in number two. It’s a sad fact that customer service givers, from guard to the highest manager will judge you by what you’re wearing. I’d really recommend that if you were having a bad hair day, were tinkering with your car’s oily and greasy parts and were wearing cutoffs, scraped boots and a filthy cap… you’d better change all of it before you answered that door bell. Whomever you might meet my ask you to go get the master of the house.

11. You can’t tell the difference between New Zealand and Netherlands. It was really embarrassing when a newscaster reading the news couldn’t make out which country was being mentioned, she decided to play it safe…so she said that the news was from, this is not a joke, “Newzerland.” EDIT: On the news on 19/06/2009 the commentator read news from "Swizland." It's not clear if Switzerland or Swaziland was the intended country.

12. You would rather dehydrate, sweat and stink up a storm, on a hot day, in a crowded car or bus, than to open a window, because you think the draft would kill you…

13. …and if at home, you still believe the old wives’ tale that the draft from two opened doors will make you sick. From the way some Ethiopians react when a window whether at home or in a car is cracked, you’d think it were bullets coming in rather than plain air. It would have been tolerable if the person asking that the offending window be shut were reasonably clean and had remembered to wash his feet this month or change socks since last week.

14. You cannot see the irony in drinking, eating and fornicating sinfully for the few days before Lent and thinking that you will make up for it all during the following 40 days. Two or three days before the fasting begins people go crazy bar-hopping till all crazy hours. They stuff themselves with all the food they can get their hands on.’ Sex and the City’ is really on! When asked, Ethiopians tend to say that it is to keep them stronger during the fasting, to help them make it through and to lessen the temptation. Isn’t this all against the Passion of Christ? Isn’t the whole idea of fasting to weaken one’s self and to fight the temptation…? Why bother if one is packing and storing for the ‘long haul’?

15. You think some job is below you while in Ethiopia, but would beg and grovel to do it in the US or Europe, but still not tell your family or anyone who knows you back home what it is exactly you do. You create fancy job titles like ‘Sanitation Engineer’ when you’re a plain old janitor. You say you work for ‘a large American company that has over 31,000 branches.’ You don’t exactly hint it but encourage people to think that you’re a shareholder in that company. It is a sad day when people find out you only work at McDonalds and the only share you hold is your share of the scoop… the fries scoop that is.