Abbay (Nile): Ethiopian Proverb

“Abby maderia yelew gind yezo yezoral” – Abbay doesn’t have a place to stay but it carries “wood” around”

Some Ethiopians may not know the name the current Prime Minister. But the name Abbay (Blue Nile) is the center of the Ethiopian proverb. Ethiopians adore Abbay as much as they adore Adwa victory. So as the world associate Nile to Egypt so far, in deed, Egypt is a gift of Nile, as much of Nile is a gift Ethiopia.

I would love to write in depth article about Ethiopian love to Nile. But in this blog, i attach some pictures from my last visit to the Nile falls (Abbay Fafuate). Hope you will enjoy them. 

Social Media & Ethiopia: A Complicated Relationship Status

A little bit of public speaking – November 2012 – Bonn, Germany

Colonization in the Eyes of Independent Ethiopia

The African Union building, Addis Ababa

The Economist posted an article about an ideological competition between two diametrically opposed economic models – Ethiopian & Kenyan. I am not writing this blog to comment on this article. Though, I get inspiration to touch one of the most sensitive issues of massive contradiction of being colonialized and independent. This is one card most Ethiopians should be very careful to play with our African friends.

Ethiopia celebrates Adwa. We have millions of reasons to do so. This war was the beginning of the end of colonization. The price of war is high. We cannot ever understand what price our forefathers and foremothers paid to keep us free.

eweket in 2012

Dear Friends – 2012 wasn’t my best blogging year. I could only post 11 articles. I have been writing different pieces on different platforms, mainly on iceaddis.com, GlobalVoices & printed publications. I couldn’t focus on my personal blog as much i wanted.

Nevertheless, I made many wonderful friends in 2012 through this blog. This is one of my primary wishes when I started to blog back in 2009. I’m here to make friends. So thank you so much for your time to follow my posts & sharing them. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog. Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 24,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

The Power of the Second Person

photo credit: http://stevecorn.com/

One way or another, one person initiated everything.

Perhaps, you’ve heard about this before – In every successful business, or campaigns or movements, you need a “critical mass”. In social dynamics, critical mass is a sufficient number of adopters of an innovation (idea) in a social system so that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth.

Christian Gmelin (GIZ Bonn) & I conducted a workshop in Berlin last week on the topic of “Learning & Social Media”. One of the examples we used for the workshop is this video.

Disconnected Ethiopian Netizens

Ethiopians spend a great deal of time enjoying their coffee. No wonder there are so many cafés in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Cafés are more than just a place to hang out though; for many, they represent a dynamic public sphere in which to discuss the hottest issues facing the country. Meaningful conversations taking place in every corner of the cafés show how well-informed citizens are and how they enjoy exchanging their opinions about many things around them. But where do people get their information in the first place?

When the Ethiopian Social Media Lack the Humor

It is funny how people take things seriously. Seriously!??!

It starts with the death of PM Meles Zenawi. You know the funny thing about his death is that he died with Justifribilasis Fatilosis – Scientists discovered a new diseases in Belgium. I didn’t mean to say Scientists, but I guess many people might accept it when scientists say something.

London 2012: Ethiopian Olympic Team

London is calling – both Ethiopian and Kenyan Athletes. It is not randmely that i started to compare these two countries. The competition between Ethiopia and Kenya is highly anticipated when it comes to long distance. Ethiopia used to dominate the long distance running, but this seems not to happen anymore. Recently, Kenyan athletes dominate the long distance which was entirely untouchable from the Ethiopians few years back. In the mean time, Ethiopia is bringing new athletes for middle distance running that Kenyans are well known for. Is #london2012 for Ethiopians or Kenyans?

Effective Silence: #rp12, #travel, #collaborate

I didn’t update my blog for more than 6o days. I have been suffering with a phobia of click on “Add New Post”. It wasn’t that I spent those days without interesting activities, rather, lack of interest on working on volunteer tasks. But I am fully back. [whatever it means]. If you care what were my major activities in the last 2 months, here are some pictures.

re:publica | Berlin

I travelled to Berlin to Speak on the conference called re:publica (#rp12).

The motto for “Germany’s largest and most prominent conference on the future of our society and all things digital” this year is ACT!ON.

Analog twitter wall: “re:publica without a twitter wall would be like a church without a cross”

Domestic Workers are Suffering in Middle East, and in Ethiopia

Photo credit: When we stand together, facebook group

Media coverages on abuse of domestic workers elevate after the unfortunate news heard about Alem Dechasa who was publicly harassed by a lebanon guy. Recently, the guardian posts an interesting article about Alem’s family after her tragic death.

The lebanon’s daily star newsletter strongly criticizing the Lebanon government and its labour policy. In the latest article, Lebanon’s ways are sponsoring suicide, states