For too long, we Ethiopians have forsaken our blackness. We splintered ourselves from Africa and stood alone at the precipice of isolation as we insolently rebuffed our African brothers and refused to be proud of our black skin. We divorced our culture from black; a people who once were adored and loved as the essence of black hope visited onto our souls the enmity of the African diaspora by insisting that we were not black. Generation after generation of our forefathers set us back, they passed on to their children a deep seeded bias by denying our black souls and injecting in our menfes (spirits) the ways of nefarious Western thinking by having the paucity to believe that we were “different” and that we had more in common with ferenjis than we had with our black brothers and sisters. That ends today, our once warped thinking and our disbelief in our blackness is being buried in the black ether, aided and abetted by a transformational singer and a visionary cinematographer. The transformational singer is none other than Teddy Afro. … [read more]

The U.K. and Washington DC chapters of Ethiopian National Transitional Council (ENTC) Organizing Committee held town hall meetings Sunday in preparation for the Ethiopian convention that is planned to be held in Dallas, Texas, from July 1 – 3, 2012.

In Washington, 12 individuals have been elected to represent Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland. Similar public meetings are being held around the world to elect delegates. So far, it’s been confirmed that representatives from over 35 cities and countries — from as far away as South Africa and Sweden — will come to Dallas. By the time the convention starts, the number of cities represented is expected to reach 40.

For the U.K. chapter, Sunday’s public meeting in London was its first opportunity to discuss the purpose of establishing the transitional council in Dallas. Speakers at the London meeting included Ato Sileshi Tilahun, a member of the ENTC Organizing Committee, and Dr Ermias Alemu, chairman of the newly formed alliance named “Congress of Ethiopian People’s United Struggle,” which is composed of over 15 political and civic groups.

Dr Fisseha Eshete, head of the ENTC Organizing Committee, addressed both the London and Washington DC meetings via teleconference and in person.

Ethiopian Review Editor Elias Kifle and Ato Masresha Tilahun of Ethiopian Youth National Movement (EYNM) — both members of the ENTC Organizing Committee — also took turns to discuss preparations for the Dallas Convention and what it is intended to accomplish.

The participation of unusually larger number of young Ethiopians in the meetings in both cities was encouraging.

The convention to form transitional council is gathering momentum as hundreds of ordinary Ethiopians from around the world prepare to head to Dallas.

For further information
Public Relations: [email protected]
UK Chapter: [email protected]; Tel: 07958580065

I have this vision of a peaceful and serene Ethiopia once in a blue moon when I am at my jaded moments with my community. This vision I have is one of eleven children with empty bellies but eyes full of hope. This vision that captivates me is of these eleven children who have are poverty stricken who refuse to be sickened with hopelessness. Thus, they tie up 40 dirty kalsis full of holes and form a soccer ball full of hope. These same children use their dingy t-shirts handed down to them by people of good charity as goal posts. They then play Qwas—their imagination running faster than their feet by barely a whisper—and they whisper sweet tunes of competition interlaced with friendship and fiker.

Grant it, this vision is a fleeting dream most of the time—I wake up to a nightmare of a reality where my community is divided by politics and torn asunder by ethnic expectionalism. But I refuse to accept this as the eternal reality for my motherland and my people; I expect more from us—I expect us to act with the friendship and fiker of those very same bole lijoch who don’t see politics and ethnic differences as they play Qwas on a field where dirt and mud is home to their dreams. How is it that we—as adults—act more childish then children? How is it that our offspring give birth to hope while we stare at each other with shovels in hand digging mass graves to bury the very emnet of our our children? … [read more]

I realized this weekend that I am fighting a losing battle, I am fighting a people who eat Miqegnenet Layer Cake. Thus I am writing a separation letter to my community, a sort of a final farewell, because it hit me last night that I was fighting a Tsunami of self-colonization and self-loathing that I cannot undo in my lifetime. Miqegnenet means envy and self-loathing, it is a pernicious trait of Habesha where they NEVER give credit or help another person out for fear of being a lesser person for it. Miqegnenet is a virus more lethal than Ebola and deadlier than HIV, now you understand why Ethiopian issues of concern will NEVER go viral—it is because we are infected with a germ called Miqegnenet and we are dying because of it. I say this at the risk of sounding manic or egotistical, but I am a DOPE writer, yet I only have 498 followers on twitter… [read more]

The Ethiopian National Transitional Council Organizing Committee Washington DC chapter will hold a pubic meeting to elect its delegates to the founding convention in Dallas, Texas, that will convene on June 30.

Date/Time: Sunday, June 10, at 2:00 PM
Address: Four Points by Sheraton, 1201 K Street, Washington DC
Question/More info: write to [email protected]

The U.K. Chapter of Ethiopian National Transitional Council Organizing Committee will hold a public meeting in London, Sunday, June 10, 2012, to elect delegates to the Dallas Convention.