#and they probably came through ethiopia/eritrea

[kestrellady]

A wild Ea-Nasir appeared!

[kemetic-dreams]

Who was the king of Ethiopia before Haile Selassie?

The title used by Haile Selassie actually translates as 'King of Kings', and thus was usually rendered in English as 'Emperor' rather than 'King'.

The previous monarch before him was a Queen (or Empress) not a King: Zewdita, who ruled from 1917 to 1930. Before her came her nephew Iyasu, who was never actually crowned so is usually not included in the list of emperors. Before him came Emperor Menelik II, who ruled from 1889 until 1913, but his death was not publicly announced until 1916.

In Amharic, the title was Negus Negusti, or in Ge'ez (the traditional language of Ethiopia still used for ritual and sacred purposes) Negusa Negest. 'Negus' is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, which is long, so something like ne-GOOSE. It is usually translated into English as 'King'. It should also be noted that Ethiopia does not use the Latin alphabet, so Amharic and Ge'ez words are often transliterated into English in different ways (such as negusti, naguste, etc).

For much of its history, Ethiopia was a collection of rival kingdoms such as Shewa, Gojjam, Wollo, and Begemder, whose rulers often used the title Negus or King. Meanwhile the Solomonic dynasty claimed to rule the whole country by the right of their descent from Menelik, the supposed son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Members of the dynasty called themselves Kings of Kings. Sometimes they had real power and the country had a centralised government; at other times there were merely figureheads while the various provincial kings were practically independent.

The period from 1769 to 1855 was one of those times of division with no real central government: it is known as the Zemene Mesafint or 'Age of Princes'. No fewer than 23 different Emperors were crowned during this period, but none of them had much actual power. That changed with the rise to power of Kassa Haile, son of a minor nobleman from the Dembiya province. Disinherited and reduced to outlawry — popular legend speaks of him as a Robin Hood-like figure, stealing from the rich and helping the poor — he formed an army and eventually seized control of Dembiya for himself.

Kassa attracted the attention of the powerful noble Ali of Yejju, whose mother Menen had married the nominal emperor and who himself claimed to be the Imperial Regent. In order to make this up-and-coming young warlord an ally, Ali arranged for him to marry his daughter Tewabech in 1848. While Kassa and Tewabech had a happy marriage, he soon quarrelled with his in-laws, and by 1852 was in armed rebellion against them.

Kassa defeated both his father-in-law and several other rival nobles, and by 1855 was the strongest ruler in Ethiopia. He then forced the nominal Emperor Yohannes III to abdicate, and had himself crowned Negus Negusti on 11 February 1855. He changed his name to Tewodros ('Theodore') which sounded more imperial, and spread the story (which may or may not be true) that his mother was descended from a 17th-century Emperor of Ethiopia and thus he himself had the blood of the Solomonic dynasty in his veins.

For the first time in a century Ethiopia was united by an Emperor who had actual power. Tewodros II (there had been a previous Tewodros in the 15th century) ruled for 13 years and spent much of that time leading an army, forcing the semi-independent rulers of Gojjam, Tigray, Shewa, and Wollo to recognise his authority. As well as constant civil wars he was threatened by the expansionist Egyptian khedivate, the Ottoman Empire, and neighbouring Muslim kingdoms.

In 1862 Tewodros decided to ask the British Empire for help modernising his kingdom. However, the British did not want to get involved in the region, and did not take his request seriously. Outraged by this dismissal, Tewodros ordered all the British citizens in his country to be arrested and thrown in prison. When he heard that a Church of England missionary had written a book describing Emperor Tewodros as 'barbaric, cruel, and unstable' he flew into a rage, personally threatened the missionary with a gun, and then beat two of his servants to death with his own hands.

The British response to the imprisonment of their citizens (including their ambassador) has been described as "one of the most expensive affairs of honour in history." They organised an army 13,000 strong, invaded Ethiopia (in January 1868), defeated its army, conquered it, and set the British prisoners free. Then, mission accomplished, they turned around and went back home again, leaving Ethiopia to its own devices. As for Emperor Tewodros, he shot himself when the British soldiers broke through the gates of his fortress.

The death of the Emperor left a power vacuum in Ethiopia, triggering four years of civil war. His immediate successor as Negus Negusti took the throne-name Tekle Giorgis II and attempted to consolidate power by offering concessions to the Ethiopian Church; but few of his rival nobles recognised his claim to the throne. Tekle Giorgis ruled for only three years before being defeated in battle by the warlord of Tigray province, who had him blinded and thrown in prison to die.

The new ruler was Kassa Mercha, another son of a minor noble who had fought his way to control of a province. When the British invaded in 1868 Kassa had helped them pass through his lands in Tigray rather than fighting them, and in return the British gave him enough modern muskets to equip 800 men, plus a battery of artillery. It was with these modern troops, plus around 11,000 more traditionally-equipped warriors, that Kassa defeated the 60,000-strong army of Emperor Tekle Giorgis at the Battle of the Assem on 11 July 1871.

After mopping up several other rivals, Kassa had himself crowned as King of Zion and King of Kings of Ethiopia (Nagusä Sayon, Nəgusä Naguśt zä Ityopya) on 21 January 1872. He took the regnal name Yohannes IV, and ruled for 17 years. He was a strong ruler who continued the work begun by Tewodros II of attempting to unite the rebellious provinces under central control, and also expanding the borders of Ethiopia outwards by conquest. A major blow to his ambitions was when the Italians seized control of the port of Massawa, previously controlled by Egypt, in 1885 — Yohannes had hoped to acquire the city himself.

Emperor Yohannes IV was killed in battle in 1889 when the Mahdists of Sudan, who believed their leader was the prophesised Messiah, invaded Ethiopia. As he lay dying in his tent he declared that his nephew Mengesha was actually his son, and so should succeed him to the throne. However, few people believed this claim and even fewer were willing to accept Mengesha as their emperor; so he was never crowned. He did, however, continue to rule his father's lands in Tigray.

The next emperor was instead Sahle Maryam, who took the throne as Menelik II. He was the illegitmate son of the negus of Shewa province, and was taken prisoner when Emperor Tewodros II subdued Shewa and reincorporated it into his empire. However, Tewodros took a liking to Sahle and arranged for him to marry his daughter. In 1865 Sahle seized control of Shewa for himself. He remained neutral during the British invasion of 1868, helping neither his father-in-law the Emperor nor the British. While Yohannes ruled, Sahle remained mostly quiet, though he showed great interest in modernising his province and especially its army with Italian help.

He declared himself as rightful emperor under the new name Menelik as soon as Yohannes died, because unlike the previous few monarchs, he was directly descended in the male line from the House of Solomon. Most nobles accepted his claim and he was crowned on 3 November 1889. He would rule for 24 year

born Sahle Maryam, 1889–1913

Menelik II consolidated power in Ethiopia, establishing a new capital city at Addis Ababa with modern enhancements such as paved roads, plumbing, a bank, and a post office; and in 1894 he invited the French to build a railway to connect the city to the French-controlled port of Djibouti. He also more than doubled the size of Ethiopia, by conquering the tribal lands to the south and east of his empire in a series of brutal wars. However, he is probably most famous for defeating the attempted Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1895-96.

When he took the throne in 1889 Menelik had signed a treaty with Italy in which he recognised their ownership of Massawa and Eritrea in return for their acknowlegement of his position as Emperor. The treaty also guaranteed the freedom of both countries to trade in each others' territory and enjoy equal rights for their citizens there. However, this agreement, the Treaty of Wuchale, contained a clause that was different in the Italian and Amharic versions. The Amharic text said that the Emperor of Ethiopia could use the services of the Italian government when conducting negotiations with other nations. The Italian text said that the Emperor must use those services.

In other words, the Italian version of the treaty — which the Italian government circulated to other European nations — made Ethiopia their protectorate, conducting its foreign policy only with Italian permission. The Amharic wording suggested that this was merely optional, and that the Ethiopians could simply ask for Italian help and advice when negotiating with Western countries. It is thought that the discrepancy was included, on his own initiative, by the Italian ambassador in Ethiopia, Count Antonelli, who wrote the text of the treaty.

Emperor Menelik did not discover this deception until 1890, when he wrote letters to Queen Victoria of the UK and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, only to have them returned with a note that he was not allowed to do this, and should communicate with them only via Italy in future. (Supposedly Victoria's answer was cool but polite, Wilhelm was rude and dismissive.) Menelik was outraged, but it was not until 1893, when he felt his domestic position was secure, that he denounced the treaty. Italy, in turn, saw this defiance as justification for war.

In December 1894 fighting broke out between Italian forces in Eritrea and the inhabitants of Tigray, ruled by Mengesha, the "son" (or nephew) of Emperor Yohannes whom Menelik had beaten to the throne in 1889. The Italians won a swift victory and captured Adwa, the capital of Tigray. This encouraged them into overconfidence, and they decided to invade and conquer the rest of Ethiopia. This proved a disastrous failure.

On 1 March 1895 an Italian army of 14,519 men attacked an Ethiopian army of about 100,000 men in the Battle of Adwa (or Adowa), and was almost wiped out, losing 7,000 killed, 1,500 wounded and 3,000 captured. News of the defeat caused riots in Italy and the collapse of the government there. The new Italian government quickly signed a treaty under which they recognised Ethiopia's independence after all, and paid an indemnity of 10 million lire, in return for peace (and Ethiopia's recognition of the new border with Eritrea).

Menelik suffered a stroke in 1909, at the age of 65, which left him incapable and paralysed. His (third) wife Taytu, who had a strong personality, effectively ruled the country for a year until she was forced from power and replaced by a Council of Regency which governed from 1910 until Menelik died in 1913.

Menelik had no children from his three marriages, but he did have at least three illegitimate offspring. In 1909 he nominated his 14-year old grandson Kifle Yaqob, son of his eldest illegitimate daughter, as his heir. In 1911, with his grandfather still alive but unable to rule, his teenage grandson took power under the name of Iyasu. His title was Lij, literally meaning 'child [of noble blood]': 'Prince' might be an appropriate English translation in this context. ('Infante' would be even closer if we were speaking Spanish.)

Prince Iyasu, uncrowned ruler of Ethiopia 1911–16

Lij Iyasu faced multiple challenges to his rule, including an attempted coup, a poisoning attempt, and an armed mutiny in his first year in power. He was also accused of neglecting his duties and engaging in scandalous behaviour, including leading his bodyguards in slave-raids against neighbouring states instead of remaining in the capital.

In December 1913 Menelik finally died, though this fact was kept hidden to avoid instability. The nobles and ministers of the court, who regaded Lij Iyasu as an incompetent brat, avoided having him crowned as Emperor. On 27 September 1916 the Minister of War, Habte Giyorgis Dinagde, organised a coup d'état. He produced witnesses claiming that Iyasu had secretly converted to Islam, which would be grounds to forfeit the throne; and under pressure the Church confirmed this claim, excommunicated Iyasu and released the Ethiopian nobles from their oaths of loyalty.

A brief civil war followed, and Iyasu's side lost. He fled into hiding in the desert for five years, being captured in 1921 and kept under house arrest. When Emperor Haile Selassie took the throne in 1930, as described below, Iyasu was treated more harshly. When the Italians invaded again in October 1935 they distributed propaganda urging the Ethiopians to rise up in support of "the true Emperor Iyasu V" to overthrow Haile Selassie. Purely by coincidence, the 40-year old Iyasu was shortly afterwards found dead in his cell; having died entirely of natural causes and certainly not murdered on the Emperor's orders as a potential threat.

Going back to 1916, however, the organisers of the coup decided to make Zewdita the new monarch. She was an illegitimate daughter of Emperor Menelik II, and thus the aunt of Lij Iyasu. She was also the first regnant Empress of Ethiopia, and the first female African monarch in several centuries. Her title, rather than 'King of Kings', was 'Queen of Kings' (Negiste Negest). However, as a woman it was agreed that her relative Tafari Makonnen (who was also her heir since she had no surviving children of her own) would act as her regent and plenipotentiary, the Balemulu 'Inderase. Empress Zewdita was not entirely a figurehead — she had the final decision-making power and a lot of political influence — but her kinsman was the public face of the government.

Empress Zewdita, 1917–30

Empress Zewdita was crowned on 11 February 1917 and ruled for 13 years. She was conservative and a traditionalist, and a patron of the Church in Ethiopia. She left most matters of government in the hands of her relative the Regent Plenipotentiary, Tafari Makonnen.

This regent’s father Ras Makonnen ('ras' is a noble title, roughly equivalent to duke) was the first cousin of Emperor Menelik II on his mother's side, and was appointed as governor of Harar by the Emperor. He was also a notable military commander at the Battle of Adwa. Makonnen's son Tafari, born in 1892, thus had royal blood, and it was agreed in 1917 that he would be the nominated successor to the childless Empress Zewdita. He was also given the title ras at this point.

Ras Tafari thus became the face of the Ethiopian government in the name of the Empress. He arranged for his country to join the League of Nations in 1923, and pursued a cautious strategy of modernisation and westernisation. He also banned slavery in his country, though he was unable to enforce this.

In 1928 there was an attempted revolt against Tafari's power, led by the governor of Sidamo province who was accused of underpaying taxes to the central government. Conservative nobles rallied around the Empress and attempted to have Tafari tried, for treason and consorting with Italians. The attempt failed, and as a concession to secure peace Empress Zewdita was pressured into upgrading Tafari's title from Ras to Negus, or 'king'.

Two years later the Empress's husband Gugsa Welle launched a rebellion of his own against Negus Tafari — without the permission of his wife. He raised an army of around 35,000 men, but other members of the nobility were too cautious to join him. The Empress reluctantly declared her husband a rebel, and Tafari led the official army of Ethiopia to combat him at the Battle of Anchem on 31 March 1930. Three aircraft flew over the rebel army dropping leaflets urging the soldiers to desert, followed by bombs. Gugsa Welle himself was shot and killed while riding a white horse into battle. His army disintegrated. Within three days, Empress Zewdita herself was dead, supposedly of shock and grief at her husband's death (though she was in fact seriously ill anyway).

