Mereja.Forum

I read news this week that came of Europe following the G7 Summit. It was so exhilarating to me to hear that those giant industrialized Western nations have made a financial commitment in upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars specific to African women including you. Not for the men, but you!!! We men have more than enough in our pockets with the money we connived out of you and your children's coffers.

I am sure you have noticed it all. You have seen us men how we ruled the country since the antiquities. We have made you cry rivers for your beloved sons who perished in wars we men concocted for this or that stupid reason. We have ordered you to surrender your children so we can use them as cannon fodders for senseless wars you were not asked to have your say. If that was not enough, we have ordered you to come out and cook from sundown to sunset for destructive carnage we intentionally started. And when your sons and courageous daughters stood up to the power that be owned by us men, we sent them to the gallows even denying you to give you babies dignified burial. The way I see it now is this cycle of thuggish behavior by us men will have no end in sight. We men are working round the clock itching to start the mother of all carnage that the old country has seen in its Almighty Blessed history. They have divided your babies along a thousand opposing lines waiting for someone to make the wrong move. We men have stopped listening. Because of our monopoly of political power we have lost all our reasons. We have gone tone deaf to logic and sensibility. We are working round the clock in divide your babies along the explosive ethnic lines. We have given your babies names you did not. We call them Oromo, Amhara, Tigre, Somali, Afar and many other ethnic surnames so we can easily drive them ujuum into raging infernos. We are imbuing in them this evil attitude for others that we are much superior. When the facts on the ground tell tradition of harmony and peaceful coexistence we tell your babies that until the 1870’s we had nothing to do with other ethnic groups.

If you look at the current slew of political groups you will be hard pressed to find one woman among their leadership. If there are any women we are just using them just as pawns to get the pan handling going productive. I have not seen one and I am not to be fooled by the current grandstanding. EPRDF, ADP, ODP, OLF, OMN, TPLF and all others have not shown me one face of a woman speaking on their behalf. Yes, there are more women ministers in the cabinet but that is not far enough. So, enough is enough for you.

Dear Our Glorious Old Country Women!!! You know I have nothing but love and respect for you. I believe it is your calling now!!! Rise up! Peacefully that is!!! Rebel!! Nonviolent that is!!! Organize yourself. When that chauvinist pig boss tells you to make coffee for him at work, tell him to make it himself. When he asks you to bring a soda for him, tell him to get off his lazy behind and get it himself. Tell him to always put ‘please’ in front of it and even then you will ‘think’ about it. All bets should be off now!!! If he fires you for that call his misogynist name out for the whole world to know about it. Sling a lethal #MeToo at him. That is when your being organized comes handy. That firebrand daughter of ours Meaza bint Ashenafi is right there for you. She knows the right medicine when I go so rogue on you!! Organize, Organize!!! Nag the living daylight of every man with the power that be and chase him out of the office. You MUST take the leadership of the country. Otherwise it is destined to doom and untold bloody mayhem never seen in our history. We men have made enough mess of it. It deserves better and it is you who has the ingenuity to make it better. It is in my daily prayer that I will live long to see you as the prime minister, a majority in the parliament, a majority in the cabinet, leaders with a majority in all political parties and I hope and pray that will happen soon since there isn’t much in the hopper for me.

On the continuum:

Some people may pose a question and some had already done to me in person in the past' 'Why are you so hell bent on the taking over of the political leadership by our women?' They had told me that it is because I am the father of a wonderful daughter. Well by Our Creator's Blessing I have a granddaughter too. Yes that too. But that is not the primary mover for me.

As everywhere and in our old country in particular, there has a monopoly of political power by us men throughout our history. All these years we have proven to be instigators of costly conflicts and savage wars among citizens. Due to such unchallenged monopoly we have developed such indelible and deeply entrenched mentality that we can do anything. We start wars whenever we feel like it that costs millions lives of the able bodied particularly the most productive section, the youth. There is always an excuse. One time it could be on a barren sliver of land. The other time is because the way the other chief was looking at me during our meeting. There were times that the other guy cut me off during our wedding celebrations. Many times, the bull on rut from the other tribe 'raped' some of the heifers in my cattle. Or I just don't like the other guys and I want to wipe everyone one of them for the face of the earth. We men have stopped listening. We are so arrogant that we are the only ones who can do good for the country. Tolerance does not exist in our ruling dictionary. None of that!!!

