So, how are you doing? I hope everything is fine. Sorry, but some matters have tied me up and it’ll be sometime before I return. But since it will be sometime before we once again talk face to face I wanted to get a few things off my chest. No one knows better than you that I never harbor any hard feelings against you guys. I think that is what makes my visits worthwhile. Of course, it doesn’t mean I’m always having good night sleeps over there. I’m not given to making big issues out of isolated individual actions. One thing I can tell you the number of bad apples you’ve over there are far more than your wildest imagination.
Anyways, speaking of big issues I’ve experienced what you might call rude awakenings. I know that most of you think we’ve been trying to mess with your country. Almost all believe we’re after your country with our guns blazing and we want to destroy it! At the risk of offending the very sensitive I say nothing could be more preposterous! Dear friend, you being one of the most rational persons I don’t believe you subscribe to such beliefs. There is no avenue at all which takes you to the belief that our politicians are out to destroy your proud nation. But moving around Ethiopian restaurants over here and talking too many of your country people I can’t hide being taken aback at the amount of animosity towards us. Yes the past couple of years have been the turning point of your long held beliefs about my country. And I’m not disputing the reasons which led to such hardening of hearts. Maybe if I were in your position I’d have done the same. But seeing things from the position I’m in I think many things have been blown out of proportions.
I have no love lost for my politicians as I’ve told you over and again. In fact I’m sure you can recall the adjectives I used to describe them. Many back here call them worse names. But what I gather now is the thin line between politicians and the public has been wiped out. Accusing us the common people in the streets for what is being cooked in the corridors of the White House or the chambers of congress. They write the sanction or other bills, they vote on them, and throw in the face of countries like yours. That, my dear friend, is politics.
But back here those from your country seem to be suffering from some chicken-brain syndrome. (Am I being too harsh?) Let me give you one incident. I was in this Ethiopian restaurant chatting with some Ethiopians and however much I tried to steer the chat into other topics I failed. All they wanted to talk about was politics; and they brought up this recent bill from some representatives table. To tell you the truth I didn’t know about it until they mentioned it. You know my country is also tied up with a thousand and one internal problems of its own and there is no time left for us to try to learn what was happening elsewhere in the world. Ukraine is another case!
However my chat with those Ethiopians was eye-opening of sorts. A few minutes into our discussions I asked myself why they were so overtaken by hate. Why are they so bitter at us? All the words they used were synonyms with hate! As I told you I didn’t know about the bill until they brought it up. And to tell you the truth, I don’t have any idea of the specifics yet. I plan to go through it one of these days. But then those people in Congress have work to do. How can anyone fail to recognize this fact? They are not in there for nothing. Each of them represent millions of people and aren’t a bunch of guys enjoying the midnight drink in some hangout. And telling them how to go about doing their job is, I think, uncalled for. They write bills; that is what they always do. And I don’t see anything different when it comes to this bill we’re talking about. They are answerable only to their constituents.
As our emotionally-charged chat heated up so did their aggressive genes until it came to the point of them accusing me of ‘being one of them.’ One of them said to me, “All of you are the same!” And he used adjectives and expletives I can’t put in print. That was when I really got mad and nervous at the same time. Any one in my position wouldn’t have felt any differently. Their hatred was so much that I feared things might go out of hand. Being a pacifist of sorts I didn’t want to be locked up in some stupid brawl for nothing. Luckily I managed to excuse myself under the pretext of having an important appointment and we parted.
Dear Friend, I’d have gone further bringing up other equally uncomfortable incidents. But I don’t want to take up your time. I know by the time you finish reading this letter all that you’ve been thinking about would be replaced with new storylines. Please feel free to tell me what you really think. Sorry if I splashed cold water on our friendship.
Ephrem Endale: Contributer
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 27 FEBRUARY 2022