Eight months later on 2 November 1930 Tafari Makonnen was proclaimed as Emperor himself, taking the name Haile Selassie (which means 'Power of the Trinity'). He remained emperor until the revolution of 1974, though between 1936 and 1941 he was in exile in England after the Italian conquest of his country

A major famine in 1972-74 which killed tens of thousands of people (some sources claim even higher figures) undermined public support for the Emperor, who until then had generally been popular. High inflation also led to riots, strikes, and a mutiny by the army which demanded higher pay. On 12 September 1974 a Committee (Derg in Ge'ez) set up to investigate and rectify the army's grievances, instead deposed the Emperor and placed him and his family under arrest.

Haile Selassie's son, the 58-year old Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen, was in Switzerland at the time receiving medical treatment. The military junta announced that he was now King of Ethiopia (they used the term 'King', not 'Emperor'). However, Asfaw refused to accept the legitimacy of the coup against his father, and therefore refused to use the new title given to him. He also publicly condemned the actions of the Derg when they had about 60 high-ranking members of the government executed by firing squad. In March 1975 the Derg — officially known as the Provisional Military Administrative Council — therefore announced the abolition of the monarchy and declared the creation of a Marxist-Leninist socialist republic.

The last reigning emperor, 83-year old Haile Selassie, died on 27 August 1975, supposedly of complications following surgery but according to some, he was strangled.

[linearao3]

Brucha/Chanukah, Los Angeles, 2017

Brucha -- (Hebrew) A spoken blessing, coming from the root word meaning “to bow,” or “to kneel.”  A brucha expresses wonder and awe at the blessings of God.

From the deposition of Mazon Kanata, in rem: State of California v. Oscar Platt

The radio was on, like always, but not so loud, and I saw the sound was coming from a sewing machine, this little white girl behind a sewing machine.  You could hardly see her, there was such a big pile of fabric beside her.  And she was young – much too young to be working with a big dangerous machine like that.  And so I – let us say that I found myself inside.  And I went close to her and she didn’t look up; she just said “Soon, soon, two hundred soon!”  And I said, “Child, what are you doing?” and she looked up.  She had a chain on her, like a dog, and a terrible smell – filthy.  Infected.  And she looked at me like no one had ever spoken to her before in her life.  Like she was afraid to be spoken to like a human being.

From the diary of Ben Organa, aged 14:

Dad said I should lighten up and I said if he didn’t like it he should fuck off.  Then naturally Mom told me not to swear at my father, as if she didn’t tell Shara “Han’s fucked off to heaven knows where again” using EXACTLY THOSE WORDS just last week.  It’s extremely hypocritical of her to rebuke me for using bad language to his face when she calls it that behind his back.  Maybe if she called it that to his face more he would fuck off less often.  Except when she did that one time and he was gone for seven weeks.  Maybe there isn’t a correlation.  Regardless, it’s still extremely hypocritical.

If she were paying attention she’d know I never go anywhere anyway, so “grounding” is meaningless as a punishment.

“I’m sorry for not making latkes,” Rey says as soon as Ben’s through the door.  She’s at the kitchen table, up to her elbows in flour, and the whole apartment smells like roasting chicken and caramelizing fruit.  “I think I used the wrong pan; everything got burned as soon as I put it in.  I can try again in a few minutes when it’s cooler.  I should have looked up what you need.  But I mean obviously it was just fucking yesterday when I realized we didn’t even have a menorah so clearly I’m really on top of everything, right?”

She laughs.  An anxious little giggle; it barely sounds like her.  Her hands are busy, rolling out bread dough into long strands.  He puts his shoulder bag down beside the couch.  The menorah Rey bought is in the window; if he’d had to guess what she’d pick – or if he’d gotten one for her, like he should have – he’d have gone with one of the colored glass ones, maybe one with brilliant green leaves and curling vines to hold the candles.  Rey’s chosen a brass one.  It looks like the illustration of Menorah in a Webster’s, a platonic form, almost; eight curved branches away from the central pillar of the shamash.  

The box of candles on the table is what he’d have picked for her, though – tall, tapered gold candles with their based dipped into brilliant jewel-toned wax.

“I’m sorry the bread will be ready after the chicken,” she says, hurriedly.  “I know I should have done it the other way around, so the challah could stay warm while the chicken was cooking; probably I’ll overcook the chicken if I try to keep it warm, plus you’re probably hungry; just let me braid this and cover it and then I’ll be ready to light the candles, I promise.”

“Take your time,” he tells her.  He throws his coat and tie over a chair and rolls up his sleeves.  “Can I help with something?”  She hadn’t said a word about doing all this; he would have taken time off.

“No, I’m just – just let me braid this – ” Her fingers are working fast, nimbly drawing strand over strand, but one elastic strand of dough pulls free from the little twist at the top and slides down.  She sees it and snatches at it with her left hand, trying to draw it back up and through, even while she’s still trying to braid one-handed with her right.  It slips out of her grip, and when she snatches at it again, another strand breaks free and the whole top comes apart.  As he comes around the table towards her, she sinks both fists into the dough, bending over with a muffled scream.

“Rey,” he starts, trying to tuck one flyaway strand behind her ear.

“I’m sorry,” she says, raising wet eyes to his.  “I’m so, so sorry.  I know you must be used to something – to everything being perfect – I know I can’t make it like you must have had it at home, but I wanted to make it good anyway, and I can’t even make latkes – “

“What are you talking about?”  He waves a hand, baffled.  “You’ve done so much; I had no idea – ”

“But your mother, your uncle – you must have had such amazing Chanukahs as a kid, and we’re so far from New York and I know you grew up there and it’s so different here and I wanted to make it – I’m so sorry, Ben – “ She’s pushing all her weight into the bread, and he catches her to him, pulling her back.

“Rey.  There’s nothing to be sorry for.  Literally nothing.  I haven’t celebrated Chanukah in years – ”

“I know, that’s why – I wanted it to be like – “ she whimpers the last words so softly he almost misses them “ – coming home.”

He spins her around so they’re face to face.  A dozen ridiculous Chanukah memories flood his head – his mother baking latkes in the oven “since Han’s not here to complain;” his father flipping a latke onto the floor, making him promise not to tell his mother; his uncle, the year they were both gone, holding forth on dreidel until dinner was cold; the candle that tumbled out of the holder and rolled, still burning, across the table and stopped next to his hand – and he puts his hands around Rey’s face.  It’s such an amazing face, the planes of it, like the solution to an impossible problem of geometrical beauty, and he gets to put his big mitts on it like this.  “There’s no fucking apartment in any city in the world on any day of the year that would feel like coming home if you weren’t in it.  You feel like coming home.”

“I can’t.  I’m not – I’m just – “ She’s shaking her head in his hands, her soft hair frizzing out between his fingers.

“Yes,” he says firmly.  “You.  My wife.  Remember?  You agreed to marry me?”  He smiles, like it’s something she left off the grocery list and not the defining factor of the new life he for some reason gets to have.  She smiles back, a small smile with a trembling lower lip.  He kisses her, as gently as he can manage when he wants to crush her against him so tightly that she can feel his thoughts, how little he needs bread or chicken or fried potatoes, how much he needs her to want him.  Love him.  Over her shoulder he sees the menorah she picked out, like a child’s idea of what a menorah ought to be.

He shifts his grip on her, lifting her up and into his lap as he sits in one of the kitchen chairs she’s pushed aside in her work.  "What was Chanukah like for you?  As a kid?”

She looks down at her hands.  “Maz had a menorah.  And sometimes Finn would sneak over, but mostly he couldn’t get away.  But sometimes we’d light the candles early, so he could be there.  Especially if he could come for the seventh night, because Maz said.  Maz said the seventh night.  Was for people who were separated from their families.  And Finn and I both – Maz’s family was in a war zone, in the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia; it wasn’t the same.  But it felt like we were all feeling the same thing.  Feeling – incomplete.  Like we were waiting for something better.”

He strokes her shoulder.  “When I was a kid,” he says quietly, “Chanukah was kind of a mess.  My parents were always late coming home and one time I got sick of waiting and lit the menorah without them and I thought they’d be proud of me, for being grown up, but the candles were all burnt down by the time they came home, and they were furious.  They said it was because we were supposed to do it together, but I thought they were just angry that I’d shown up how late they were.  And then every year after that, my dad’d twit me about it, like, don’t light the lights without us, Ben, and it made me so angry; I didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just let it go…” He’s kneading her back, not really meaning to, but she’s quiet and still in his arms.  “I guess – maybe it hurt his feelings.  That I thought I could do it without him.  That I didn’t think I needed him.”  He swallows, and she leans back in his arms to look at him.  “That I didn’t think he was part of my home.”

Han was so thin the last time he saw him.  Rey says Chai is part of a campaign to close Rikers.  Dad’s release date will come first, and it’s three years.  Three years to go.

It’s Rey’s hands on his face, now, her deft, strong, flour-covered hands which have done such difficult things.  “Something better will come,” she says.  “Not long now.”

When she sits in his lap, she’s taller than he is; he looks up at her.  She has tried to make him a picture-book Chanukah.  So that he will feel at home, even though he is divided from his family.  Even though that is his own fault, that he and his mother both are divided from his father, from his father who ate latkes with his hands even though they burned his fingers, from his father who made new rules for dreidel so it would be a real gambling game, from his father who taught him to make the soft chet sound in baruch ata adonai.  Rey has tried to help him home in spite of that, as though she weren’t more home than he deserves.  He leans his head against her soft breast, and they sit there for a long moment, his arms tight around her waist and her chin in his hair.

She picks out two candles, purple-gold and blue-gold, and he sets them in the menorah, burning the base of one to keep it in place, and lighting the shamash as she watches, lifting it to light the candle for the first night and murmuring the soft little blessing: Blessed art thou, o Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has blessed us with commandments and commanded us to light the Chanukah candles.

Amen, Rey sings.

Blessed art thou, o Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has kept us alive, and sustained us, and brought us to this holiday season.

Amen, Rey sings, and slips her hand in his.  Like she knows the pain under his ribs.  Like she feels it too.

“I don’t ever want to be separated from you,” he whispers into her fingers.  He raises his eyes to hers, watching how she glows in the new flames. “I want to be your home.”

“You are,” she whispers.  “I am yours and you are mine.”  The candles burn in the window, golden bright against the darkness outside, spilling out of their little apartment, shared with anyone who happens to pass, and she kisses him there, where anyone, and everyone, can see.

Notes:

Menorah -- A candelabra, particularly in this case the nine-branched Chanukah menorah with one arm for each night and a ninth arm for the shamash.

Shamash -- (Hebrew) Servant.  The Chanukah candles can’t be lit directly with matches; first you light the shamash, and then use it’s flame to light the other candles.

Latkes -- Fried pancakes, usually potato and onion, traditional for Chanukah.

Challah -- Braided egg bread.

Beta Israel Jews in Israel dedicated the seventh night to their families who were not able to leave Ethiopia, and with whom they hoped to be reunited.

The “Close Rikers” campaign has succeeded; NYC City Council approved a plan in October, and the Rikers Island jail complex is set to close in 2026.

Both the Chanukah bruchas that Ben says begin “Baruch ata adonai,” Blessed art thou o Lord...

[jonathaniketem]

Coming to Terms

I was the last to introduce myself at my table, comprising four desks facing each other. World cultures—my very first class as a middle schooler. I couldn’t have been more excited. Our teacher sat in the front of the room just surveying her surroundings; her pearly, white smile was about as bright as the hot Texas sun. I still remember Ms. Juarez getting up herself, flattening out the creases from her outfit like she usually does once she got up and and introduction herself. Right after she spoke a few words and while the crowd gasped in excitement, I stared at my table, aghast. “You guys will make a presentation about your own culture by the end of the year, it only seems fair as this is a world cultures class,” she smiled as she always did while stating something that felt similar to a death sentence. How was I to complete something I had so much trouble accepting?

Now let’s turn back in time—back to when I was nine years old meeting some of my closest friends for the first time. I came across a group of kids my age range playing soccer right in front of my house on the street. I was too shy to come out and just ask if they would let me play with them; with the knowledge I’ve amassed now I know children are much easier to congregate with peers than adults who may be a bit pretentious to ever allow anyone foreign join their clique. I only walked away from the screen gate concealing my gazing presence for a bottle of water when I heard a thump against the familiar sound of something hitting the plastic exterior of a car. I ran outside yelling at those rowdy individuals who dared to hit my father’s sedan. They did what kids knew best and ran for their lives, and as a kid myself, I ran after them. We ran and ran until the sun went down only for all of us to collapse from exhaustion. We laughed about how stupid this all was while apologizing for hitting my dad’s car. My summer as a nine year old then on was me going out and having fun with the new kids I met. I started to grow bonds with them and create memories hoping nothing would throw a wrench into the fun I was having. Sadly it’s always those who try to escape bad luck who end up chasing its tail. One day all my new friends came to our friend Tobias’s home for a game day. The environment was much different than it was in my house: R&B music playing in the house, friends of Tobias’s dad in the backyard having a barbecue, and a marathon playing of a show I had never heard of before called Martin. I must have been very tense as Tobias noticed and tried to calm my nerves, and if Tobias noticed my other friends did too. They must’ve realized I wasn’t feeling like my regular self, all from being in a different setting. “Hey why do you look like you’re out of place? You’re Black too, aren’t you?” The question I always felt uneasy about. I stood there and stared at everyone unable to say a thing for awhile. To this day my present self could never understand why I agreed that I was such instead of the truth, but the lie was played and it had to be kept up or my image would’ve been ruined.

I am an African American, an American citizen who just so happens to have African roots. This is what I have finally accepted myself to be ethnically. Though it was never easy for me to accept as a youth. I have parents from the Eastern horn of Africa, born and raised in the country Eritrea. They sadly had to leave their homes to escape the war for Eritrean independence from Ethiopia, later meeting each other in Houston. They were proud of their Eritrean ethnicity, yet they gave birth to and raised a son who was ashamed of who he was. I was surrounded by people who identified as what the average person would imagine to be the Black American. I was constantly seeing myself as fitting into this group without also being apart of my own group. I didn’t have the knowledge to be able to be apart of both the African American community while also being proud of my roots as an Eritrean youth. I saw it as wanting to be able to accommodate myself into this community I was around so long that being a bit different would only make me feel segregated deep within, so my only solution was to lie about who I was. I’ve been questioned continuously as I differed visually from the peers I so wanted to be apart of, the loose curly hair, my bulging eyes, and complexion that made it seem I was from the Middle East. Because other people have continuously made assumptions about my race, I have found myself frequently discouraged. Discouraged to the point that lies flowed smoothly out my mouth like water surging from a faucet. Embarrassment followed me no matter who asked the question I dreaded: “Hey what are you? Are you Black?”, and no matter how many times I was asked my lies never failed to put me at ease. 

