Arada

My cat gave birth. She came to me and asked me about being a mother. She said “Arada, what should I do with my kittens??? On one hand I want them to grow to become independent and self-reliant, thus I want them to exercise this independence now by sleeping alone. But on the other hand, I also want them to look after me in the future and also to think about their sisters/brothers in the world. I don’t want them to lose their identity - which is compromise and sharing rather than competition. I also want them to be rich and happy but not at the expense of others. My wish for them is to live a modest life caring for their community……. ” she then stopped talking and got lost in her thought. Suddenly, as if waking from her sleep, she said “you know what I have been watching them from the day they were born and I have never seen any kind of community feeling in them. I have never seen any form of catriotism in them. They only care about themselves and always want to satisfy their own needs. Can you believe it…they even want to have a child from the dog. If they continue like this our whole species will be extinct………this will happen over my dead body….i know what I have to do”. Immediately she left me and ate all her kittens.

There is this heavy iron ball and a feather. According to legend, Galileo let them fall from the tower of Pisa to check which one will reach the ground fast. His superior Aristotle has told him that it would be the iron ball since it is heavy. Aristotle knew the unfair nature of gravity, that it favors those with heavy weight.

But Galileo would not hear of this since he believed in a fair world. He was overjoyed when he found out that his hypothesis was indeed right and the two materials reached the ground at the same time. Then Galileo told us that gravity is impartial and to see this honest nature we have to either go to the moon or be in a vacuum. So my cat turned her head towards me and told me “Arada, if you truly want to see fair world full of these funny concepts of democracy, freedom, justice…… either go to the moon or sit in vacuum.”

Being in the middle of it all, I feel like I am in the middle of a landmine. I never know when it will blow. I see them always being cautious of each other waiting for one another. There have been explosions earlier but the aftermath was not severe (at least they are still alive). Maybe one day they will resolve their conflict and remove all the landmines from the places they buried. OR it will kill one of them. In either case I don’t want to be around to see the end of the fight between my cat and my dog.

I was reading a book about the two sides of love – the hard side and soft side love. One paragraph read -  people who hold in their frustration and fail to be hard with others when it’s needed pay a price – in some cases, much too high a price. Just then my cat (catty) and her partner dog (doggy) started to quarrel. Their argument was about a bone which was given to doggy and another dog (doggy boggy) by Mrs. Goody. The two dogs were supposed to share the bone but doggy boggy wouldn’t hear of it. So they went to a court and it took 11 years to settle their dispute. A wise verdict was given by the judge to cut the bone into two equal parts and give one piece to each dog. The problem was one side of the bone has a picture of doggy boggy’s dead daughter and he wanted to have that piece. The judge didn’t say (and actually didn’t care) about no picture. So doggy boggy came to doggy to beg him to give him that piece with his daughter’s pic……..

Now this is where the argument between catty and doggy came into picture.

Argument: doggy “I am never gonna give him that piece. I have waited 11 years for what was lawfully mine. And now we have to draw lots to find out who gets which piece. I don’t care whichever piece I get. But if I get the piece with the picture of doggy boggy’s daughter, I’ll not eat it and neither will he…..i’ll smash it to bits and pieces. That’s how I felt 11 years ago.  I could have died in these 11 years without eating this lawfully mine half bone and thank God I’m alive to see this day. Now I’m going to the church to praise the Lord about the verdict and pray to him to help me get the piece with the pic. of doggy boggy’s daughter ”

 

…………when I think about it now ….there was no argument….it was just doggy talking and catty listening (and thinking….“doggy is wrong, he should just give doggy boggy the piece, he wanted, which is the best thing for everyone. He goes to church everyday and I don’t think they teach him revenge. If they do there is something wrong with them. There is nothing beautiful than giving and forgiving”…but she didn’t speak these words…why??? Because she is a cat (catty)…and a cat doesn’t have a voice in a dog’s world)…. she was also reading the paragraph which read……people (not cats) who hold in their frustration pay a price – in some cases, much too high a price.

