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La Vie Dansante! May 23, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in Art.
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La Vie Dansante
By: Jimmy Buffett, Michael Utley, Will Jennings 1984
[The Dancing Life]
They can come take it all away
Break your heart by the light of day
Drown your love in a distant bay
So lonely
See the ships heading for the rocks
See the time melting off of the clocks
There’s a light shatters all the locks
And saves me
It saves me

That’s why I wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes me just where I want
That’s all I want La Vie Dansante
Why don’t you wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes you just where you want
That’s all you want La Vie Dansante

Miss the beat if you close your eyes
Every night wears a new disguise
And I live when a new surprise surrenders

Feel it all with a willing heart
Every stop is a place to start
If you know how to play the part with feeling
I play with feelings

That’s why I wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes me just where I want
That’s all I want La Vie Dansante
Why don’t you wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes you just where you want
That’s all you want La Vie Dansante

That’s why we wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes us just where we want
That’s all we want La Vie Dansante
Why don’t you wander and follow the dancing life
On the night wind that takes you just where you want
That’s all you want La Vie Dansante

That’s why we wander and follow La Vie Dansante
On the night wind that takes us just where we want
That’s all we want La Vie Dansante

La la la la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la la la
That’s all we want…

some music ah!

Poverty of Reason May 19, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in world view.
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Know this EPRDFites what you are fighting is human evolution, the development of consciousness is purely evolutionary and on a cosmic time table and it’s not in the jurisdiction of earthly political establishments to stop it. Just like gravity it’s a force to be recognized and harnessed not retarded. The law of thermodynamics dictates that every bit of the senseless energy EPRDF is spending to stay in power shall be reciprocated. If your so called “genius” leader could follow the trend he would have packed up his quat and gone. Time is running, you guys should make up your mind. Since when did taking refuge in some idea you don’t understand guaranted existence?

I don’t know how many times it should be stated to herd mentalities at home that all proper associations should formed by individual choice and on conscious intellectual grounds philosophical, professional, political etc and not on physiological or geographical accident of birth, and surely not on the ground of tradition. There is a crucial difference between a legitimate association and a tribe. Just as laws, not men, rule a proper society, so as a proper association is united by ideas; not by men, and its members should be loyal to the ideas, not to the group. EPRDFites please get this through your head. This of course requires a high degree of conceptual development and independence, which many of you are desperately struggling to avoid. But I assure you that this is the only way men can work together justly, benevolently and safely.

One way or another, we are fast approaching the tipping point of the already gathered political storm and once again you are given the chance to elevate from poverty of reason.

The invisible elephant in the Room May 17, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in world view.
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The disenchantment of the modern world and the disappearance of spirits, as foretold by westerners, has not taken place, either at home or in other parts of the world. In Africa as well as in Europe, many spirits and their mediums are part of local as well as Transglobal cultures. Thus, we find Christian spirits named Hitler and Mussolini or King Bruce Lee, the kung-Fu actor, in a pantheon of new Christian holy spirits in Northern Uganda, who are waging war against the government (Behrend 1993). And, In central Africa, we find spirits of aero planes, engines, guitars and angels(see colson 1969,Luig 1993), while thunder, snakes and rain as well as playboys and prostitutes are in habiting the spirit world in west Africa(see Rouch1978:1010).

One intriguing experience of modernity is that spirit possession cults are proliferating the word over, not only in African, Asian and Caribbean countries (see kapferer 1991,Ong 1987, Little wood 1992) but also in the midst of New York (McCarthy Brown 1991), Toronto(Boody 1995) and various towns in Europe.

Perhaps we should wake up and smell the coffee ah?

In f.. credible!

On Ignorance and Poverty May 16, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in world view.
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I think its necessary to understand the global situation we find ourselves, the way scientific progress is heading and in retrospect what we Ethiopians were and still are doing!

“Western nations have achieved in mere span of four hundred years what we have not been able to do in four thousand years. Because our planet has become too small for them they are now moving in to the wide world of outer space. While we were dragging ourselves behind our donkeys to cover a mere seven kilometers a day, they cruse comfortably through thousands of kilometers in matter of hours. Whereas we fail to observe what is obvious and tangible they persistently investigate and probe in to the microscopic. While we purchase arms and weapons manufactured by the west to wreak havoc amongst ourselves, as if in celebration of death, they are relishing every bit of joy that life provides” prof Mesfin Weldemariam, whither Ethiopia, Vision 2020.

On Personal Relationships May 13, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in Uncategorized.
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In a world full of violence and cruelty, I believe personal relationships are something very fluid. Psychology as shown that we all have something incalculable in us, often we do not know who we are, Therefore, we cannot know what other people are like. How then can we put any trust in personal relationships and cling to them in the gathering political storm? In theory we cannot but in practice we can and do. One must be fond of people and trust them if one is to make a mess of life, and it is therefore essential that they should not let one down, but they often do. Since to ignore all contrary evidence is one of the characteristics of faith, I certainly can proclaim that I believe in personal relationships maybe that’s why I think I have a lot of friends!

