Essence of DOPE
Posts tagged BC Radio
The Ethiopian Determined to be the Next Barack Obama
12 days
by teddyfikre
in Uncategorized
I know one day Ethiopians will realize that they are better-off being united than working apart and against each other.
by Samuel Getachew dated: Thursday, May 17th, 2012
(from Huffington Post) In a city like Washington D.C. that has a large Ethiopian American population, it is a controversial radio personality that may just make the biggest symbolic impact. Tewodros “Teddy” Fikre, a D.C.-based popular internet radio host is on the verge of announcing a run for the U.S. Congress in the eighth Congressional District in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The idea of even making such a bold attempt places the young and ambitious entrepreneur in the historical journey of Ethiopians, as he becomes the very first to try such a daring feat.
The 37 year old Ethiopian-born, Virginia-raised entrepreneur and community organizer knows the challenge he has before him; however, he takes solace in knowing the story of Barack Obama. He admires President Obama and his great political journey. Teddy knows all too well that Obama started from a place of obscurity. In his often imperfect Amharic, Teddy has been preaching—every night on his popular blog and radio show—about the virtue of being engaged in American politics to a population that is transfixed mostly with Ethiopian politics.
In the great mass of Ethiopians, estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands in the U.S., Teddy sees great potential for America’s newest immigrants, and a potential powerful voting block in the mold of (more…)
Walk that Walk
06 days
by teddyfikre
in Uncategorized
I shall focus on self and hope that others follow my lead not by my dictum but based on the examples I set forth::
by Teddy (imperfect) Fikre dated: Sunday, May 13th, 20212
Irony! Funny how we all delve and dwell in between the bed sheets of hypocrisy. Often, those who preach the most are guilty of the very same sins they seek to outcast others for. This fact is true from the inception of humanity; we are all guilty of the devil’s touch where we put on the clothe of invisibility and search out souls to burn to the core for their malfeasance even as we continue to smell like feces concurrently throwing stones at the foreheads of the endless victims. We act like Jesus at times; always seeking to sanctify others and absolve them from their sins while acting like Lucifer by never acknowledging and bearing witness to our own limitations and iniquities.
This epiphany of my own hypocrisy was rendered on my conscience this morning with a profound conversation I shared with my fraternity brother Andrew Fingall. Andrew and I have war stories from George Mason University when we were both undergraduate “Ques”. We traveled to many states and shared almost as many fables as David Jonathan—we are bonded for life and we are true friends to the core. When my heart was broken, it was Andrew I turned for wisdom and counsel. In my moments of weakness, Andrew lifted me up not by judging me or by telling me how to walk that walk. Rather, Andrew just stood in place of my misery and gave me a bible as he outlined the verse and chapter for me to read. To this day, I hold dear and near that Bible he gave me as a remembrance of my most tender moments and a memory of a friend who gave me an embrace of (more…)
No Home
27 days
by teddyfikre
in Uncategorized
You returned Dorothy and Toto and hundreds of other Ethiopian singers from Bole in 974 to Addis Kansas in 2012::
by Teddy (Nahom’s Favourite) Fikre dated: Saturday, May 12th, 2012
Imagine Dorothy and Toto swept up in a tornado and transported to Addis Ababa magically back to 1974. This is a chronicle of a journey that includes no sound tracks and no Ethiopian musika where the only wicked witch of the east—besides Menginstu Hailemariam—were shady promoters and bar owners who took advantage of our musical gems. You might as well read these words not in HD multidimensional color but in staid black and white grainy tubes. This is a time where Ethiopia was going through a musical transformation with singers like Tilahun Gessesse, Mahmoud Ahmed, Kuku Sebsebe, Muluken Melesse and many more echoing their music of desta even though all Ethiopians were trapped in a cycle of misfortune at the hands of the Derg.
This is not a work of fiction like the Wizard of Oz, what I described above really took place. When Ethiopians had nothing else—when we felt most oppressed—we have always turned to music as our home and as a remembrance and an embrace of Tizita and Desta. Alas, this is not a happy go lucky article—at least for the time being—this is an article of how singers who gave us a home built on Desta and Tizita were left with no homes of their own. Singer for a long time used to sing for chump change in restaurants and local bars in Addis where the owners literally gave them almost a living wage and the concept of licensing music and ownership rights were about as common iPhones in Addis in 1974—both did not exist.