A thing about lies I’ve come to realize—they may start out as little white lies, but the constant repetition of a lie breathes life into the lie. The lie starts to become its own entity, an entity I despised but kept molding with the eccentric tales I formed that would’ve put a seasoned politician in awe of what the mind of a youth could conjure in fabrication. My lies started with only a few peers; later, newer mouths would ask the same questions with familiar ones standing close by; my lies couldn't change there or I would be a liar. The lies began to form an identity—latching on to my person like the backpack I so proudly carried through the hallways of the school I spread my lies, instead the lies were a burden to my conscience. The typical person would try to fix something weighing heavily on their mind, but the lies were an addiction that sadly started to rope in others that weren’t supposed to be involved. Since my sister, two years my junior, started to attend my school I’d tell her to start lying about our identities. She could never figure out why it was such a big deal to me, but I started at her just as drug addicts stare at their loved ones asking for a bit of cash to get high one last time. Looking back it was quite repulsive doing something so crude to the innocent minded. I was her source of wisdom as her older sibling, yet I tried to bring her into the darkness I created out of disregard for myself trying to fit in with the groups of people I just happened to want to be a part of. Another thing about lies that I often hear and can confirm for myself are that they most likely will always catch up with their creators no matter how hard they try. As children get to meet others outside their family, they start to bringing them into the homes they were raised in and subsequently meet the ones who did the raising. For the liar I had become I could not believe I made the simple mistake of leaving my parents alone with friends to talk—the same parents who love to represent and share their information about their homeland. To hear one of the many customers you’ve sold your lies to ask what an Eritrea is feels probably about as painful as getting shot in the heart. I was truly grateful the attention span of my peers was about as long as a toddler’s who still hadn’t formed object permanence yet. There needed to be a remedy for the troubles I was causing myself, some soul searching before I was completely branded as a liar and someone who couldn’t come to terms with who they were. Surprisingly, all it took was a summer trip and a bit of contemplation about life to get myself on the right track.

Summer before the start of the nerve-wracking middle school experience, a family trip was presented to the June-born siblings as a gift. I didn’t know how to feel about going to Eritrea to see and experience the environments my parents grew up in. The trip was for the entirety of the summer, coming back only two days before the school year was about to start. We would be taking the German airlines Lufthansa stopping in Frankfurt, Germany and Istanbul, Turkey for gas and once again taking off until we landed in the capital of Eritrea: Asmara. Summer is the perfect opportunity for friends to make a few more memories before they went to different schools and possibly losing contact with each other. It hurt my child heart to know that I couldn’t go out and have fun, but instead I had to go to the place I tried my best to hide the existence of. The constant questions of why I wouldn’t be home got my creative process running, my solution being that I told everyone we would be visiting family in Europe. My lie wasn’t completely far-fetched though; my mother and father both had brothers located in Sweden and Norway, so coming up with this I felt proud of what I conjured up. The trip there wasn’t an easy journey: our first flight cancellation due to the 2011 eruption of the Nabro volcano, TSA possibly giving White House security a run for their money, and the long flight hours accompanied by the sounds of my sister heaving up her airline meals every moment of turbulence. I couldn’t have been happier once I had both feet on the motionless earth. Finally stepping out of the airport, I stood by the entrance waiting on my mother to get her bearings. Hand stretched out tugging at my luggage, I watched in awe at the deep lavender masterpiece in the sky the sun had left once it set ready to rise once again from where I came from. “Not bad,” I thought quietly to myself, “I guess I’m home.”

Asmara is the capital of Eritrea as well as my parent’s birth place. There are many ethnic groups living in Eritrea; my family is a part of the largest group in Eritrea called Tigrayan due to the language we speak: Tigrinya. Because of my delayed learning of English and natural tendency for Tigrinya as a child, my father decided to withhold my learning of the letters my parents grew up with called Ge'ez. They decided the 26 letter alphabet worshiped by this new country they settled in was much more important than millennia of history and culture. Though I regret their decision now I never cared much for it back then, especially during our trip when I had two translators by my side. The air there was very cool, which never made much sense to me until my parents explained how we were many feet above sea level, basically living on top of a mountain. Walking to our grandmother’s house from when the taxi dropped us off, we were headed to where would be staying for the entirety of our trip. I saw that everyone was walking, reminding me much of the climate of New York from various videos and photos I have seen. People walked and talked mostly in Tigrinya and to my surprise English as well. Asmara is much more advanced when it came to popular culture and what was big in societal trends as the capital of this country compared to the more rural cities my great grandparents and so on came from. My father thought it would be best to walk the rest of the way while my mother took the taxi back to her childhood home preparing for our arrival. We walked the streets taking detours walking past the many food stalls and shops out in the open, like shopping at a bazaar. The stained homes and buildings from the sun and style to the colorful, but bleached architecture made it feel like I was vacationing in one of the South American countries. I couldn’t believe what beauty Africa had housed. 

Living in Asmara for just less than three months I started to see what it felt like being more than just American. It wasn’t as big of a difference as I thought, especially not from the rumors about Africa that I heard back in America. Of Course as popular as Asmara was, it couldn’t be used as a standard when comparing all of Africa, as if comparing a mansion to low-income housing provided by the government for struggling individuals. Things like famine, poverty, and horrible living conditions existed, but I was living as lavish as I could in my grandmother’s home. I was woken up to this sad reality when we traveled to my great grandparents village of Maiha, which also served as my grandfather’s burial place. My grandfather died before I could ever meet him two years from when we left to come to Asmara—another reason that warranted this trip. The trip there was suffocating; the advent of the air conditioner seemed to not have reached east of Africa just yet as the bus ride there was unpleasant. The whole ride we were leaving the cool mountains and entering sea level, and humidity was coming at full force that summer. At our stop we walked to Maiha, my mother’s family village where she hugged, kissed, and introduced us to our family. Maiha was a desert from what I perceived it as, almost no vegetation anywhere with everyone’s skin clinging tightly to bone where muscle should’ve been missing. I couldn’t fathom how people could be living here, but these were also my roots. We walked to an area that presented itself as a miniature version of a cemetery I remember once seeing as I joked around with my siblings, holding our breaths until my father drove past it. My father pointed out my late grandfather with his image on a tombstone, I quickly noticed the resemblance he had with my cousin that was back in Asmara. My mother and her sisters circled around his final resting place as their sounds of sorrow hit my eardrums, their wails had hints of grief and sorrow I couldn’t help but feel regrettably sad my mother felt this way. Something in that moment made me think life was fleeting, it wasn’t very normal for a child so young to be thinking about such things. Our journey back to Asmara was filled with reminiscent stories of young girls and their time with their father. A grandfather who would spoiled his grandson every minute he spent with him would’ve been joyful to experience, but loved ones are taken before these moments can even be recorded. I learned that my grandfather had an avid love for language, housing the ability for speaking many languages during his life. It was something about that fact that resonated within me even though at the time it seemed to be just one of the many accomplishments he had under his belt. Once we made it back I remember sighing loudly that we were back home, which made me question my word use at the moment. I was finally comfortable enough to call the place my mother grew up in home, and I wasn’t at all ashamed by it. This new found respect I had garnished upon myself seemed to keep me on a high. In the coming weeks of traveling around the country and enjoying the cuisine, to my surprise was a lot of pasta and pizza, only added to my enjoyment for my summer. I later learned there was more Italian influence in Eritrea than I knew back from when Italy used to control this little country. From words such as eyeglasses and car borrowed from Italian to the architecture and food, Eritreans used their suppressors identity and incorporated it into their own. The love for the language and learning more words in Tigrinya took new heights when I decided it was time I learned the alphabet from my uncle who was a school teacher. It was no easy feat, but the dedication I had for this task was marvelous and quite miraculous looking back. By my age at the time, my brain had most likely already made its last connections with neurons in the language department, cutting its ties with neurons that most likely would’ve made learning these symbols a lot faster. Though with my effort, my plastic brain must have given me a chance to redeem myself from my ignorance as before I knew it I could read small segments from the local newspaper like an infant reading the big text from a picture book. The applause I received from family members in the room during my recital was very heartening and exciting as I showed off my new trick unbeknownst to my audience. 

Before I knew it my first year as a middle schooler was only a few days, just under two weeks. The sorrowful goodbyes and hugs hurt my little heart. I made ties and bonds with people I never knew existed until three months ago and I never wanted to leave. The environment there was very free and fun and I couldn’t fathom coming back to America. The smiles I once had plastered on my face now masterfully painted to express an aghast look. If someone said this was the same happy little boy enjoying his life in eastern Africa, they would’ve been taken as a joke. Ms. Juarez’s words still rang in my ears and my trip playing in my head over and over. Before I knew it the bell rang signaling us to our next class before I could over think how I felt my life was over. The whole school day consisted of trying to distract my foreboding thoughts with the workload I was piling up on my first day, yet I still couldn’t get world cultures to stop taking over my thoughts. This kept on up until I finally made it home after a tiring day of school. I had to come up with something soon as I laid in my best going through every decision I could’ve made about a school project possibly changing my outlook on many things. My thoughts raced back and forth when I suddenly remembered all the fun I had during our trip and remembering the times I struggled learning a new alphabet for the sake of trying to please family who passed on before I even got to meet him. Though I broke my promise of continuously practicing my Ge’ez I couldn’t help but smile at myself struggling to get better at something I had put my mind to. This trip couldn’t have been scheduled at a better time, a time when something as important as a cultural showcase was announced just after my return. I was finally more accepting of something I despised for so long even though I wasn’t going to change over night I was taking the necessary steps and that's reason enough. I hopped off my bed and ran downstairs to my father reading his newspaper at the dining table as usual. I remember him looking up waiting for me to tell him whatever it was I had to tell him, but nothing wanted to come out. I couldn’t just close up now after I finally told myself it was time for a change. I started to hate myself even more for making such a topic embarrassing for myself in the first place when I should’ve embraced it like other Eritreans I knew. This was my time to finally leave my cocoon of hate and emerge as not a full fledged Eritrean just yet, but however far baby steps would take me for the meantime. I took a breath in and out and before I knew out came the words “dad I need help with a project at school.”

The lights were off and seats were rearranged so that everyone was facing the front of the room. The student right before me alphabetically decided to make a powerpoint slide about what being Mexican American meant to him. I wasn’t listening closely, only paying attention in little bits before I would stare out the window watching the trees waving hello in the wind. Time kept ticking and I knew soon the 10-minute interval for our presentation would start over again for the next student. My heart ticked in rhythm with the second hand on my watch and I realized my heart seemed to go faster and faster, a heart attack was all I could think of which only sped up my heart beat and didn’t make the situation any better. As I took deep breaths to calm myself I heard the class start to clap, my time was up. I wasn’t going to let 10 minutes ruin my life, this was going to be nothing but a simple speech to a bunch of people I met during my sixth grade year. I got up with the most confidence I had in awhile once I heard my name, tri-fold board in my right hand, a garment worn by women from Eritrea and Ethiopia in my left hand, and a traditional drum given to me by my late grandmother on my father’s side slung across my shoulder. I stood in front of my audience with my presentation set up, like I was at a science fair nervous to explain my booth. I took a deep breath, yet this time it wasn’t going to be used to spew lies any longer. I was standing my ground against all my demons ready to release myself all by giving a presentation. To many it may have looked like a child talking to his school friends about how he grew up, but to me it was a life changing moment. In that moment as if all at once my lies seemed to disappear into thin air relieving the stress I made for myself all those years; I was finally ready. “Hello my name is Jonathan,” I smiled a nervous, toothy grin, “and this is my presentation on what it means to be Eritrean.”

——————————————————————————————

Afterword

My thoughts were built selfishly upon self-love that was never present. I owned information that many peers I share my skin color with would never get to know. I couldn’t accept something that many could try to search for after it was stolen from them centuries ago, but I was ignorant to that fact. I was ignorant to the culture I was blessed to have information about and in my selfishness pretend to have no such knowledge. I am thankful for this gift many of my brothers and sister will never get to know: another language, another culture, another home. I care for my roots ever greater now since I’ve learned the significance of where I came from. I am African American with known roots from Africa. I am able to speak my African tongue. I am proud to say my heritage lies in another continent. I am me. 

[ayittey1]

The African Solution to Ethiopia’s Civil War

George BN Ayittey, PhD

More than 40 Civil Wars have raged in postcolonial Africa since independence in 1960. These wars have wreaked wanton destruction; reduced infrastructure to rubble, uprooted people sending refugees creaming in all directions. Several states have failed or collapsed as a result of war -- CAR, Congo DR, Liberia, Libya, Somalia, among others -- on the African continent

Some wars never end –in the Spanish Sahara, Casamanche in Southern Senegal and Somalia. Other wars descend into genocidal expeditions to settle ethnic scores. Still, others metastasize into sheer banditry. War and attendant insecurity provide rebels with the cover to fleece villagers and impose “security taxes.” In Somalia warlords extract “taxes on goods – even foreign aid shipments – passing through Mogadishu. Elsewhere, unpaid government soldiers disguised themselves as “rebels” at night and bedrob civilians. In Sierra Leone’s Civil War in 1996, government soldiers were indistinguishable from rebels at night. They would shed their uniforms, don rebel attire and commit atrocities including robberies.. So they were called “sobels” (the combination of soldiers and rebels) because both were predators.. In many countries – such as Ethiopia and Zaire -- unpaid government soldiers openly sold their weapons to rebels. And for their part, corrupt and incompetent governments often used the war as an excuse to shield budgetary expenditures from scrutiny and award lucrative contracts to cronies.” Either way, war created its own “profitable” logic,” making it more difficult to stop it. In short, there are no winners in Africa’s Civil Wars.

