Wonder Soul 💭

principles > institutions

Passing by Koye Feche and saw big roadside signage “Shaggar the Future City”, this is the new hip trend cities are hopping on. Saw similar signage on my social in Adama and Harar. The similarity? They are all in English!

One time I was talking with an international NGO employee who travels a lot around Africa and he was telling me, that basically every signage you see on the streets of sub-saharan countries is either in French or English and you can tell if that nation was a product of French or English colony the moment you arrive at the airport.

With that logic, our cities are becoming Anglophone cities and for someone who doesn’t know our history, the moment they step foot in our cities, it feels like we are a country that was previously colonized by the Brits. Every fucking signage is in English, from small shops, restaurants, and corporations to public squares and govt institutions, you see English in bold and shiny fonts sometimes on the top, before the local language.

The funny thing is, the new trend of having fancy signage in town squares and roadsides is nonsense, not only because they are in English, but their meaning itself is hypocritical. What fuck does that even mean future city? An excuse to hide the shitty present? A wishful prophecy that means nothing to your constituency? What did you do and show that will align with anything futuristic? መብራት እና ውሀ በአግባቡ ሳይኖር future city? Who is that message for? I have so many questions, and my conclusion is, that it just really means nothing other than for a “cool” effect! It's just there because! What a waste of my taxes!

Moreover, “Shaggar” in english is pronounced as “ሻገር” (check google translate and let it pronounce it for you) shagger is something I aspired to in my adolescence, but surely not something I wish a municipality would spend millions on and put on the roadside with a straight face. It would have been much easier and more inspiring if you stick to our language. The need to preserve your own identity in someone else language is a sign of an identity crisis and political circus. It shows how dumbfuck you are!

ወዳጅነት ፓርክ is marketed as “Friendship Park”, and the other one “Unity Park” and so on. ያሳፍራል! There is another one in Adama that I saw, it says “I Love Adama”, a cheap knockoff from the one we have at the “Wedajinet” Park, which is also a water down copy of the iconic “I love Amsterdam” street sign. “Adama Ko” or “ Adama nan Jaladha” is not cool enough or what?

እና ምን ለማለት ነው፤ የእንግሊዝ ቀኝ ተገዥ ሀገር መስለናል፤ እየመሰልን ነው.።

this was also about the studio ghilbi art style that is trending

“honesty is the best policy” only makes sense when you work with virtuous people. የአእምሮ ጠባሳ በበዛበት ማህበረሰብ ውስጥ እየኖርክ honest and authentic መሆን has a hefty tax

and don't ask for people's honest opinions before checking your insecurities

a beggar asking me የትራንስፖርት ቸግሮኘ ነው for consecutive days

borther ወደ ማርስ ነው እንዴ ምትሄደው? you collecting funds for a space mission?

a dumb fuck ገቢዎች desk officer who looks like a gay rights activist with a dull suit thinks he is more ethiopian than you, he thinks he is the guardian of the nation

a small business collects more in VAT every month than his salary. they pay his annual income in profit tax if not more, they create jobs and they innovate and accelerate

in every objective metric, businesses do more of the statehood than cadres and blind civil servants with no incentive to do better

you bashing rift valley university? wait until you know about civil service university

there is a building around CMC Michael called "መህቤ ነጠረ" and i dont know what language is that or the nomenclature but it randomly pops up in my mind

religious institutions should also be audited tentatively and pay tax from their commercial gains

if disagreeing with someone feels like disrespecting them, you are in the wrong place

as much as we love the rally behind mekodonia, it needs auditing too. every NGO running a public charity campaign should publish their spending and financial statements

institutional donors require NGOs to provide project reports, likewise, the public deserves to know how crowd-sourced charities are spending

transparency doesn't hurt and we need to develop culture of accountability

makes me wonder why we don't have a world like 'Schadenfreude' since we have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner

the word "blow" is such a vibe

blow a mind
blow a joint
blow a kiss
blow up

even when it is a job, blow is jazz

the disrespect that comes after "dear customer"

what do you mean my beep call request is successfully delivered to the person that i am trying hard not seem so needy???

life is all about resilience, the rest is constant

ጨረቃን ትመስያለሽ?

as in the asteroid bombarded, full of crater scars, smallpox survivor cowboy face look?

የቀን levereጄን አታሳጣኝ

Bruno Mars’s Billionaire and Jay Z’s O.J. are good comparisons for what poor man’s dream of the rich is and what actually a rich is

egg price hikes don't make the chickens rich