I saw a dream….We were talking and she said that she has found a boy cat who understands her very well. She told me that he was so great and they talked about all the things that we used to talk about. We used to talk about all the things that seemed non sense to other people.The other day she said “u know what…money is just a bunch of papers. The thing is you can buy an opportunity with money, like power. So you can influence a whole lot of people with the opportunity that you bought. But humans are seeing it the other way around. They will die for money but don’t realize that it’s the opportunity that they should see.Anyway I am going to have a three story house for me an my three kids…this is for sure. You are the only one to whom I talk about these things….. ”we talk and talk……..about physics, einestien, God…

unfortunately, now she has someone to talk to. So with this awful dream in my mind I went out of the house. While traveling in the taxi I saw that there was this mist over Addis Ababa and I was really frustrated. What can I do about this thing? Is it possible for an individual to act upon such things? But I am only a student of Psychology? What if I studied Environmental Science? What is the government doing about it? Is it simply constructing buildings, roads, etc and do not care about environmental pollution? Do we necessarily have to follow the westerns in their every ups and downs and always follow Western Modernization Theory? Is there a shortcut to development in every aspect by employing indigenous African principles… then I asked myself Am I feeling this way because of that dream or Am I really worrying about the environment?…whatever…

I went to the Addis Ababa Education Bureau in order to find some documents related to primary school education and an amusing thing happened.

I was looking for the office library and I found a girl on the way and asked her to show me the place. She pointed to the far end and told me that it is on the left side. In addition she told me that there is a DOG and I had to be careful not to get bitten. I was surprised as to why a dog would be kept at the door of the education bureau library.  Then I continued moving warily and another lady again informed me about the dog biting a boy who came to get his lost report card. Her advice to me was to phone the library from some other office and ask them to escort me. She also remarked “this dog should be locked”. As to me I do not know why there should be a dog in the first place

 Once a person asked me which time of the day I liked most – The night or the day time? I answered it is the night and this was due to the presence of the moon. I said that the moon reminds me of love. Nowadays I have somewhat modified my view. The night is like a hope of the morning sun. It is the beginning of an end and without hope; all would be void - The inner desires and the vision of getting somewhere. So even when I think of my own life, it would be totally empty without the night i.e. Hope. That should have been my reason in answering the question. Lately I also found this story: Four candles burn slowly, the ambience was so soft you could hear them talking. The first one said "I am PEACE! However nobody can keep me lit. I believe I will go out."- It’s flame rapidly diminishes and goes out completely.The second one says "I am FAITH! Most of all, I am no longer indispensable, so it doesn’t make any sense that I stay lit longer." When it finished talking. a breeze softly blew on it putting it out. Sadly the third candle spoke in its turn:" I am love! I haven’t got the stength to stay lit. People put me aside and don’t understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them." And waiting no longer it goes out. Suddenly…. a child enters the room and sees three candles not burning. "Why are you not burning? You are supposed to stay lit till the end." Saying this the child begins to cry.Then the fourth candle said "Don’t be afraid, while I am still burning we can re-light the other candles, I am HOPE!". With shining eyes the child took the candle of hope and lit the other candles. So THE FLAME OF HOPE SHOULD NEVER GO OUT FROM YOUR LIFE……and that each of us can maintain Hope, Faith, Peace and Love!!!    

 

                         Elect of God 

            This was yet another day for the people of Addis Ababa to oppose the rulingparty on the occasion of the Great Ethiopian Run. People in groups were shouting out slogans criticizing the government. Here are some of them                “…..hang Meles Zenawi in the place of Sadam Hussein…….”               

               “…..the spirit of CUD (the opposition party) never dies…”

                “……Somali, we will support you in the fight against this regime…”                     

               “…….free the opposition leaders….”

            While I was running and listening to all the shouts I remembered a story which I was thought when I was a kid.           

             Once upon a time there lived many frogs in a lake. But they had no king so they asked God to give them one. He gave them a huge log of wood to rule them .As the log splashed on the water every frog swam for survival afraid of the wood. Soon they got used to it. The log became the main means of their transportation from one bank to the other. Gradually, they wanted more so they asked God to give them a better, stronger king. He then gave them a swan. They became happy because the swan was so beautiful; they liked the swan at the first sight. As the days passed by the number of frogs started to decrease. Later the frogs knew that it was the swan eating them up. So they started complaining to God about the swan king. God said “I gave you the log and you complained about it so I gave you a stronger king and again you complained, so what do you want now”

            So folks lets pray that we have a leader which is an elect of God. It is my ultimate wish that we have the “log king” than the “swan king”, who is just like ………