Without true ownership of content and their music, musicians were nothing more than indentured servants—living pay check to pay check even as others profited mightily on nightly basis. This is akin to someone else owning www.browncondor.com and paying me a penny for each article while others reaped a windfall from my God given talent and my writing abilities. This, in essence, is precisely what was going on in Ethiopia back in the 70s when I was still living in Addis. I remember driving around Bole with my car and listening to Kuku Sebsebe’s pink tape and singing along to every word imagining that Kuku must have been a billionaire since almost everyone else in Addis owned that same pink tape. It’s only now in retrospect that I realized that Kuku was not a millionaire, while she probably made millions for others and eventually was treated like royalty—the ones who made the millions resides in the shadows and raked in the birrs while (more…)
Badme for Assab
08 days
by teddyfikre
in Uncategorized
We are at the precipice of death—we stand at the gates of infernal hell—simply because we refuse to cooperate and believe in compromise::
by Teddy Fikre dated: Friday, May 11th, 2012
Here I go again about to make a rational offer between Ethiopians and Eritreans. I am about to extend a hand of a friendship and make an offer where both sides win and both sides save face—in the process ensure that a needless war does not break out where thousands of lives are not lost needlessly. I am about to make a broad offer where not only would both sides save face and lives but where both sides prosper as they enter into an agreement where both would reap an economic windfall. In other words, I am about to offer a solution that involves compromise.
What? Why are you laughing? Yes, I said compromise eko! Ere, why oh why are you chuckling? Jesus, man my friend Mimi was right, the word “compromise” does not exist in the Habesha lexicon. This article is pretty much going to be as useful as the paper it is written on—this might as well be a counterfeit chronicle. Alas, I shall push forward and offer the compromise nonetheless in hopes that a few people would see the folly of winning at all cost and see the value of compromise. They say that politics is the art of compromise; in Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Africa as a whole, compromise is the art of genocide. Given this fact, I shall make a concession that offers both sides losing and both sides winning and see where the dirkosh falls.
So here is my offer. Ethiopia gives Badme back to Eritrea and in return Eritrea gives back Assab to Ethiopia. Oh lord; here goes the angry ranting of the lynch mob! Ethiopians all over Starbucks are at this present moment spitting up the “Yigerachief” buna as they call me “banda” while Eritreans are calling me a neo-colonial Woyane as they sip their bun. They do this reflexively because to them giving up an inch is akin to betraying their motherland and selling out their soul. Never mind that both Ethiopia and Eritrea are suffering innumerable misfortunes while they spend ungodly amounts on “national defense”. Did you know that Ethiopia spends (more…)
POST-It
09 days
by teddyfikre
in Uncategorized
It is my hope that this idea sticks to you forever, read Sheba Post next time and on a daily basis instead of reading the Washington Post::
by Teddy (never yellow) Fikre dated: Thursday, May 10th, 2012
The audacity of some people! It amazes me how many things we take for granted, some of the most mundane things were invented by folk simply applying common sense to a common object. Take for example Post-it sticky pads. All of us know what Post-it pads are, they are the ubiquitous sticky pads that are a nuisance until we need something to jot down a quick idea or need a place holder for our notepads. It is in those moments of need that we turn quickly to a Post-It pad to scribble a notion or to hold over our place. As much as we complain about Post-It pads and the way they has invaded our lives—when the moment comes we all use it without a second thought.
This history of Post-It pads is absolutely amazing. In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M in the United States, developed a “low-tack”, reusable, pressure-sensitive adhesive. For five years, Silver promoted his invention within 3M, both informally and through seminars, but without much success. In 1974, a colleague of his, Art Fry, who had attended one of Silver’s seminars, came up with the idea of using the adhesive to anchor his bookmark in his hymnbook. Fry then developed the idea by taking advantage of 3M’s officially sanctioned “permitted bootlegging” policy. 3M launched the product in stores in 1977 in four cities under the name “Press ‘n Peel”, but its results were disappointing. A year later, in 1978, 3M issued free samples to residents of Boise, Idaho, and 95 percent of the people who tried them said that they would buy the product. On April 6, 1980, the product debuted in US stores as “Post-It Notes”. In 1981, Post-its were (more…)