Ephrem Endale Contributer
A few of us were talking about the scale and absurdity of the foreign inference in the internal affairs of this country. The discussions were good in more ways than one. Since this is one topic, we could talk about without offending many, the comments just cascaded. It happened that many of the notions we’ve been holding all our lives about the rest of the world (‘the rest of the world’ meaning the West!) have been dumped all over the place. (Sorry, Brad Pitt. This isn’t about you or your once-upon-a-time dear Angelina. It is about betrayal, backstabbing and the lynching of truth and justice.)
All of us having been around on this earth for quite a while it was only natural that cinema came up. It should; after all, whether we admit it or not Hollywood played quite a big part in shaping our notion of what we call the West! How can you not be carried away by the ‘bravery’ of those cowboys chasing the ‘savages’ all over the place and picking them out like flies! And we applauded. Yes we shook the roof of the cinema when Sheriff someone and his team shot every moving thing along with the ‘savages.’ I mean you have to appreciate any ‘legend’ who could shoot eleven rounds from a six-shooter without reloading! If
that’s not ‘bravery’ what is? Yes, Hollywood is one hell of a phenomenon which wiped out the line between reality and delusional fantasy and pulled us so deep many of us are still struggling to free ourselves despite all that has been happening. I mean you realize Ludlum’s Jason Bourne is an interesting product of a highly creative mind that’s when you find space for reality to dock. (Don’t ask me why, but when it comes to thrillers, I’m one Ludlum fan who never tires of rereading his books.)
Back to that small group of us. Discussions went on almost the same wavelengths for some time, until our sense of being on the same wavelengths was shattered to splinters. By the way it was also a discussion that exposed our sheer ignorance as to the workings of contemporary international especially Western politics.
One amongst us whom we took as a down-to-earth rational fellow wasn’t his usual self. All of a sudden, his comments took such unexpected turns we must have wondered if he was that same rational guy, we used to pump some real sense into us.
“Look, all this talk about the West being against us is pure nonsense.” Nonsense! Coming from him it wasn’t just another Thesaurus pop-up. It was dynamite in letters! For a few seconds, what actually felt like eternity, we were left speechless.
“What do you mean?” one of us asked. What followed was dramatic, to put it lightly. He went on to tell us that what we called worldwide ‘communist’ conspiracy was behind the bashing of the West!
(Good old Lenin we’re coming for you! What did we do to you to deserve this? Don’t blame us for your statue being pulled down, No one asked for our opinions! How dare you now entangle us in “You have nothing to lose but your chains,” conspiracy after all this time! How dare you pit us against our ‘good old friends in sunshine’ while all we got from you is the promise that the world would one day be ours and you left without delivering. OMG! Would this world ever regain its senses and call a spade a spade without flinching! Our very friend is talking about communist conspiracy while the whole drama is paying out in the conference halls of backstabbing, ungrateful int’l organizations, in the lobbies of parliaments and yes in the editorial offices of ‘vampire-like’ media organizations out for the kill!)
After our get together which started brightly and ended with the darkest clouds you could imagine closing in from all directions, each of couldn’t help thinking of our ‘communist-conspiracy baptized’ friend. One of us dug into the matter and our “Aha1” moment came. It so happened that his visa application for a three-month visit was given the green light! So what? I’ll tell you so what. He was at least trying to have a better image of the whole thing since he will probably staying there for there…sorry, for no for the rest of his life! He had to justify to it to himself that all the things have been witnessing for real for over a year were just the creations of his mind.
And dear friend soon to be in America, if you don’t mind can you tell Brad Pitt it has nothing to do with him and dear Angelina, and that it is about betrayal, backstabbing and the lynching of truth and justice by the powers that are.
Look, the guy has every right to hold any view he feels like. The worst thing any of us could do to him is force him to tow our line. But then when self-interest stains reality, it’s simply difficult to look the other way, especially among those of us who think we are “friends!’
The Ethiopian Herald October 24/2021
