Open letter to the editor of Addis Tribune
By Mesfin Arega
Oct 9, 2004

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Part Two

No, dear editor of Addis Tribune, do not take destruction as your first option - an approach which has proved disastrous for Ethiopia. Always look at other alternatives before you opt for destruction. Above all, be grateful for what has served you for thousands of years, and please, please do not mock it as "archaic", "backward", or "useless". This is a clear, unmistakable sign of immaturity - if not vulgarity. In this regard you should have learned from your role models - the Europeans - who, when they think that it is time to retire any of their invention - or what they claim to be their invention - they just do not throw it away but proudly display it in the best and safest of all places - in a museum - and teach their children about it for successive generations. By the way, why is it that we Ethiopians always seem to pick only the bad, the useless, and the destructive form the Europeans? Is it because these things are the easiest to pick, that they don't require any effort?

Thus, my dear international brother, should you happen to find a "fault" or "defect" in any one of our values and traditions, do not rush to destroy or discard it. First carefully consider if what you see as a "fault" is indeed a "fault". Examine it - not from European perspective as you are trained to do - but from Ethiopian perspective, and - most of the time - you will find to your utter surprise that you were dead wrong. Our ancestors have invested thousands of years in this culture and tradition. It is a time-tested precious asset.

Should the "fault" turned out to be indeed a "fault", still do not opt for destruction. Not yet. Consider possible improvements or modifications. Consult the appropriate personalities - most of the time our elders - on how to improve the faulty value, make it up-to-date or - if you allow me to use your favorite phrase - "in tune with the march of time". However, I am afraid you may not get such an advice from most of our so called "intellectuals" in colleges and universities, mainly because they themselves do not have any clue, and - who knows - you could very well be one of them. Only after exhausting all other options should you consider destruction.

By the way, do you really know what you mean when you say "The Ethiopian calendar is not part and parcel of our culture and tradition"? I doubt it - unless what you have in mind is not a genuine concern for the betterment of our culture and tradition but, for some reason of your own, an urge for the destruction of it. In that case, you very well know what you are saying, and my entire attempt to show you the good in our calendar was in vain. I toiled for nothing - pouring water on a stone, so to speak. As our saying goes, "Awko Yetgna Bikeseksut Aisemam" (literally "That who pretends to be asleep cannot be awakened"). But again, my token effort may have helped expose what your real agenda is, and served as a warning for the gullible - the easily cheated. I will take comfort in that.

In my original letter, I asserted that your vicious attack on the Ethiopian calendar is only the tip of the iceberg, and that you are after each and every value and tradition of Ethiopia. Well, you yourself are proving me right. The other day, you made fun of our 12-hour day/ 12-hour night system - or at least you thought you did so - as "grossly unscientific". You seem to think that when we say a "12-hour day/ 12-hour night system" we mean the sun is always above the horizon for 12-hours of the day, and below the horizon for the remaining 12-hours. Far from it. The length of time the sun spends above the horizon does indeed vary with the seasons - being the longest in the SENE (15 hours) and shortest in TEHASAS (9 hours) [see "Bahire Hasab", page 30, by professor Getachew Haile]. By "12-hour day/ 12-hour night system" we mean we count the hours of the day from 0 to 12 starting from the evening, and then from the morning. This is what the Europeans - your role models - do, albeit they use different reference points - midnight and midday. In science, the choice of reference points is arbitrary as long as one sticks to the choice. So what makes our system "grossly unscientific"? What indeed is science? How does the scientific differ from the unscientific? You seem to have the tendency of using words and expressions just for the sake of using them - if not to impress your readers.

Your attempt to ridicule our age old measurement units like GASHA and KIND only shows that you have absolutely no clue as to what measurement is and how measurement units are defined. Measurement is an attempt to specify a given quantity (distance, time, mass, temperature etc.) with reference to an agreed upon standard unit. In other words, measurement is nothing but an agreement. As I am for retaining our Ethiopian calendar, I am for resurrecting our own beautiful measuring units - SINZER, KIND, GASHA, ENQEB, QUNA, WEQET, MEKLIT etc. We just have to give them precise definitions to avoid arbitrariness, and this should have been the first and foremost objective of the so called "Ethiopian Standardization Institute". I really don't know what the heck this institute has been "standardizing" throughout its existence - what its mandate is. Couldn't it at least come up with Ethiopian names for terms like radio, television, computer, internet, minibus, mobile phone etc. before they take root and pollute our languages?

In any case, if you accept the British units foot, yard, mile, and stone as valid units of measurement, what is your problem with standardized KIND, SINZER, and WEQET? If you consider "acre" as a legitimate unit of area, why not a well defined GASHA? If it is ok to express crop volume (or any dry capacity) in bushels, why not in QUNA? What is so shameful about our units of measurement? Is it only because they are our own? Should everything originate in Europe for you to be acceptable or "scientific"? What is the matter with you? Tell me. I am baffled.

