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This is the most popular folkloric song that was
released over the mass media to welcome the New Year
and the Millennium. Other boring songs reverberate
throughout the capitals of the regional states
including Addis Abeba. Many singers have come up
with new songs and beats. (Tewodros Kassahun, aka
Tedi Afro, has revitalised the old "Abebayehoy"
under the title "Bo Gize Lekulu". That is a
nice piece of music and a gift for the New Year.)
We hear them over the mass media, in cabs, city
buses, music shops, cafés and other trading centres.
The climate of holiday hovers over the capital. The
spirit of hope and excitement is surging in. What
has the New Year in store for us? What will the
Millennium bring home?
Civil servants and pensioners seemed to find a
glimmer of hope when they heard the government's
decision to allocate some 2.2 billion Br for salary
increments and pension allowance adjustments. Some
are cracking jokes over drinking beer on credit.
We now tend to believe that the ruling party is
willing to share the booty of economic growth with
the rank and file. Some of us may not find the
adjustment to be commensurate with the cost of
living and sky high price hikes. Nonetheless
something is better than nothing, as the saying
goes. A friend of mine used to say, 'a witty child
cries for more while eating what is given to him,'
whatever that implies.
The countdown of the Millennium should come to an
end when the year 1999 wraps up next Tuesday and the
year 2000 surges in the next day. You may not agree
with me but Enshe'Allah, I have to wait for one more
year before the new third Ethiopian Millennium
ushers in. The general laity takes decades,
centuries and millenniums as packs of 10s, hundreds
and thousands i.e. multiples of ten. It is anybody's
conjecture that the year 2000 is the end of the
second Millennium and not the beginning of the new
Millennium.
But who cares for millenniums so long as we can
celebrate New Years happily?
This is a country of holiday-loving people. Most
holidays are celebrated in festivities of eating and
drinking as well as dancing to the tune of music.
Unfortunately for Orthodox Christians this year's
New Year falls on a fasting day. Consumption of
meaty food would be postponed to the next day. In
some cases people with good appetites gourmandise
meat one day earlier. I know a fellow who has vowed
to slay chicken and sheep the day after tomorrow and
do away with them on the very day so that he can
have enough time to relax and sleep longer on the
holiday.
Women are able to relax and celebrate the New Year
clad in their beautiful national dresses. Many women
assert that cooking chicken stew is a laborious and
tiring task. Housewives having the responsibility of
cooking chicken stew bear this fatiguing task.
The merry-making process as usual will not be
deterred by the absence of meaty food though.
Holidays’ eves in Addis Abeba are manifested by the
hustle and bustle taking place in Mercato. I was
there last Saturday afternoon to get that general
feeling, which I did.
I
was shoved and pushed by hundreds of people moving
thither and hither. A porter carrying a sack full of
white flour shoved me forcefully and sprayed a good
amount of powder all over me. The man did not bother
to look back and beg pardon, a luxury too much to
expect. It could have been worse. I saw a lot of
women carrying under their arm pit sizable bundle of
green grass and leaves of the false banana plant.
The hustle and bustle makes you crazy. Every Jack
and Jill runs God knows where. The music lambastes
the air.
New Year Celebration in Ethiopia is mainly a family
matter. Of course musical concerts and entertainment
programmes, boozing out at night clubs, well-wishing
calls and songs of little girls in the villages,
bonfires in the evenings at every household, mass
media fanfares and the like intertwine the society
at large. This year however, there were plans to add
some extras to make the celebrations even more
joyful and a communal agenda related to the
celebrations of the Ethiopian Millennium.
The Great Run, a sports event which has of late
become a popular instrument to promote the positive
image of the country in which more than 30,000 local
and expatriate guests were registered to take part,
has been postponed for some other time. Traffic
congestion and superimposition of other activities
at Mescal Square on that day were the reasons given
for the programme alterations. Many people are not
convinced as they find the decision begging for
questions.
The music show is also shifted to the Bole Airport
area to be held against payment of a sum of money
expressed in four digits. That, of course, is a good
enough reason to keep the majority of music fans at
bay. But that does not seem to deter musicians or
singers alike.
There is one good piece I like best. The lyrics talk
about the countdown. The beats are invigorating.
There are other new songs that are just noises and
jingling. The lyrics have little or nothing to do
with the celebrations of the Millennium. Presently,
Meskal Square is left free for boys and girls
practicing football and other onlookers loitering
around, a couple of white gigantic pigeons
symbolising peace and prosperity and some
illuminations of the figure 2000 depicting the
African-Ethiopian Millennium.
Talking about the insignia of the Millennium, did I
see one of our winning athletes at Osaka carrying
the placard in reverse? I could discern nothing from
the blank board. Look back at the film if you want
to disprove me.
Well wishers and promoters of holiday sales are
hammering audaciously to the extent of boredom. It
is a pity that we are subjected to pestering
commentaries that try to relate everything with the
Millennium.
Read this one. A chairperson of a certain idir or
communal association was addressing members in an
annual meeting to present performance report.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to this annual
meeting. What makes this year's meeting different
from the previous years is that it is held on the
eve of…"Happy New Year!
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