Waiter, I'll Take One Leader-- Hold Off on the Psychotic Killer

I am drowning in post-vacation trimiss and injera-related work, which has piled up while I was , um, sunning my teeth, so to speak, with the Frenchies. So, trying to catch up. (I hope that Anon does not think that I, too, have turned “woyanni”.)

Bad timing on my part since I am dying to pick apart the Prime Minister’s letter to Congress as well as his interview on the BBC. And I shall be as soon as I appease my bosses that I am worth the corner office.

Regaring Ato Meles… sheesh, that guy is creepy. You know, when someone asks you to apologize for killing people, the only decent thing to do is to apologize—even is you don’t “feel it”, just goddamn do it… the people are dead, ferpetessake! It strikes me as the only decent thing to do. When you refuse to do so, you end up saying unconscionable stuff like “we will take our time investigating the deaths.” (Oh, can’t you see Tony Blair just criiiiinnnnging that his best African buddy is such a callous, calculating creepazoid? “Oh, Martha, I do believe he is a bastard. Oh, bullocks! Now I have to pretend I never knew he was so dastardly ignoble. Oh, Martha… why does this happen to me? I just wanted one African friend. Pass the crumpets., please, darling.”

The least Ato Meles could have done was to feign shock, Isreali-style. What? You think square-ish head BBC interviewer is going to go back and check what a total dick the Prime Minister was about the dead? Oh, please, grow up. So, Ato Meles could have dropped in a few “I am appalled”s and, “As a father myself I can only imagine what the death of a child can do to a parent.”s and come off half-way normal. Beqa. But Ato Meles, like he has proven to us time and again, is missing the human decency DNA.

I do contend the Prime Minister is an unmitigated, complete King of Faras!

From the comments on the last blog, I agree with Filwuha (perhaps sand the part that civilized people live in Lown-don.) Cranky, curmudgeon Ato Engineer Hailu “Yes, I saw the killings… my chauffer drove me around” Shawel should have remained in the timeout seat with my son. His interview with the BBC was a terrible waste of opportunity. Oh, please. Someone needs to pass him a newspaper and point him to a rocking chair. Or maybe he can take up golf and leave the politicking to others. Minew itayE!

But here’s the thing, as far as I know, the Engineer has not gunned down 36 people… well, 26 by the New Math courtesy of Non-Education Minister Genet Zewdie. (How undignified do you have to BE, by the way, to contest the number of people dead? And wasn’t that an official figure? Perhaps the Prime Minister has a Jesus complex and he might have thought that he resurrected some of the dead. Alazar, call your office.)

Anyway, as I was saying, whatever Hailu Shawel’s faults, and being a bad dresser is one of them—oh, that outfit was so blaaa!, at least he is not burdened with the moral responsibility of having gunned down unarmed people. And I will take incompetence over congenital lying and murdering any time. I am weird like that.

To me, the Engineering wonder that is Hailu Shawel is the Ronald Regan of Ethiopia—minus the head bobbing and “O’m’gad he is just like my grandpa” charm. As long as people like Berhanu and uber-sexy Lidetu are by Ato Engineer’s side, nodding their heads patiently while he finishes sputtering out a string of incomprehensibles, the world is fine. At least he is surrounded by sharp people who are not yes-men. And actually, better that the Engineer know his place and be humbled now, than when it matters. Life has a way of calibrating egos.

But like I said, I like my leaders to have not sanctioned killing. Don’t much care if they come off as doddering in one interview. As long as they don’t have blood on their hands.

Listen to me, have you all seen that speech/Q&A with zany-brainy Non Engineer Berhanu in the Stockholm? (By the way, did the venue seem like an S&M dungeon or was it me remembering my youth….? Anniiiiway.) That interview should be required viewing to all of us following Ethiopian politics. It is breathtakingly brilliant. The guy has cahones the size of Mesqel Addebbai, and that’s on a bad day. Watch it, and you will know that there is much to be hopeful for in Ethiopia.

I am falling off my chair, so I gotta run. Sorry I’ve been MIA.