Sport and Development April 22, 2007

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Sport as many things in life can be viewed both as an end in itself and as a means for many ends, which may not be that evident to many. Still this should not undermine the fact that it’s a very important human engagement and a branch of the economy engaging millions of people and money. A lot can be said about the individual benefits of sport, which can be summed up in a nutshell as ‘a physical endeavor to keep a healthy and well functioning mind and body’. Which of course directly affects productivity and hence the economic development; but still attempts must be made to go beyond this rudimentary link, in explaining the reason why proper attention should be given to sports in contemporary society.

Any Determination to uncover and reflect the position held by sport in our present-day modern life, obligates one to add a certain time dimension to his or her argument, hence I would like to start from the ancient times where people used to worship their gods through sport. The Greeks used to engage in rituals before they commenced their Olympic games. The Romans practiced sport for entertainment, for sheer primordial joy they use to have, viewing gladiators bleed. Aztecs also engaged themselves with sport in the same way as the Greeks, to honor their gods and It seems mankind has a bit evolved since then; Now, we the lucky ones are living in a time dimension where sport is played for health and entertainment, for honor and respect, and oftentimes for money. The 21st century sport is also overwhelmed by morally degrading scene of horse trading amongst rich and famous sport clubs (buying and selling players is common). If the forces of demand and supply are to continue being unleashed to the extent they are currently, common sense suggests a slide back to barbarism, as is quite evident in Boxing!

While the individual benefits of sport are clear, the societal collective benefits through sport as means to development is debatable, sport can indeed be regarded as a positive end in itself; but as a closer look at the captains of the sport industry, various sport clubs, the state and the media, various NGOs in Africa and even gangsters and hooligans demonstrates a continued efforts by most of these elements in society, using sport to stir public emotion for their own ends, often times to amass money and power. The current societal arrangement of sport leaves the citizen exposed to the intentions of other men, malign or benign.

The more recent interest from the academic community and nongovernmental organizations to use sports as means to promote societal development is of course a very promising endeavor, Sport indeed offers a new frontier in the war against poverty and under development both in the north and south; however in an era in which business forces are stronger and increasingly aggressive, it would be impractical to imagine and relay on these non market forces (academics and NGOs) to steer the sport industry in the step towards the right direction. In the words of the world famous academic Noam Chomsky “In contemporary Global economic paradigm, it would be very difficult and next to impossible for non market, non commercial and democratic forces to barely exist at all.” Hence, reliance on these forces in society to bring the much sought development will be naïve, unrealistic and bloodless!

 

Ethiopia, what a mess! February 27, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in world view.
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We Ethiopians in search for a better tomorrow, in search of economic and political emancipation, have almost tried everything. We have begged, entertained, intermarried and most of all revolted, but still nothing seems to work in this sordid continent; yet again our laughable compliance to the survival instinct animates us still. I am sure someday we the divided, downtrodden and alienated Ethiopians will find our way to the Promised Land of social security.

Injustice takes many different forms in this chaotic world! Despite the fact that the world is changing injustice some how manages to persist in the background and the problem is that here we are rather aiming at a flying target and we cannot adhere to static models and wage war on anti conceptual herd mentalities at home, science could have solved many of our problems, the problem is that there are no governing laws, theories, or principles that can cover the wide realm of social existence and all it’s eccentricities. Reality is much more mysterious and eludes capture of the mind and we are still a bunch of calculators just like those blind men trying to figure out an elephant by the part of its body they touched!

The Cosmic Bastard!

Good and Evil! February 8, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in Uncategorized.
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While they hurried Christ to the cross, the ruler decides that he cannot constitutionally interfere to save him. Even though he knew he was innocent. I guess, I now know what that means. The question is, Is the constitution a thing to live by? Or die by? No, for as long as we live we forget it, and when we die we are done with it. I guess it is only a book to swear by. The judges and the lawyers, and all men of practicality, consider not whether a certain law is right, but whether it is what they call constitutional. They all try a case by very low and incompetent standards. Here we are talking about servants of man, and worst of men, rather than the servants of God. Perhaps that justifies the moral state we all are under. The thing is that we all, right after birth, have registered the world through our body and entered in to an agreement to serve the devil, and that service is not now due. I wonder when mankind is to serve God and obey that eternal and only just constitution that he, and not any human intellect has written. Some were courageous enough to cut the ears of the police when the messiah was surrounded; while others pocketed 30 pieces of silver, and this is meaner than crucifying Christ for he could take care of himself.

 

life February 8, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in Uncategorized.
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Life is a dream, mine a bad dream.

yonix

While contemplating the under currents of change! February 6, 2007

Posted by sumaletera in Gallery.
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“….it takes a lot of things to change the world:

Anger and tenacity. Science and indignation,

The quick initiative, the long reflection,

The cold patience and the infinite perseverance,

The understanding of the particular case

And the understanding of the ensemble:

Only the lessons of reality can teach us to transform reality.”

Bertolt Brecht,Einverstandnis.