Some wars don’t even make sense – none whatsoever. Ethiopia’s harrowing Civil War is a case in point. It is the second most populous African nation with over 100 million people and at least 82 ethnic groups. The country was never colonized but has been ravaged by at the least three wars since 1972. The most grievous occurred in the 1980s. It wreaked so much havoc and destruction that it instigated the onset of a famine that claimed at least one million lives. And while the rest of the world was organizing rock concerts and songs (“We Are the World”) to save famine victims, then leader of the military junta, Comrade Mengistu Haile Marian – a Soviet-backed Marxist coconut-head – was spending $10 million on imported Scotch whiskey to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Soviet imperialism in Ethiopia! Over $423 billion was raised for famine victims but much of it was embezzled.

In 1989, a coalition of determined rebels decided to put their differences aside and made a renewed effort to topple Comrade Mengistu. They comprised the Tigrayan People Liberation Front (TPLF), Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). After Mengistu was ousted in 1991 – he fled to Zimbabwe. The rebel groups, together with others formed the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Interestingly, all the groups were Marxist with a jaundiced view of “revolutionary democracy,” whatever that meant. And inexplicably adopted a colonialist stratagem that reeked of “divide and conquer.” It allowed for the practice of ethnic federalism and even permitted secession. Eritrea seized upon this opportunity and declared itself independent in 1993. But its leader, Isaias Afewerki, was no freedom fighter nor democrat. Always itching for war and constantly beating the war drums to keep an iron grip on his people and divert attention from economic problems and domestic malfeasance, he seized upon a dispute over a worthless piece of real estate at the border town of Badme to start a war with Ethiopia in 1998.

It was a war that defied logic. The world’s two poorest nations that relied on food aid were spending about $1 million a month to hammer each other, take a break to bury a innocent civilian casualties and then get back at it again pounding each other. Hostilities came to an end in 2000 but Pres. Afewerki kept stoking the fire to use as justification for state of emergency that conveniently served as a conscription tool. Young Eritreans, upon graduation from college, were required to sign up for an indefinite “National Service.” It has been the main reasons driving Eritrean youth to flee the country for Europe -- to avoid that National Service. Unfortunately, many do not make it and drown in the Mediterranean. As it turned out, Afewerki has been just like the rest of the African crocodile liberators, who betrayed their people. EPRDF did too; never brought democracy to Ethiopia in 1991.

In 2005, it held its first elections which were blatantly rigged. When people protested in the streets, security forces opened fire killing about 1500 people and also arrested at least 20,000 opposition supporters. The election in 2010 brought no respite. The EPRDF won 99.6% of the vote (546 of the 547 parliamentary seats). In the 2015 elections, the opposition did not win a single seat! Its rule was characterized by brutal repression.

Ethiopia’s economic fortunes remained bleak under the morose leadership of the EPRDF regime until it embarked on the construction of its $5 billion Renaissance Dam. In May 2018, a young man by the name of Abiy Ahmed emerged from the ruling elites and begun to reform the rotten system. He freed all political prisoners and invited exiled opposition leaders to return home. He opened up the economy placed several state-owned enterprises – such as the airline, banking, among others – on the auction block. He reached out to President Afewerki whom Ethiopia had been at war to cement a peace deal. For his efforts, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. Ethiopians hailed him as the “Messiah.” Nursing mothers named the other babies after him. But this is precisely the problem with African reformers or Messiahs – such as Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana’s and Abdel al-Sisi of Egypt. They started out well but cult personality set in. With their heads in the clouds, they become unreachable. John Jerry Rawlings of Ghana or J.J. Rawlings became known as “Junior Jesus” and Abiy Ahmed as “Messiah.”

Under pressure to reform Ghana’s decrepit political system, Rawlings’ hand-picked Constitution assembly prepared a Constitution according to his dictates and set up his own party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 1992. While the Constitution stipulated a two-term rule, Rawlings argued that all those years he served after he seized power in a 1981 coup (1981 to 1992), did not count toward the two-term rule because Ghana was not a democratic country and had no Constitution. Museveni pulled off a similar ploy in 2003. In 2018, PM Ahmed of Ethiopia established his own political party, the Prosperity Party. It is a monumental conflict of interest situation. Reformers do not reform the political system, set up their own party, run for the presidency and expect to lose. In fact, in Nigeria, Gen. Sani Abacha allowed only five political parties to be established in 1995. Immediately, the all chose him as their presidential candidate!

Military officers have left an opprobrious record of governance in postcolonial Africa. ALL collapsed dates were ruined by military coconuts. And iIn case after case where they managed a transition to democratic rule, the results were often disastrous. They either created their own parties (Gambia in 2003, Ghana in 1992, Egypt in 2014) or shoo in their favorite political parties (Nigeria in 2001). PM Ahmed is most likely to succumb to this proclivity – especially when the completion of the Renaissance Dam appears imminent. The formation of PM Ahmed’s own Prosperity Party is a serious violation of conflict of interest. His partiality toward his own ethnic group – Oromo – has caused alarm. Ethnic tension between Oromos and Amharas, Afar and Somali, as well as other ethnic groups could lead to the unraveling of Ethiopia. Elections were slated for August 22, 2020 but the coronavirus pandemic necessitated a postponement to 2021 to the displeasure of TPLF.

Tigrayans constitute only 6% of Ethiopia’s population but the TPLF so dominated the EPRDF it was indistinguishable from the apartheid system in South Africa. It even operated an ID card that documented the bearer's ethnicity (for the first time in Ethiopian history). Blatant favoritism was demonstrated in all sectors of society, including the economy, military, education, and even religious institutions. Resentment and impatience boiled over.

The TPLF re-drew boundaries of regional states in Ethiopia along ethnic lines. Seeing power slip out of its hands by the emergence of Abiy Ahmed, TPLF began a campaign to reclaim its old glory back by defying the central government. It held elections in Tigray region. But it was the massacre of central government troops on Nov 4 in Mai-Kadra that broke the camel’s back and started the war. PM Ahmed probably thought he could finish off the Tigrayan hotheads in a couple of weeks but this has dragged on for six months.

Naturally, appeals would be made to the international community but they are unlikely to elicit much response. The international community is thoroughly fed up with Africa���s incessant wars and appeals for aid. Even then, the international community does not understand Africa’s problems and unlikely to offer viable solutions. It often suggests a “government of national unity” (G(NU). But time and again GNU has failed spectacularly – in Angola (1993), in Zaire (1998); in Sierra Leone (1998) and, in Liberia (2003); and Ivory Coast (2005); in Zimbabwe (2009) and Kenya (2009). Africa’s experience shows that GNU is just a short hand device for joint plunder of the state. It requires distribution of government posts between government and rebel forces. Quite often nobody is satisfied with what they got and they return to the bush to fight it out.

The Village Meeting/National Conference

When a crisis erupts in an African village, the chief and the elders would summon a village meeting. There the issue is debated by the people until a consensus is reached. During the debate, the chief usually makes no effort to manipulate the outcome or sway public opinion. Nor are there bazooka-wielding rogues, intimidating or instructing people on what they should say. People express their ideas openly and freely without fear of arrest. Those who care participate in the decision-making process. No one is locked out. Once a decision has been reached by consensus, it is binding on all, including the chief.

In the early 1990s, this indigenous African tradition was revived by pro-democracy forces in the form of "Sovereign National Conferences" (SNCs) to chart a new political future in Benin, Cape Verde Islands, Congo, Malawi, Mali, South Africa, and Zambia. “Sovereign” because it wielded sovereign/ultimate power and its decisions could not be abrogated by anyone.

Benin's nine-day "national conference" began on Feb 19, 1990, with 488 delegates, representing various political, religious, trade union, and other groups encompassing the broad spectrum of Beninois society. The conference, whose chairman was Father Isidore de Souza, held "sovereign power" and its decisions were binding on all, including the government. It stripped President Matthieu Kerekou of power, scheduled multiparty elections that ended 17 years of autocratic Marxist rule.

Congo's national conference had more delegates (1,500) and lasted longer three months. But when it was over in June 1991, the 12-year old government of General Denis Sassou-Nguesso had been dismantled. The constitution was rewritten and the nation's first free elections were scheduled for June 1992. Before the conference, Congo was among Africa's most avowedly Marxist-Leninist states. A Western business executive said, "The remarkable thing is that the revolution occurred without a single shot being fired . . . (and) if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere" (The New York Times, 25 June 1991, A8). Unfortunately, General Sassou-Nguesso did not accept his defeat graciously and overthrew, with the help of France and Angola, the civilian government of Pascal Lissouba in October 1997.

A similar national conference in Niger in 1991 denounced the military dictatorship of Colonel Ali Seibou and stripped him of his power, leaving him with one main task: To organize the transition to civilian rule. “For the first time since the independence of the country in 1960, free and fair elections were held and in March 1993, Mahamane Ousmane became the newcomer in the political arena” (West Africa, Dec 6-12, 1999; p

In South Africa, the vehicle used to make that difficult but peaceful transition to a multiracial democratic society was the Convention for a Democratic South Africa . It began deliberations in July 1991, with 228 delegates drawn from about 25 political parties and various anti-apartheid groups. The de Klerk government made no effort to "control" the composition of CODESA. Political parties were not excluded; not even ultra right-wing political groups, although they chose to boycott its deliberations. CODESA strove to reach a "working consensus" on an interim constitution and set a date for the March 1994 elections. It established the composition of an interim or transitional government that would rule until the elections were held. More important, CODESA was in "sovereign." Its decisions were binding on the de Klerk government. De Klerk could not abrogate any decision made by CODESA -- just as the African chief could not disregard any decision arrived at the village meeting.

Clearly, the vehicle exists -- in Africa itself -- for peaceful transition to democratic rule or resolution of the war and political crisis in Ethiopia. Ethiopia from all walks of life – leaders of political parties, religious organizations, trade unions, student groups, ethnic groups, etc. should demand the convocation of SNC. Forget about the Africa Union. It is hopelessly useless; it can’t even define democracy.

If Ethiopia appeals international community for aid in resolving its Civil War and humanitarian crisis, it should be told that the solutions to its problems lie in Africa itself.

The wise learn from the mistakes of others while fools repeat them. Idiots, on the other hand, repeat their own stupid mistakes.

[sciencespies]

Mummified baboons narrow down the mystery location of an ancient fabled land

https://sciencespies.com/humans/mummified-baboons-narrow-down-the-mystery-location-of-an-ancient-fabled-land/

Mummified baboons narrow down the mystery location of an ancient fabled land

The skulls of two baboons, mummified more than 3,000 years ago, have helped narrow down the location of a fabled “land of plenty”, which once supplied ancient Egypt with gold, frankincense, myrrh and monkeys.

Known as the land of Punt, or ‘God’s land’, this faraway fantastical realm may have actually existed outside its renowned mythology, despite no physical remnants of it having ever been found.

Ancient writings and drawings from the time have many archaeologists convinced the land of Punt was located somewhere around the Red Sea and was pivotal in the rise of the spice routes, also known as the maritime silk roads, which first linked Eastern and Western cultures and commerce. 

Or perhaps they should have been called the ‘baboon beats’. Researchers now think the traffic of a sacred monkey, known as the Hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas), was “an important, contributing factor to the rise of Red Sea trade during the 2nd millennium BC.” 

Ancient Egyptians seemed to have revered the Hamadryas baboon. The god Thoth, the supreme being of the moon and wisdom, is sometimes represented as a baboon (Thoth is also often depicted with the head of an ibis), with statues of the deity at temples. The ancient Egyptians also buried baboon mummies in tombs.

As such, ancient Egyptians travelled great distances to acquire living baboons. Their trade is actually the first recorded transplant of foreign fauna in human history. 

The land of Punt was a major emporium for monkeys and Hamadryas baboons specifically. Artwork shows these animals being transported back to Egypt on boats and sometimes by land, yet the ancient trade of animals is often overlooked when historians discuss Punt’s mystery location.

Detail from the walls of an Egyptian mortuary temple. The baboon is one of seven examples of Papio hamadryas depicted in the rigging of Egyptian ships returning to Egypt from Punt. (Nathaniel Dominy)

Tracing the origins of numerous baboon mummies found in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs, researchers now think the Hamadryas species was sourced from a region spanning Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and some of Somalia and Yemen.

“This result is a testament to the tremendous reach of Egyptian seafaring during the 2nd millennium BC,” the authors write.

“It also corroborates the balance of scholarly conjecture on the location of Punt.”

In the past, experts have argued the fabled lands of Punt sit near the Somali coast. Others think they continue eastward toward Eritrea or include more of the Arabian Peninsula, such as present-day Yemen. There are even those who argue the land stretches as far as Uganda or Mozambique, although this notion is more strongly disputed.

The new estimated location, while still provisional, helps narrow our focus.

“Many scholars view trade between Egypt and Punt as the first long maritime step in a trade network known as the spice route, which would go on to shape geopolitical fortunes for millennia,” explains anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy from Dartmouth College.

“Baboons were central to this commerce, so determining the location of Punt is important.”

Map of Africa and skull of specimen EA6738 with import from somewhere in the red shaded region, a likely location for the fabled land of Punt. (Jonathan Chipman and Nathaniel Dominy)

Apart from examining mummified baboons, researchers analysed the tissue of 155 modern baboons from 77 locations (which existed within the current hypothesised location for Punt). Comparing the chemical compositions in the monkeys’ teeth, bones, and hair, the team was able to generally figure out where they came from.

Chemical signatures left in the animal’s remains can tell us information about where they lived. The mix of strontium isotopes vary with the food they eat, for example, and are fixed in the tooth enamel early in life.

Analysing these chemical signatures, the new findings show both the hamadryas mummies – EA6738 and EA6736 – were not born in Egypt. Instead, the authors think these mummified remains, permanently positioned like the god Thoth, came from a location in Eritrea, Ethiopia or Somalia. 

One of the hamadryas monkeys, EA6738, appears to have lived in Egypt for many years. Its original home was found to sit squarely within the natural distribution of its species – right where Punt is thought to exist.

The other monkey, EA 6736, died shortly after arriving in Egypt. With just days or months in a new land, its hair and enamel did not have enough time to become tainted with Nile sediments.

Because their canines had all been pulled, the authors think these monkeys were living around people, possibly as royal pets, fruit harvesters, or even police animals. As the authors note: one bite from these fellas could cut through a thigh muscle right to the bone.