The same applies for military titles. We should stop calling our military leaders commanders, colonels, generals, marshals etc. Instead, we should revive our own graceful titles - AZMATCH, FITAWRARI, KEGN AZMATCH, GRA AZMATCH, ABEGAZ (the equivalent of "general"), TEKIL (the equivalent of "marshal"), ABA DULA, etc. - titles which correspond to a superior military strategy - a strategy which enabled our forefathers to crushingly defeat myriads of well armed invaders with nothing but spear and shield - a strategy which proved so crucial to our survival as a nation. Read these beautiful lines:

What do you make of the name "Flamingo Bar" when the Amharic equivalent "Sabisa Buna Bet" sounds much better? And think of such weird names as "London Kitfo Bet". Doesn't this drive you crazy? What does London have to do with - of all things - Kitfo? Wouldn't, say, "Welkite Kitfo Bet" be more appropriate? What government institution is giving them licenses under such disgusting names? Some of them - such as the new "Dembel Supermarket" - do not even bother to write their names in Amharic - their message being that they are "modern" and therefore Amharic does not belong there. Others write the Amharic below the English - the implication of which neither do I know, nor do I want to contemplate, lest it be too painful for me. I challenge every Ethiopian - in particular those visiting from abroad - not to spend a single coin in such disgustingly named places, and not to buy any of those shamefully named products - until their owners stop insulting us and, of course, themselves, by doing the right thing.

What about our own educational titles - ALEKA, LIQE, TEBIB, FELASFA etc.? Why do they have to be restricted only to experts in Amharic/Geez literture? Why can't we use them for the arts, the sciences, and engineering as well - and thereby replace the foreign titles "master", "lecturer", "doctor", "professor" etc.? Weren't the titles "master", "doctor", and "professor" themselves originally church titles? To be, say an ALEKA, in Amharic/Geez literature requires much more time, effort, and tenacity than to be a medical doctor or college professor - in any field. If there is anyone who doubts this, I advise him/her to take a look at the works of Aleka Desta Teklewold or Aleka Kidanewold Kifle, and compare them to the works of any one of our "big" professors. Thus, wouldn't it be an honor if any one who got the highest degree, say in physics, is called, say an ALEKA, instead of a "doctor"?

The great Ethiopian lexicographer, historian, and philosopher Aleka Kidanewold Kifle after whom, nothing - absolutely nothing - is named in this strange country of ours once observed that "using foreign words - when we have our own - is nothing but adultery". ["Mesehafe Sewasew Wegis Wemezgebe Kalat Addis", page 52]. If he used "adultery" to describe what he observed more than half a century ago, I don't know what term would he use had he been alive today. I can't come up with anything more demeaning than an "adulterer". I thought of fornicator and prostitute but they are not that strong. Thus using a foreign calendar, measurement units, military titles, and educational titles instead of our own amounts to nothing but adultery. Likewise, those who use "reporter" (instead of "zegabi"), "international" (instead of "Alemakef"), "parliament" (instead of "shengo"), "engineer" (instead of "mehandis"), "construction" (instead of "ginbata"), "supermarket" (instead of "gebeya adarash"), "championa" (instead of "wedidir") etc. are nothing but adulterers. We have become such adulterers that most of us have even forgotten how to say our own country's name properly - Ethiopia (with "p" stressed), let alone our own continent - Africa (with "ca" stressed).

Let me quote Solomon Kibriye of New York who condensed what took me several pages to say to just a single statement. "Modernity and development do not go hand in hand with mimicking and copying everything that was done in Europe and the Americas". To realize this is so, I once again urge you, dear editor of Addis Tribune, to please read that great book by the great Kebede Michael, "How Japan Developed" - a sure cure for your twisted mentality.

Oh! Lord God. What a confused - completely messed up - generation! What happened to the pride and dignity of our forefathers? Who did they bequeath it to? No, our dear and holy country is in total chaos. It is so messed up that - as much as I hate to admit it - I am beginning to believe that it can only be put in order, not by a narrow minded opportunist like Meles Zenawi or whatever his name is (a vulgar who, when asked about khat, insulted the entire people of Wollo as idolaters - not realizing that he idolizes the worst idol of all - Isayas Afeworki.) but by a dictator - a benevolent, nationalist dictator - such as Napoleon or Ataturk. Generals like Tadesse Birru or Aman Andom; Fanta Belai or Demisse Bulto would have fared much better. But again, after the betrayal, arrest, torture, and, finally, barbaric murder of that dynamic young leader - Lij Iyasu - our country has been cursed so much so that it devours - literally eats - its best and brightest, and anoints the most unworthy to its highest post. The tortured ghosts of Lij Iyasu, Belay Zeleke, and countless other irreplaceable heroes are haunting us. They will keep on haunting us until we do something like what the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" of South Africa did. Only now do I fully understand the famous rhyme: "Agere Ethiopia Mogn Nesh Telala; Yemotelish Kerto Yegedelesh Bela!" In any case, a dictator is what we presently seem to be in need of. That is how desperate our situation is.

I have said enough - more than enough. You made me talk too much and, perhaps, a target for some blind fanatics. I should have heeded our saying: "Wore Bibeza Bahiya Aychanim" or better yet "For the wise, a single word is enough". This will be my last letter concerning the Ethiopian calendar. Thanks and God be with you. By the way our calendar is not a "dead horse". It is alive and kicking. And, should any body heed to your ill-conceived idea and kill it, it will definitely be resurrected in its own proper time and restart kicking, albeit with such a huge force that it will be heard all over Africa, if not all over the world.