In the process we have twisted verses in our two major religions to prolong our monopoly making the participation by our so capable women 'unconscionable' there unthinkable. We have authored so demeaning prose and folklore in every language of every ethnic group bedeviling our angelic women. Don't start with what my own Itu clan has been shamefully depicting our women. The same degradation exists in every ethnic group out there. If someone is telling that his ethnic group never has that, he/she is lying to you through his/her teeth. Tell them to take it somewhere!!! It is a shame that some(I said some and not all here) local leaders of both religions were perpetuating this sick depiction of our resourceful women by twisting verses and something adding their own versions in the holy scriptures of both holiest religions. They have been portraying women as sources of all snafus by us stupid men. They were telling parent to give you away as wives when you are still way underage because, they say, once you reach puberty you are destined to be nothing but nightmares to your parents. They mutilate Allah created part of body as a means to control with a pain that will last a lifetime. If you rebel nobody will be able to find traces of you. They herd into harems and brothels. That is what we have seen on steroid during the last 100 years in particular. Now you have to rise up and tell me and my lazy bum men enough is enough. It is the best time for you to say that in clear clarion voice now. You have to wrestle away this monopoly of political power from us arrogant men as fast as you possibly can. Now some of you may say to me ‘Itu that is a tall order in a country where such possibility is bound down by impenetrable wall of age old custom and values'. I say to that I am not just fantasizing about it. I have seen it happening in other societies.

By best example are the women of Taiwan. Just mere years ago, the women there had two jobs: being a stay at home wives or life in brothels. Where do you think the American GI's used to spend their R&R time during the Vietnam War in the 1960's and 70's? Taiwan was the main destination besides Thailand and the Philippines. The entire Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taitung, Changua and other cities were bustling brothel cities where millions of women were working as you know what. In the meanwhile there was one other huge undertaking slowly but surely making itself known on that island, industrialization. Factoring began showing up not only in major cities but also in rural area thanks to the major infrastructure projects dubbed 'The Ten Major Construction Projects' by the late Chiang Kai-shek and his successor son Kuo. In the meantime, Mao and his henchmen were munching on tens of millions of their own citizens during the diabolic 'Cultural Revolution'. Now the 1970's brought swarms of factories to that island in the 1970's and continuing into the 1980's. When I first set my foot on that island in the early 1980's that island was being turned upside by industrialization with factories everywhere. I saw swarms of young and middle aged women in factories I visited. They were doing final assembling on conveyors and benches. During the following many trips, I had noticed they moved in status. They were very fast learners just every one of you, my dear countrywomen. I started finding them as foremen and team leaders. Then can factory managers and ultimately business owners. They don't lie to you as we men always like to do when promising delivery dates. Then did it take them too long to wrestle away political power from the men over there? There is new sheriff in town now and her name is Tsai Ing-wen. She has been staring down those Marxist demons in Beijing. Just in my lifetime those brothels are now past memory for 99% of women on that island. They are free. You remember what I told you a family I have known from that island for more than 35 years now. They have one child only, because? You got it. That wife said that is enough. She did not tell me that her husband told me so. Before industrialization there was a runaway population explosion on that island whose main foreign currency producer was the camphor it was roasting up. We also have coffee, don't we and you are assigned for life to make the best drink for this arrogant man for centuries.

My dear countrywomen!!! You know by now where I am coming from. There is nothing that will free you from bondage you have been subjected to in our society there for ages except industrialization with spreading factories. The concentration of such job creating jobs in and around major cities will not cut the mustard for me. Just like I had seen it in Taiwan where one owner lady had a factory deep inside the countryside and there is a rice paddy just next to her factory. My dream is to see such factories in that childhood memory of Beka, Asabot, Kora and way deep inside the Chercher mountains along with other small localities in the Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Somali and the rest of the country. If you call me a dream dreamer on this one, I will find you very wrong. That is because my confidence in your capabilities is huge.

Dear my countrywomen!!! Rise up!!! Peacefully that is!!! Rebel!!! Non-violently that is!!! Stand firmly behind any effort of industrialization and protect the ones operating near you and anywhere in the country!!! It has taken a mere 50 years for the Taiwanese women to reach where they are now and I am not saying it must take that long. But I would like to see it happening to you during my lifetime. I ain't worried about my daughter and granddaughter because they are extremely fortunate to be citizens of the greatest nation in the world. As a septuagenarian there isn't much to bank on available for me on this good earth. Again, my confidence in you is so strong that even a direct hit by a category 5 hurricane will have no chance breaking it. Dorian? Forget about it!!!!

This will not be the last time you gonna hear an earful from me on this boom or go bust issue for the old country. God Speed!!!!

This one either. All The Way to The Top!!!

Stay up there days in and days out for ever and ever!!!

Up, up, up the way and stay there until sunset!!!

Not going anywhere till the cows come home.

I'm having a fit for seeing this buried away.

Not going anywhere even everything around freezes over with no end in sight!!!!

Stay up there days in and days out for ever and ever!!!