In contrast, five mummified baboons of another species, traded across Africa several hundred years earlier, appear to have been born and raised in Egypt under very different circumstances.

Because Egypt was thought to be devoid of any monkey species, the authors think it provides “tantalising hints of a captive breeding program for baboons at this time, probably in Memphis, an ancient capital in Lower Egypt, northwest of the Red Sea.”

What these monkeys were used for is another matter, but they appear to have lived harder lives than the idolised hamadryas. Their mummified bodies showed remnants of prolonged indoor confinement and vitamin D deficiencies.

“Setting aside the puzzling question of why ancient Egyptians deified P. hamadryas, the level of reverence was sufficient to justify the importation, husbandry, and mummification of it and another species, P. anubis, the olive baboon,” the authors write. 

While often forgotten by historians and archaeologists, mummified baboons from ancient Egypt might be the last remaining clue to the long lost land of Punt.

“Trade in exotic luxury goods, including baboons, was the engine behind early nautical innovations,” says Dominy.

“For over 150 years, Punt has been a geographic mystery. Our analysis is the first to show how mummified baboons can be used to inform this enduring debate.”

The study was published in eLife. 

#Humans

[shwni-blog]

Fitness Exercises at Home

The Benefits of Fitness Exercises at Home

Home Workouts Are Much Easier The thought of doing some Fitness Exercises at Home is the last thing on some peoples minds after a hard day at work Or even just been out for a few hours and want to just laze about on the sofa when they get home Are you one of those people? These days more and more people are getting worried about their health and physical well-being because of the rise in diabetes, obesity and heart-related diseases And who can blame them! With all the fast food and calories that are being consumed across the world and only yourselves to blame You need to take action now and start exercising or take up a physical sport like football or rugby Through doing any of these things you will not only have a healthy heart and body You will soon get a body that you can be proud of if you work hard enough and this is why I want to show you the benefits of just working out at your own pace at home

Why Should You Exercise?

Most people work out or play sports because they enjoy it but others do it just to look good And either way, you win, as you are getting the exercise you deserve and need And let’s face it, who doesn’t like to look good?  Studies have found that if you have a muscular and good-looking body you produce more sex appeal You might even get a bit more action if you know what I mean! Having a great physique for rugby and football isn’t just to look good though, its to make you excel in the sport you are taking part in If you were to go up against a fat football player for instance and you were in great shape, I know who would come out on top… And it wouldn’t be the flabby guy that can’t catch his breath and is tripping over his own belly fat And he wouldn't be the one doing his home exercises to lose weight Looking at the fat guy in rugby though, depending on his position he could still be a pushover on the field Unless he’s in the scrum then you might have a problem pushing him over But will always be able to outrun him with your athletic physique

Are You Overweight?

According to a source online, nearly one-third of the world's population is either overweight or obese!

Do you even know how many people that is? It's more than 10 people I can tell you... I'm not quite sure how they came to that result though as I haven't had anybody come round to my house to take my measurements and weigh me Unless they did it while I was sleeping

Obesity Worldwide

Now contrary to popular belief, the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is not the most obese populated country in the world, they are 18th on the list But I bet you will be quite shocked to hear which countries are in the top 10 Top 10 Obese Countries in The World AMERICAN SAMOA NAURU COOK ISLANDS TOKELAU TONGA SAMOA PALAU KIRIBATI MARSHALL ISLANDS KUWAIT How many did you get right? This isn't a list you should be proud of getting into the top 10 Some of the people may say it's glandular and that they exercise regularly and they only eat a salad for each meal.... I'm afraid I am going to have to call BULLSHIT on 99% of the answers and the remaining 1% I apologize if I offended you Let's pop over to the other end of the scale where in some of these countries they have problems with money and famine. Top 10 Countries With The Least Obesity Problems ETHIOPIA  BANGLADESH NEBAL ERITREA MADAGASCAR VIETNAM DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO INDIA CAMBODIA AFGHANISTAN  In some of these countries, they don't have much chance to get obese but some actually have a really healthy lifestyle and eating habits

Routine, Routine, Routine

A healthy balanced diet is important but we don't all stick to it so exercising regularly should be top of your priorities keeping both your health and your mind as it should be You don't need that much time to exercise and do some easy fitness routines so if you have a few minutes spare in the morning's, before work or late at night when your favourite tv show is on Just get into a habit of doing the same exercises and you will soon be back to your fighting weight So when you really think about it,exercise at home for men, women and children is a no-brainer really

Comfortable Fitness Exercises at Home

A lot of people are not comfortable working out in the gym in front of others so they get discouraged to continue to keep fit But most football or rugby clubs will book the gym out so the whole team can use it without having to wait for the machines If you still aren’t comfortable working out in front of your team-mates you could always get yourself a home workout machine and train that body in the comfort of your own home Until you are ready to go out in public and pump iron in front of people But for now, there is nothing wrong with just banging out a 30-minute workout at home every day if you can manage it

Gym Equipment For Exercises at Home

You can get some decent gym equipment delivered to your home so you can workout without anyone around watching you Unless you have children like I do that Want Want Want all the time and don’t like giving me any time to myself The machines for the home are designed to be more compact Therefore, you can easily fold them up and store them away when they aren’t getting used And that will be perfect for home exercising and you will still have the same workout experience that you would have in the gym So you don’t have to worry about turning your living room into a full-blown gym or an assault course for your young children Because if I had my exercise machines out all the time I know for a fact that my sons would be climbing all over them and timing each other And that will probably turn into a full-on brawl in my house… Which often happens. Another benefit of having a home workout gym machine is that you could watch your favourite television show at the same time And even do it naked if that’s what floats your boat! If You Have a Spare Couple of Minutes Watch This Quick Video With The Best Home Exercise Equipment For Rugby Players

What Home Exercise Machine Should You Get?

There are many types of exercise machines out there and it depends on what you want to work on Whether it be to get stronger legs for rugby scrums, improve your speed so you can be a demon on the wing in football Or just to get a full body workout to become a better all-around sportsman and to improve your health The most important exercise equipment for any sport has to be... Cardiovascular Machines Elliptical Machines Incline Trainers Treadmills Those combined with any weight training equipment, You will be in excellent shape and your physical health and strength will be outstanding in no time at all I personally love to go for a run as its a cost-free way of exercising and you get a bit of fresh air But I don't always get the weather to exercise outside so I just use my running machine or do any other fitness exercises at home There is an excellent Infographic that is circulating the net which is very interesting and will teach you a thing or 2 about running Some things you may know but you certainly won't know about all of them so you need to check it out in the link below

7 Easy Fitness Routines

So, what do you think about your own fitness levels? Do they need improving or do you think that you need to do more than just walking down the shops every couple of days? Exercising doesn't have to be hard work if you don't want it to be so this is why I want to show you a few routings that anybody can do and easily fit them into your busy lifestyles The world is a busy place these days and some of us haven't got time to exercise regularly which makes it hard to keep that body of yours in shape Of course you have time to do some easy fitness routines!!! Routines Here I will be showing you 6 very easy fitness routines that you can do in the comfort of your own home so you can do them whenever you have a few spare minutes One thing I will say though is that the quicker you get into a routine doing these exercises the quicker you will be fitting into those skinny jeans that you bought in the sale last year DONT FORGET TO TURN UP THE VOLUME ON THE VIDEO'S BELOW 1. Skipping

According to the British Skipping Association, 10 minutes of skipping is just the same as 45 minutes of jogging or running a mile in 8 minutes I know what I would prefer to do before you say anything... I couldn't belive it was a real association either Here are some benefits of using a jump rope It's ideal for any fitness levels Improves flexibility Improves coordination and balance Works your abdominals, legs, shoulders, and arms It can burn up to 1300 calories an hour Here comes the best benefit... Once you have purchased a jump rope it's always FREE!! BELOW IS A FEW EASY SKIPPING TECHNIQUES THAT YOU CAN DO AT HOME 🔽🔽🔽Need a Cheap Jump Rope?🔽🔽🔽

2. Agility Ladder Workout

Not the ladders builders use to get up to fix things Although that will keep you fit, this is a rope type ladder that you can roll out anywhere in your home, the hallway would be ideal The easy fitness routines are endless using the agility ladder from sideway shuffles to hopping or skipping through the rungs But I will suggest if you haven't worked with this before that you walk through it first then gradually build up the pace till you feel comfortable Here are the benefits of using the agility ladder Strengthens joints, tendons, and ligaments Improves your coordination and focus Will make you a stronger and faster runner Brilliant for your heart health BELOW IS A FEW EASY AGILITY LADDER EXERCISES TO GET YOU STARTED 🔽🔽🔽Need a Cheap Agility Ladder?🔽🔽🔽

3. Plyometric Boxes

I wouldn't use just any old box for these exercises You need one that is built to withstand a lot of jumping onto, so a cardboard box is a big fat NO There are many routines that you can do with this box, plyo push ups, jump squats and box jumps to name few These exercises are designed for maximim muscle force in a small period of time so keep your reps low as it can get a bit intense Here are the benefits of using the plyometric box Increases your leg muscle strength Boosts your running speed Improves coordination and agility Improves endurance and stamina BELOW IS A FEW PLYOMETRIC BOX EXERCISES FOR BEGINNERS 🔽🔽🔽Need a Cheap Plyometric Box?🔽🔽🔽

4. Rubber Medicine Ball

One of the oldest forms of strength conditioning dating back to the ancient Greeks and yet it's so simple but so effective if done right A weighted ball that comes in different sizes and styles and weighing between 2 and 25 pounds Depending on what exercise you are doing depends in which muscles get the benefits Here are the benefits of using a medicine ball Improves your health (as does all types of exercising) Improves balance and coordination Strengthens your core Gives you explosive power and speed Increases your muscle power BELOW IS A FEW EXERCISES USING THE MEDICINE BALL 🔽🔽🔽Need a Cheap Medicine Ball?🔽🔽🔽

5. Resistance Bands

Basically, these are just reinforced thin rubber bands with handles on them that come in a variety of resistance depending on your strength All the exercises you can do with these you can do without them but you will get more benefit from a little resistance Such a simple exercise tool but really effective The benefits of using resistance bands You can literally use them to work any muscle Strengthens your bones and muscles Improves balance Reduces joint pains Improves speed of movement Will make your body more elastic (I don't mean like the guy from the film "The Fantastic Four") BELOW IS A FEW EASY EXERCISES WITH RESISTANCE BANDS 🔽🔽🔽Need Some Cheap Resistance Bands?🔽🔽🔽

6. Ankle Weights

They come in different weights and are attached to the ankles They can be added to any workout to enhance the "easy exercise routines" that you may be used to Wearing them whilst swimming, jogging or even walking can really improve your fitness but I wouldn't advise wearing them everytime you workout as you won't really feel the benefits that they gave you the last time you trained The benefits of wearing ankle weights Increases endurance Tones your legs Strengthens the muscles in your legs Improves your running speed BELOW IS A FEW ANKLE WEIGHT EXERCISES THAT CAN BE DONE ANYWHERE 🔽🔽🔽Need Cheap Ankle Weights?🔽🔽🔽

7. Running This is an obvious exercise to get fit but unless you have a running machine at home I'm afraid you will have to venture outside I'm not going to say too much about this subject as I have had an article written for me about running which you can read about below The next bit of content has been kindly written for shwnisports by Josh Wardini from 16best.net

Some Running Facts You Need to Know

Running is as old as time And pretty much everyone engages in it at some point in their lives no matter how regular they do But there is one thing that is absolutely certain about running, it keeps you healthy It is one activity that completely engages every part of the body, making it one of the best activities anyone can engage in Its advantages are vast and some of them include Keeping you in good shape and as fit as a fiddle when you engage in it regularly It also helps to burn excess fat and regulates the flow of blood from the heart It reduces the risk of disease occurrence and inhibits the occurrence of erectile dysfunction The chances of you having high blood pressure will be greatly reduced Your testosterone levels will rise And there’s a general increase in general life span And as you are probably already aware, People of all ages can do it as long as there are strength and good health But like everything else of importance, preparation is required

Running Advice For Fitness at Home

You might think that just going for a run is going to be pretty straightforward But just take these couple of things into consideration Firstly, if you do not know what distance you can run, you may overdo it and cause yourself harm Secondly, you need the right gear for it You shouldn't just put on any old pair of footwear and go for a run You should wear a pair of proper running shoes that fit you just right Be sure to check out some of them from an online vendor like Nike or https://www.16best.net/the-walking-company/ and definitely spend some time researching before you actually make a purchase There are also many injuries that come with running regularly and you need to know them However, these should not deter you, especially with all the facts of running in the detailed infographic below URL: https://www.16best.net/blog/unbelievable-facts-about-running/ PLEASE SHARE

Before You Run-Off

I have reviewed some perfect exercise machines that are ideal for any football or rugby player to get the workout and body that you have always wanted

So just take a look at what you could use MULTI-GYM CYCLE MACHINE ELLIPTICAL MACHINE INDOOR SKI MACHINE RUNNING MACHINE There are some brilliant machines there to fit with whatever you need to work on and very reasonable prices I hope these easy exercise routines will help you to become the person you want to be but remember to eat healthily as well as regular exercising and you will soon get there HAPPY EXERCISING!! If you have any questions at all about fitness exercises at home Just let me know in the comment section below and I'll get back to you straight away All the very best to your success in getting to your peak physical fitness

  Read the full article

[countrymadefoods]

Ancient Egyptian Bread

“The grains cultivated in ancient Egypt were wheat and barley. Wheat had an important place in the Egyptian economy. It was not only used for bread making, but also as form of payment, both as the treasure of the state in the vaults and as investment for more difficult times. The variety of wheat used for this ancient bread making is called emmer, also known as farro. This was one of the first crops domesticated in Egypt and surrounding regions and closer to the wild varieties than the wheat we consume today.

The two staples of the Egyptian diet, often produced side by side, were bread and beer...Archeological evidence shows that beer was made by first baking "beer bread,” a type of well-leavened, lightly baked bread that did not kill the yeasts, which was then crumbled over a sieve, washed with water in a vat and then left to ferment.

In the New Kingdom a new type of a large open-topped clay oven was created. It had a cylindrical shape and it was encased in thick mud, bricks and mortar. The dough was then slapped on the heated inner wall and peeled off when done, similar to how a tandoor oven is used today for naan and pita bread. Bread was also baked inside clay vases.”

(via Ancient Egyptian Bread, by Miguel Esquirol Rios)

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

“Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt...The use of this writing system continued through the New Kingdom and Late Period, and on into the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, extending into the 4th century AD. With the final closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost. Although attempts were made, the script remained undeciphered throughout the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphic writing would only be accomplished in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, with the help of the Rosetta Stone.

Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt...The glyphs themselves since the Ptolemaic period were called..."the sacred engraved letters", the Greek counterpart to the Egyptian expression of mdw.w-nṯr "god's words". 

Geoffrey Sampson stated that Egyptian hieroglyphs "came into existence a little after Sumerian script, and, probably [were], invented under the influence of the latter", and that it is "probable that the general idea of expressing words of a language in writing was brought to Egypt from Sumerian Mesopotamia". However, given the lack of direct evidence, "no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt".”

Ge’ez

“Ge'ez (also transliterated Gi'iz or Geez and formerly known as Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language of the Ethiopic branch. The language originates from the region encompassing southern Eritrea and northern Ethiopia regions in the Horn of Africa.

Ge'ez is written with Ethiopic or the Ge'ez abugida, a script that was originally developed specifically for this language. In languages that use it, such as Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is called Fidäl, which means script or alphabet. Ge'ez is read from left to right.”

“The Ge'ez language is classified as a South Semitic language...The Ge'ez language is no longer universally thought of, as previously assumed, to be an offshoot of Sabaean or Old South Arabian...the Ge'ez script later replaced Epigraphic South Arabian in the Kingdom of Aksum...Ge'ez literature properly begins with the Christianization of Ethiopia (and the civilization of Axum) in the 4th century, during the reign of Ezana of Axum.

Some writers consider the period beginning from the 14th century an actual "Golden Age" of Ge'ez literature—although by this time Ge'ez was no longer a living language. While there is ample evidence that it had been replaced by Amharic...Ge'ez remained in use as the official written language until the 19th century, its status comparable to that of Medieval Latin in Europe.”

Ge’ez Script

“Ge'ez, also known as Ethiopic, is a script used as an abugida (alphasyllabary) for several languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia. It originated as an abjad (consonant-only alphabet) and was first used to write Ge'ez, now the liturgical language of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and Beta Israel, the Jewish community in Ethiopia. In Amharic and Tigrinya, the script is often called fidäl, meaning "script" or "alphabet".

By the first centuries AD, what is called "Old Ethiopic" or the "Old Ge'ez alphabet" arose, an abjad written left-to-right...with letters basically identical to the first-order forms of the modern vocalized alphabet (e.g. "k" in the form of "kä"). There were also minor differences such as the letter "g" facing to the right, instead of to the left as in vocalized Ge'ez...Wazeba's coins from the late 3rd or early 4th century contains a vocalized letter, some 30 or so years before Ezana...others have suggested possible influence from the Brahmic family of alphabets in vocalization, as they are also abugidas, and Aksum was an important part of major trade routes involving India and the Greco-Roman world throughout the common era of antiquity...The alphabetical order is similar to that found in other South Semitic scripts, as well as in the ancient Ugaritic alphabet, which attests both the southern Semitic h-l-ħ-m order and the northern Semitic '–b–g–d (abugida) order over three thousand years ago.”

Arianism

“Arianism is a nontrinitarian Christological doctrine which asserts the belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was begotten by God the Father at a point in time, a creature distinct from the Father and is therefore subordinate to him, but the Son is also God (i.e. God the Son). Arian teachings were first attributed to Arius (c. AD 256–336), a Christian presbyter in Alexandria of Egypt. The teachings of Arius and his supporters were opposed to the theological views held by Homoousian Christians, regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ. The Arian concept of Christ is based on the belief that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father.

The Roman Emperors Constantius II (337–361) and Valens (364–378) were Arians or Semi-Arians, as was the first King of Italy, Odoacer (433?–493), and the Lombards were also Arians or Semi-Arians until the 7th century. Visigothic Spain was Arian until 581...Two Roman emperors, Constantius II and Valens, became Arians or Semi-Arians, as did prominent Gothic, Vandal, and Lombard warlords both before and after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Such a deep controversy within the Church during this period of its development could not have materialized without significant historical influences providing a basis for the Arian doctrines.”

“Arians do not believe in the traditional doctrine of the Trinity...In 321, Arius was denounced by a synod at Alexandria for teaching a heterodox view of the relationship of Jesus to God the Father. Because Arius and his followers had great influence in the schools of Alexandria—counterparts to modern universities or seminaries—their theological views spread, especially in the eastern Mediterranean.

[T]he controversy had become significant enough that the Emperor Constantine called an assembly of bishops, the First Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arius's doctrine and formulated the original Nicene Creed of 325. The Nicene Creed's central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is Homoousios, or Consubstantiality, meaning "of the same substance" or "of one being"... In 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, a group of mainly Eastern bishops assembled and accepted the Nicene Creed of 381, which was supplemented in regard to the Holy Spirit.”

”[T]he conversion of Goths led to a widespread diffusion of Arianism among other Germanic tribes as well (Vandals, Longobards, Svevi and Burgundians). When the Germanic peoples entered the provinces of the Western Roman Empire and began founding their own kingdoms there, most of them were Arian Christians... Much of south-eastern Europe and central Europe, including many of the Goths and Vandals respectively, had embraced Arianism (the Visigoths converted to Arian Christianity in 376), which led to Arianism being a religious factor in various wars in the Roman Empire.”

“The teachings of the first two ecumenical councils – which entirely reject Arianism – are held by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East and all churches founded during the Reformation in the 16th century or influenced by it (Lutheran, Reformed/Presbyterian, and Anglican). Also, nearly all Protestant groups (such as Methodists, Baptists, and most Pentecostals) entirely reject the teachings associated with Arianism. Modern groups which currently appear to embrace some of the principles of Arianism include Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses.”

Gothic Christianity

“Gothic Christianity refers to the Christian religion of the Goths and sometimes the Gepids, Vandals, and Burgundians...The Gothic tribes converted to Christianity sometime between 376 and 390 AD, around the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Gothic Christianity is the earliest instance of the Christianization of a Germanic people, completed more than a century before the baptism of Frankish king Clovis I.The Gothic Christians were followers of Arianism...Jordanes' 6th century 'Getica' claims the chief god of the Goths was Mars. Gothic paganism derived from Germanic paganism.”

“The conversion of the Goths to Christianity was a relatively swift process, facilitated on the one hand by the assimilation of Christian captives into Gothic society and on the other by a general equation of participation in Roman society with adherence to Christianity. Within a few generations of their appearance on the borders of the Empire in 238 AD, the conversion of the Goths to Christianity was nearly all-inclusive. The Christian cross appeared on coins in Gothic Crimea shortly after the Edict of Tolerance was issued by Galerius in 311 AD.”

“The Gothic churches had close ties to other Arian churches in the Western Roman Empire. After 493, the Ostrogothic Kingdom included two areas, Italy and much of the Balkans, which had large Arian churches. Arianism had retained some presence among Romans in Italy during the time between its condemnation in the empire and the Ostrogothic conquest. However, since Arianism in Italy was reinforced by the (mostly Arian) Goths coming from the Balkans, the Arian church in Italy had eventually come to call itself "Church of the Goths" by the year 500.”

Gjúki

“Gjúki (also Gebicca, Gifica, Gibica, Gebicar, Gibicho or Gippich) was the King of the Burgundians in the late 4th century until his death in or around 407. He was the father of Gundomar I, Giselher and Gunther. He is mentioned in Widsith as Gifica and as Gjúki in the eddic poem Atlakviða, where he was the father of Gunnar (see Gunther).”

Sack of Rome (410)

“The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410 AD. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric...This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to a foreign enemy. The previous sack of Rome had been accomplished by the Gaulsunder their leader Brennus in 390 or 387/6 BC. The sacking of 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.”   

Giseler of Burgundy

“Giselher was a king of Burgundy in the Nibelungenlied, brother to kings Gunther and Gundomar I (also called Gernot). Historically, these correspond to three sons of king Gebicca, Gundomar, Gislaharius (Giselher) and Gundaharius (Gunther), who ruled the Burgundians in the 410s. His name means "pledged warrior".”

History of Toulouse

“The history of Toulouse, in Midi-Pyrénées, southern France, traces back to ancient times. After Roman rule, the city was ruled by the Visigoths and the Merovingian and Carolingian Franks...The treasure which the Visigoths seized in Rome in 410...was reportedly stored in Toulouse at the time. The Visigoths blended Roman and Gothic cultures...The Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse was reportedly more Romanized and its state structure more elaborate than the Frankish kingdom north of the Loire Valley. 

Under Clovis the Franks converted to Catholicism, receiving support from bishops opposing the Visigoths' Arianism and marching south to the northern borders of the Visigothic kingdom. War followed, and the Visigothic king Alaric II was defeated by Clovis at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. The Franks moved south, conquered Aquitania and captured Toulouse in 508...Following Clovis' death in 511, Aquitaine and the rest of the kingdom were divided between his sons (the Merovingian dynasty). The Merovingian kings fought each other for control of the Frankish realm.”

William of Orange (Guillaume of Gellone)

“William of Gellone the medieval William of Orange, was the second Duke of Toulouse from 790 until 811. In 804, he founded the abbey of Gellone. He was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II.

In the tenth or eleventh century, a Latin hagiography, the Vita sancti Willelmi, was composed based on oral traditions. By the twelfth century, William's legend had grown. He is the hero of an entire cycle of chansons de geste, the earliest of which is the Chanson de Guillaume of about 1140.”

“William was born in northern France in the mid-8th century. He was a cousin of Charlemagne (his mother Aldana was daughter of Charles Martel) and the son of Thierry IV, Count of Autun. As a kinsman and trusted comes, he spent his youth in the court of Charlemagne...William's faithful service to Charlemagne is portrayed as an example of feudal loyalty.

William's career battling Saracens is sung in epic poems in the 12th and 13th century cycle called La Geste de Garin de Monglane, some two dozen chansons de geste...The defeat of the Moors at Orange was given legendary treatment in the 12th century epic La Prise d'Orange. There, he was made Count of Toulouse...then King of Aquitaine in 778. He is difficult to separate from the legends and poems that gave him feats of arms, lineage and titles: Guillaume Fièrebras, Guillaum au Court-Nez (broken in a battle with a giant), Guillaum de Narbonne, Guillaume d'Orange. His wife is said to have been a converted Saracen, Orable later christened Guibourc.”

Prise d'Orange

“The Prise d'Orange ("Conquest of Orange"), is an Old French chanson de geste from the end of the twelfth-century...Compared to earlier chansons de geste, its tone is frequently playful, comic and parodic and it introduces romantic (courtly love) elements taken from the medieval romance.”

“The story is as follows: an escaped prisoner from Orange (Guillebert) comes to William in Nîmes and describes to him the beauties of the Saracen held city and of its queen Orable. William decides to see it for himself and succeeds in wooing the queen. After a series of adventures, William takes the city and marries a newly baptized Orable, renamed Guibourc.”

House of Guise

“The House of Guise was a French noble family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.  The House of Guise was founded as a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine by Claude of Lorraine, first Duke of Guise (1496–1550), who entered French service and was made a duke by King Francis I. The family's high rank was due not to possession of the Guise dukedom but to their membership in a sovereign dynasty, which procured for them the rank of prince étranger at the royal court of France. Claude's daughter Mary of Guise (1515–1560) married King James V of Scotland and was mother of Mary, Queen of Scots.”

[ericfruits]

The promise and peril of Ethiopia’s democratic revolution

IF ANY SINGLE event sums up the confusion, danger and enormous opportunity posed by the change sweeping across Ethiopia it was when dozens of armed soldiers marched on the office of Abiy Ahmed, the new prime minister, in October. As the troops moved closer, the government shut down the internet, leaving the capital awash with rumours but little information. It looked to many Ethiopians like a coup.

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But when the soldiers arrived, Abiy approached them and listened to their complaints. Within a day videos were circulating showing the 42-year-old former army officer doing press-ups with the grinning troops. Abiy later said the protest had been part of a plot to kill him by opponents of his reforms. Yet with boldness and charm he turned a possible military coup into a public-relations one.

Across Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most-populous country, scenes that were unimaginable a year ago are now commonplace. On a recent Friday morning in Hawassa, a regional capital, crowds of young men draped themselves in the white, red and blue flags of the Sidama Liberation Movement, a rebel group. Chanting and singing, they gathered to welcome its leaders home from exile.

Farther along the highway to the capital, as the road crosses an invisible ethnic border, the colours of the flag change to yellow, green and red—those of the Oromo Liberation Front, another rebel group that has been allowed to return and contest elections, scheduled for 2020.

If the democratic uprisings that swept across the states of the former Soviet Union in the early 2000s were “colour revolutions”, then Ethiopia’s counts as a multicoloured one, with flags of many hues representing its more than 80 ethnic groups.

There is no mistaking the excitement that has gripped the country since April, when Abiy took office and embarked on the most radical liberalisation in Ethiopia’s history. He has made peace with neighbouring Eritrea, freed thousands of political prisoners, welcomed back armed opposition groups and promised to open up the state-dominated economy.

But he faces big challenges. As he lifts the heavy hand of the state, ethnic nationalism and violence are spreading. The economy is slowing. Much will depend on whether Abiy can use his enormous popularity to unite the country and shepherd it towards fair elections.

No dirge for the Derg

Ethiopia has had two previous revolutions. Neither worked out well. In 1974 students and soldiers toppled the feudal empire of Haile Selassie and replaced it with the Derg, a Marxist junta that forced peasants onto collective farms, where they starved. Seventeen years later the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of ethnic liberation movements, overthrew the Derg.

Although professing to be democratic and representing all of Ethiopia’s ethnic groups, the EPRDF ruled harshly and was dominated by Tigrayans, who are 6% of the population. It adopted a constitution that promised to protect human rights, then ran roughshod over it, shooting or arresting protesters and installing party loyalists at even the most local levels of government. The former strongman, Meles Zenawi, who died in 2012, boasted that the EPRDF’s “writ runs in every village”.

Because Ethiopia’s economy expanded rapidly, many came to see it as a model of authoritarian development, similar to China’s. GDP grew by an average of 10% a year over the past 15, the government says. That figure is probably overstated, but the growth, from a low base, was certainly swift. In recent years, however, questions have been raised about whether the Ethiopian model is sustainable. Much of its economic growth came from state spending on roads, industrial parks, giant dams and Africa’s biggest airline. This was financed largely through borrowing abroad. The binge has pushed foreign-currency debt to the equivalent of 350% of annual export earnings. The IMF says it is at high risk of “debt distress”. Foreign exchange is scarce. Inflation is 14%.

The authoritarian regime also proved fragile. Oromos, who are about a third of the population, long resented the Tigrayans’ control of the government. Protests, which began in late 2014 in Oromia, gathered pace a year later after elections in which the EPRDF so thoroughly suppressed opposition parties that it won 95% of the vote and all the seats in parliament. A ten-month-long state of emergency was imposed in October 2016 after protesters burned foreign-owned factories and blocked roads.

The crisis sparked a coup within the EPRDF. Oromos aligned with Amharas, who are about a quarter of the population (and ruled the roost under Haile Selassie and the Derg), and shunted aside the Tigrayan elite. Abiy was named chairman of the party and the country’s first Oromo prime minister.

Since taking charge, he has ordered the release of thousands of political prisoners. For the first time in 13 years there are no journalists in jail. Censorship of the media has ceased. The army and police, who shot scores of people in 2015-16, now rarely use lethal force to contain unrest. Confrontations between them and protesters have declined by more than 80% since April.

Abiy the reformer

The shift away from authoritarianism has been accompanied by a push towards democracy. Abiy has promised a free and fair election. He nominated a respected opposition figure to head the electoral board and a renowned human-rights lawyer as chief justice of the supreme court. Experts are rewriting the statutes that all but criminalised peaceful opposition.

But the revolution risks spinning out of control. The wave of protests that brought Abiy to power also exposed the degree to which many Ethiopians do not regard their government as legitimate. District officials across Oromia and Amhara were often the first targets of violent unrest before Abiy took office. Tens of thousands have been replaced, but many are powerless in the face of young protesters. “The lower administrative structure has almost completely collapsed,” says Jawar Mohammed, an Oromo activist with vast clout.

In the vacuum young men have taken to vigilantism. “Every citizen should be a policeman,” says Abdi Abkulkdar, a leader of an Oromo youth organisation in Shashamene, a town near Hawassa. In August a mob there lynched a man wrongly suspected of carrying a bomb.

If they go, there will be trouble

A greater threat to Ethiopia’s stability comes from ethnic tension. Since 1995, when the current constitution came into force, ethnicity has been a central feature of politics. The constitution created nine ethnically based, semi-autonomous regions, but also gave each of Ethiopia’s more than 80 recognised groups the right to form its own region or to secede. In practice the EPRDF kept the federation together by shooting anyone who tried to break away. Now separatists are trying again.

In recent weeks four ethnic groups have demanded plebiscites on self-rule. There have also been attacks on minority groups and ethnic cleansing, which is made easier by the fact that in most regions ethnicity is recorded on identity cards. “They had a list, they called my name,” says a middle-aged Welayta man, whose house was destroyed by a Sidama mob in June. Several Welayta men were burned alive and 2,500 were forced from their homes in Hawassa, a cosmopolitan city in the heart of what the Sidama claim is their homeland.

Almost 1m mostly ethnic Gedeos, a small group living south of Hawassa, have been homeless since April. In recent weeks hundreds of thousands have been displaced along the border between Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz. More than 1.2m Ethiopians were forced from their homes in the first half of this year.

Some are stockpiling weapons. “The people in this region are buying machine-guns like crazy,” says a young man in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara. Young Tigrayans have also been calling for weapons and training. “The risk of chaos, anarchy and state collapse are within the realm of possibility,” says an official.

Abiy may see no choice but to use the police and army to separate the factions and restore order. A more lasting solution is likely to involve strengthening state institutions. That would mean curbing the powers of his own office and ensuring that the state itself is bound by the law. At times, though, Abiy has acted as if he is above it. In August he deposed the tyrannical president of Ethiopia’s troubled Somali region. This was welcomed, but unconstitutional. In September the police in Addis Ababa arbitrarily arrested thousands of young men suspected of being involved in violence. Abiy later apologised.

He also needs to revive the economy so as to create jobs for millions of young school-leavers. Many now have nothing better to do than join ethnic youth groups, such as the Oromo “Qeerroo” or Sidama “Ejjeetto”, which look like militias-in-waiting. A good place to start economic reform would be to allow competitors to Ethio Telecom, a state-owned monopoly that is responsible for one of Africa’s lowest rates of phone and internet penetration. He should also lift restrictions on banks that force them to give cheap loans to the government while starving private firms of credit.

Most of all Abiy must show Ethiopians that democracy need not mean anarchy. “Historically we are not used to reforms,” he has said. “All we know is revolutions.”

This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline "A colourful revolution"

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[bladesproco]

The Middle Eastern Calvary Sword: The Scimitar

An Eastern Cavalryman

Zordun charged across the open plains on his horse.  The wind blew in his face as he leaned down, urging a bit more speed from his mount.  As he did so, he heard the soft whisper of hundreds of arrows whistling through the air above him.  Barely managing to keep his eyes open against the dust stirred up from the sun-baked plains and the light of the noonday sun, he saw the arrows landing in the infantry in front of him, causing men to stumble and fall in cries of pain. 

He saw an answering rain of arrows rise up from behind the men and whistle past him, landing in some of the men unfortunate enough to ride slower than him.  Sending up a silent prayer of thanks for his swift ride, he slowed his horse slightly and raised his Scimitar, primed for battle.

Featured Sword: Scimitar

Scimitars and Katanas may seem similar at first glance - they are curved, Eastern swords developed near a thousand years ago. However, that is where their similarities end.

The first main difference lies in the forging process.  Scimitars are typically not forge welded like Katanas (heated, then welded to itself), they are beaten into shape blow by blow.  Thus they are made already curved - the shape provided by the smith at creation.  However, Katanas are made straight and remain so until they are quenched, at which time the uneven cooling of the blade due to clay applied by the swordsmith causes the blade to curve.

The second difference comes in their usage.  The scimitar was developed primarily for use on horseback.  The deep curve of the blade is excellent for slashing and making sure that the blade does not stick into its target - an excellent feature when riding by a target quickly.  Katanas were made to be status symbols and to finish duels between two lightly armored opponents quickly - often in one or two strokes.  A result of these different design choices are that Scimitars are worn with the edge down, while Katanas are worn with the edge facing up.

Finally, scimitars are one-handed weapons whilst Katanas are two-handed.  This means that the handle on a scimitar is much shorter than the Tsuka of a Katana.  The main exceptions are scimitar swords made for executions (needing two hands) and certain Katana fighting styles (such as duel-wielding).

Laying Waste

Swerving left and right to avoid the blows of the men around him, Zordun skillfully guided his horse.  Balancing carefully to remain upright, he skillfully slashed his blade at the nearest infantryman, causing a screen of pain and an arm to go limp.  Steeling himself for the next blow, he struck at an armored opponent, the blade going deep and hitting bone, then glancing off.  Knowing a straight sword would have likely stuck in the bone and risked pulling him off his horse into the thick of the battle, he again said a quick prayer of thanks.

Fun Facts

British officers began wearing mameluke swords after the Battle of Waterloo, especially by commanders of light cavalry and hussar units.  Today, the current regulation sword for generals is a Maeluke sword.

Etymology

The word Scimitar comes from either Middle French cimeterre or Italian scimitarra, both of which probably originally came from an Ottoman Turkish word that itself descended from the Persian word shamshēr (شمشیر‎ ) which literally means "paw claw".

Variations

There are many variations of Scimitars, each with their own name.

Shamshir (Iran)

Kilij (Turkey and Egypt)

Nimcha (Morocco) Pulwar (Afghanistan)

Talwar (Indian Subcontinent)

Kirpaan (Punjab, North Western India)

Shotel (Horn of Africa, primarily Ethiopia and Eritrea)

List credit of Wikipedia

See our Swords > from BladesPro UK - Blog https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/scimitar

[politicoscope]

Haile Selassie I Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/haile-selassie-i-biography-and-profile/

Haile Selassie I Biography and Profile

Haile Selassie was born on 23 July 1892. Emperor Haile Selassie I worked to modernize Ethiopia for several decades before famine and political opposition forced him from office in 1974.

Haile Selassie I Full Biography and Profile Born in Ethiopia in 1892, Haile Selassie was crowned emperor in 1930 but exiled during World War II after leading the resistance to the Italian invasion. He was reinstated in 1941 and sought to modernize the country over the next few decades through social, economic and educational reforms. He ruled until 1974, when famine, unemployment and political opposition forced him from office.

Early Years Haile Selassie I was Ethiopia’s 225th and last emperor, serving from 1930 until his overthrow by the Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1974. The longtime ruler traced his line back to Menelik I, who was credited with being the child of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

He was born in a mud hut in Ejersa Gora on July 23, 1892. Originally named Lij Tafari Makonnen, he was the only surviving and legitimate son of Ras Makonnen, the governor of Harar.

Among his father’s important allies was his cousin, Emperor Menelik II, who did not have a male heir to succeed him. Tafari seemed like a possible candidate when, following his father’s death in 1906, he was taken under the wing of Menelik.

In 1913, however, after the passing of Menelik II, it was the emperor’s grandson, Lij Yasu, not Tafari, who was appointed as emperor. But Yasu, who maintained a close association with Islam, never gained favor with Ethiopia’s majority Christian population. As a result Tafari became the face of the opposition, and in 1916 he took power from Lij Yasu and imprisoned him for life. The following year Menelik II’s daughter, Zauditu, became empress, and Tafari was named regent and heir apparent to the throne.

For a country trying to gain its foothold in the young century and curry favor with the West, the progressive Tafari came to symbolize the hopes and dreams of Ethiopia’s younger population. In 1923 he led Ethiopia into the League of Nations. The following year, he traveled to Europe, becoming the first Ethiopian ruler to go abroad.

His power only grew. In 1928 he appointed himself king, and two years later, after the death of Zauditu, he was made emperor and assumed the name Haile Selassie (“Might of the Trinity”).

Strong Leader Over the next four decades, Haile Selassie presided over a country and government that was an expression of his personal authority. His reforms greatly strengthened schools and the police, and he instituted a new constitution and centralized his own power.

In 1936 he was forced into exile after Italy invaded Ethiopia. Haile Selassie became the face of the resistance as he went before the League of Nations in Geneva for assistance, and eventually secured the help of the British in reclaiming his country and reinstituting his powers as emperor in 1941.

Haile Selassie again moved to try to modernize his country. In the face of a wave of anti-colonialism sweeping across Africa, he granted a new constitution in 1955, one that outlined equal rights for his citizens under the law, but conversely did nothing to diminish Haile Selassie’s own powers.

Final Years By the early 1970s famine, ever-worsening unemployment and increasing frustration with the government’s inability to respond to the country’s problems began to undermine Haile Selassie’s rule.

In February 1974 mutinies broke out in the army over low pay, while a secessionist guerrilla war in Eritrea furthered his problems. Haile Selassie was eventually ousted from power in a coup and kept under house arrest in his palace until his death in 1975.

Reports initially circulated claiming that he had died of natural causes, but later evidence revealed that he had probably been strangled to death on the orders of the new government.

In 1992 Haile Selassie’s remains were discovered, buried under a toilet in the Imperial Palace. In November 2000 the late emperor received a proper burial when his body was laid to rest in Addis Ababa’s Trinity Cathedral.

Haile Selassie I Biography and Profile (Biography)

[thecurlysafari]

SIM cards and smiles

I've seen a fair few things within my career. 6 or 7 trips to Africa having stayed in slums and marginalised villages, I've seen starvation, poverty, death, those dying. I've seen adults, youth, children suffering. My UK work hasn't shown me a life of luxury. Refugees, asylum seekers and those isolated groups was my first job out of university. Then it was focused on the isolation and injustice those with disabilities face. Not to mention the young people living in poverty and suffering silently.

I spent 3 years studying a bachelor's degree with modules like famine and genocide. I've spent 2 years studying social exclusion and more evils of the world.

So it's fair to say, Development and Disadvantage groomed me professionally and toughened my skin quite a bit.

But I won't forget yesterday. In my life, like I don't forget my Kenyan families and friends and every child I've met. I really will not forget tomorrow.

Spending the morning in a warehouse belonging to a charity I may become involved with very soon. A normal ish morning. Having distributed aid in calais jungle the day before I was ready.

I assumed my position as a trial and interim operations manager and co-led the team of volunteers as we arrived in a very picturesque and beautiful Brussels.

The day before, and distribution was heavy. I had to break up mobs who were really just people desperate. I was punched. Pushed. I didn't speak Kurdish but I could read the non verbal middle finger. It was very much a baptism of fire. And I knew this was just the actions of traumatised and desperate people.

So stepping out in a park in Brussels seeing hundreds of black and brown men, I had to get ready. The van was parked, I arranged the volunteers and off we went.

But my role wasn't to crowd control today. It wasn't to break up mobs. It was to say hello, goodbye, or sorry not today to over 250 men with beautiful faces but even more beautiful smiles and spirits. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, the original homes of these men, also known as refugees.

Unlike the chaos the day before, here in Brussels the group saw the van and began to queue. Calmly. Quietly. Respectfully.

Every single one smiling at you, thanking you for the very little you bought them. Having to make the choice between a razor blade or a bottle of deodorant. Most men laughed. Trying to take both then accepting they couldn't.

One man asked me if there were SIM cards and I told him later on we would hand them out. Then another man asked and another and before I knew it, around 50 were hanging around, in desperate need of these SIM cards.

But not for the reason you may think.

A SIM card meant access to a call or the internet. Which meant speaking to their mother or daughter or wife, hoping they are alive. Hoping to get through. A SIM card for these men was a lifeline they so wanted and needed.

We only had 100. And mobs broke out to get them. I was backed up and men became almost vicious. But I'm tougher than I look and held my ground, kept myself and volunteers safe as we distributed them.

I wasn't so tough in the next part though.

One cheeky smiled, chequered short, beautifully faced man asked me to activate his SIM. I took his phone and began to do just that. But then, every single person who had received a sim, which was around 100, saw me and wanted some of that, some SIM activation and there it was. Whilst others got their haircut or charged their phone with out generator, I sat with a crowd of men patiently awaiting me to set up their phone for them. As they said, to talk to their daughter, to let their wife know they're alive.

Now do I have an IT degree? Heck no. And each man to ask for help had a different phone, make, model and condition. Lets say though, carphone warehouse would have hired me on the spot if they were there.

Some men waiting for so long as I made my way to them and their phones. Most men didn't understand that credit wasn't on the Sims. Some men even came after and were devastated they didn't get a SIM.

But the smiles on their faces. Their thanks. Their gratitude. Their humility. I'm not tough enough for that.

One man waited an hour and a half for his phone to work and internet access granted. But his smile when it did.

Now, these men, I learned are the bottom of the refugee food chain. When other refugees might have the protection of smugglers or be a political asset for western governments. East African black and brown men have no use to anyone in a decision making capacity. Refugees fight them and steal from them, police forcibly remove them and governments deport them.

But the men I met were some of the sweetest and kindest to every cross my life.

So for every smile or thank you, hurt that bit more.

How and why could those really with nothing be so kind and warm.

One man. A 6ft something dark black man. His skin shiny and as black as coal. Standing out in any line that day.

He lined up patiently to receive his pack and was so happy. Then he was one of 100 with the illustrious SIM card. And his smile, would not go anywhere. From ear to ear, gleaming, he was so grateful, but knowing no English he showcased his gratitude by smiling. As meek, kind, friendly giant. Used, abused, exploited and so grateful.

The smiles of these men will never leave my mind. Because their smile was a light that was shining to represent their hearts. And wow are their hearts kind.

I was the only one left in the park as all volunteers hopped into the cars to take them back to France. But I had three more phones or sort in rapid speed.

But I got back into a car probably more comfortable then their cardboard that night. I stayed in my French air bnb with my delightful French host eating French food. While those men will be dependent on a local charity to serve one meal per day.

But they carry on. Smiling. Waiting. Hoping. Thanking.

If I'm offered this new role that I interimed for I will see them again. If I'm not, well I won't forget them. They like so many kenyans, have shown me what real genuine gratitude looks like.

They, like superheroes in Kenya, showed me how there is never an excuse not to smile.

For a SIM card. For a gift. Or for some of those men, for nothing at all. A smile is still created.

[mystictruth123456-blog]

Settling down in England Part 2: The "Revolution De Cuba"

In the previous post, I had been at a language exchange, which took place on a Thursday. It was Friday Now. After leaving my Afro fusion dance class, I met up with my Moroccan friend and a bunch of spanish people at the angel inn in Leeds, a pub with many floors and picnick tables in the back, in a alley for people to chat and get wasted. with us we had with we also had one italian guy and a Indian Guy. It was quite a lively crowd. There I found out my friend from Moracco was 44, he looked like he was 30 or maybe even 28. I hoped I would look that young and still be as easy going as him when I was in my 40's. I have been sober from alcohol for well over a year and a half now and being in a environment where everyone was drinking wasn't really a temptation to me but kinda just felt nasty. The utter desolation of drinking culture is very easy to recognize when your sober, yet everyone is just doing what their doing. In England they seem to get drunk to epic proportions and often very early . My theory it is due to the emotionally repressive, cynical, private culture. English people in general are often cold and standoffish to people they don't know and critical of those who express themselves to openly. So alcohol is a key and a excuse to break free from that repression. But like anywhere drunk people are the very similiar. Fighting, yelling curse words, or being the most friendly in the world for a night. Jonas and I left the angel Inn for the revolution of Cuba, a Cuban restaurant turn small club playing Latino Music on Fridays upstairs and usuelly American pop music downstairs. Walking down Brigitte street on our way there, it is the usuel, birds (women) dressed in almost see-through shirts, with their asses hanging out from shorts or miniskirts, lads (guys) in suits speaking with a thick yorkshire accent 'owz, et Gowen pal, ya ight'." To get into the revolution of cuba you had to wear fancy shoes like a lot of clubs in Leeds. Trainers were not allowed. I had tried before to get in the club by putting black socks over my shoes to make them look like fancy shoes, an idea I got from a Finnish girl. That last attempt had the bouncers laughing at me. I was glad this time I had the right attire, though last time was pretty funny I have to say. Once in the revolution of Cuba I quickly changed from my heavy fancy shoes into my light dancing shoes and began to do some freestyle salsa moves. It wasn't the same as my saturday nights at Casa columbiana where DJ Pipo from Cuban was on the decks. There it was very multicultural, warm, friendly and a bit smaller. There was often many south American and Spanish people at casa columbiana and at the revolution de cuba it was mostly english folks. When that reggaeton song came on it didn't feel the same with a bunch of English people, then it did with a bunch of Latinos, Spanish and other internationals. Jonas and I even saw some English girls we had met at the exchange we completly gave us the cold shoulder. This didn't stop me from trying to dance with the girls in there. It came time where I had to catch my bus and I ran up Brigitte st. To see my last 36 bus to Harrogate in all its glory 'leave.' I let out a giant "Nooo" like I was a character in some dramatic tv series. Almost in the same moment, I look to my left and see a drunk guy crying. I forget about my bus leaving and ask if he is All right. I bring him out of sight of people around the corner in this arcade with shops on either side. People may have thought I was trying to molest him while he was drunk. Whatever. He told me he was from southern England (I could tell from his accent) and that the reason he was crying was because the security guards at the club had thought he was doing drugs in the bathroom and kicked him out. He begin crying again saying "I wasnt. Though." all his coworkers were in the club and now he was alone outside. He said he was able to get home. We parted ways. I returned to the revolution of Cuba to find the spanish and internationals from the Angel inn there. I explained how my next bus was at 6am in the morning and that I would just stay up all night. So that's what I did. I begin attempting to dance with many of the English girls in there and was getting turned down so many times that I begin to think maybe I should stop. I even tried to dance with the showgirls at the door and got turned down. I wanted to go back upstairs but suddenly the showgirls who were wearing next to nothing begin dancing on the tables. It's in that moment I saw again the paradox of when you are willing to walk away, it all comes to you. It was like the spirit of revolution de cuba was seducing me to stay and it only made me dance harder. After being subjected to much desire, Jonas and I wandered upstairs danced a bit more, got a few nasty looks from people and left. I needed to get something to eat. We stopped at a kebab spot. I was short 20 p for my food. This wonderful english gentleman without asking helped me out and even bought me a extra veggie wrap and offered us a taxi. I saw it as karma for helping out the drunk crying lad earlier. I hung outside casa columbiana, eating my pizza, while Jonas went to withdraw money from an atm. It was Kazumba night at casa columbiana and out came a lot of black people speaking Portuguese. That through me off a bit. I have began to learn the world has become a lot more multi -cultural and not to assume based on someone's ethnicity that a black, Asian, white, Latino person etc.. is probably from a black, Asian, white or Latino country. I have met english Asians, Pakistani heritage but british nationality cab drivers from Bradford (very Pakistani and middle eastern city, basically connected to Leeds) who sound like they are from Pakistan but we're born and lived in yorkshire their whole life. (very Pakistani and middle eastern city, basically connected to Leeds.) I even met a white lady who worked at one of the Laundromats in Leeds from Zimbabwe. Assumptions make the world less interesting and the world is full of surprises. I asked one of the ladies and she said she was from Portugal but the rest could have been from a Portuguese speaking country like Angola, or Brazil or learned Portuguese along the way. Who knows. After finishing my pizza I had Jonas look up buses to Harrogate, it said the next one was soon near the Leeds bus station, so I ran down there to be a bit disappointed because no bus showed up. While asking people if they could look up when the next Harrogate bus was, I met a guy from Eritrea, a small African country next to Ethiopia, where they speak Arabic and their mother tongue is Tingrinya. He needed a taxi and his English was not the best so I tried my best to help him out. After many attempts I found him a taxi and went on my way. I had until six in the morning to kill time. So I set off back to city centre. Drunk people littered the streets. It was about 4am at this point. Some clubs not finishing until 6am. It looked like the aftermath of a battle. Slumped drunk folks on benches and friends hauling their mates between them, who had become too intoxicated to walk. I wanted nothing to do with it, I was starting to hate people. I don't like hating people. Love feels better. I I was walking on the upper part of Brigitte street, near casa columbiana and I found a pair of fancy at least £30 shoes. These taxi drivers said these guys were fighting and left them behind and weren't coming back for them. The shoes fit so I took them. Yet it didn't feel right, I already had a pair of fancy shoes so I put them back and the taxi driver said he would take them. I saw it was karma for helping the dude out from Eritrea out earlier with the taxis. There was the second clear example of karma for me that night. I felt blessed. I besides all that, I had to get out of the madness so I took a walk to Kirstall road, that Leads near to where I use to live in Burley. I ended up just napping behind a bush, thinking to myself I'm too old to be missing my bus like this. I also thought about How I'm good. I've been on many adventures, faced many challenges in life and I'm still ok. I got to Burley Park and stopped off in the little wooded area in the park there. I just chilled in there for a bit. I saw a bunch of foxes on the field outside of the trees. After chilling for a bit I decided to keep walking. I walked past my old house, a small party going on next door, this time it didn't bother me this time. Nobody was at home at my old casa. I kept walking through headingley, the more student area of town. It was an assortment of red brick, a bit run down houses that all looked the same, with quite a bit of trash on the ground from the students. Even 6am in the morning there was students hanging around. It is a very lively place. What I didn't like was a seeming army of students coming out of a party yelling at the top of their lungs like everybody in the neighborhood wanted to hear that. All I can say is alcohol is a terrible drug. I got back to the bustop for Harrogate at 9am in the morning. It seemed like a lot of people were taking the bus to work in Harrogate. It was lights out. I was really hating leeds and everyone at this point. There was a lady singing a song off key on her headphones and pigeons flying around. The whole bus ride back, I was pissed off at people. When I got off the bus nothing had changed. I saw a dude wearing spandex pants that made him look like he was from outer space, with stars and nebulas on them. Because I hadn't slept all night he sounded American. I was also thinking "who else would wear pants like that in Harrogate?" I asked him if he was american and he said "no, I'm not" almost with disdain, his italian looking friend began cracking up. Upon arriving in my apartment I continued thinking about how people have mixed opinion about America. I had met people who wished they were from America, people who were neutral and like one english girl who when I told her I was American said "that's shit" and walked away, yet most people were very intrigued I was from there. There was one funny case where I was in a bar called Brotherhood in Leeds on a Saturday night with the Italian dude and some of the others that I had met at the angel Inn, where we came across a Saudi Arabian guy with a very strong opinion about America. He was friends with some other people in the group and as I came around the corner he was yelling "fuck America, fuck America" I thought it was more funny then anything. The Italian dude with me just kept cracking up and said "I have to tell him, I have to tell him" I begged him no. He asked the Saudi guy to guess where I was from. The dude couldn't place me, from South America to Canada and back down to South America again. Finally we helped him realize it was America. All he said was something like. "You guys are cool" and he patted his fist to his chest as a sign of respect. I told him I heard him say what he said about America and he said honestly that America helped ruin the middle east with England, that his people were dying so it was his duty to talk about these things. I had respect for that and agreed the American government in general was a giant pain in the ass. Another drunk english guy in our group said he loved America and would fight for America. It seems America is a perfect example of duality. So anyway after thinking about this and making a short video about how girls wear too much makeup in england, I went to sleep. What a day.

[countries-of-the-world-en-blog]

Yemen

For other uses, see Yemen (disambiguation). Coordinates: 15°N 48°E / 15°N 48°E / 15; 48 Yemen (i/ˈjɛmən/; Arabic: اليَمَن‎‎ al-Yaman), officially known as the Republic of Yemen (الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhūrīyah al-Yamanīyah), is an Arab country in Western Asia, occupying South Arabia, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 km2 (203,850 sq mi). The coastline stretches for about 2,000 km (1,200 mi). It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south, and Oman to the east and northeast. Although Yemen's constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sana'a, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemen's capital has been temporarily relocated to the port city of Aden, on the southern coast. Yemen's territory includes more than 200 islands; the largest of these is Socotra. Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans (biblical Sheba), a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years and probably also included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 AD, the region came under the rule of the later Jewish-influenced Himyarite Kingdom. Christianity arrived in the fourth century, whereas Judaism and local paganism were already established. Islam spread quickly in the seventh century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the expansion of the early Islamic conquests. Administration of Yemen has long been notoriously difficult. Several dynasties emerged from the ninth to 16th centuries, the Rasulid dynasty being the strongest and most prosperous. The country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires in the early twentieth century. The Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was established after World War I in North Yemen before the creation of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962. South Yemen remained a British protectorate known as the Aden Protectorate until 1967. The two Yemeni states united to form the modern republic of Yemen in 1990. Yemen is a developing country, and the poorest country in the Middle East. Under the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy. According to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed. In the absence of strong state institutions, elite politics in Yemen constituted a de facto form of collaborative governance, where competing tribal, regional, religious, and political interests agreed to hold themselves in check through tacit acceptance of the balance it produced. The informal political settlement was held together by a power-sharing deal between three men: president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who controlled the state; Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who controlled the largest share of the Republic of Yemen Armed Forces; and Abdullah ibn Husayn al-Ahmar, figurehead of the Islamist Islah party and Saudi Arabia's chosen broker of transnational patronage payments to various political players, including tribal sheikhs. The Saudi payments have been intended to facilitate the tribes' autonomy from the Yemeni government and to give the Saudi government a mechanism with which to weigh in on Yemen's political decision-making. Yemen has been in a state of political crisis since 2011. starting with street protests against poverty, unemployment, corruption, and president Saleh's plan to amend Yemen's constitution and eliminate the presidential term limit, in effect making him president for life. President Saleh stepped down and the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who was formally elected president on 21 February 2012 in a one-man election. The transitional process was disrupted by conflicts between the Houthis and al-Islah, as well as the al-Qaeda insurgency. In September 2014 the Houthis took over Sana'a, later declaring themselves in control of the government in a coup d'état. Since then, a Saudi-led intervention has caused a new civil war to take place. More details Android, Windows