Contagious frenzy
In the movie “men in black” Tommy Lee Jones’s character states that a “person is smart; but People are dumb, panicky and stupid”.
How true! remember a time (in Addis) when people were convinced the almighty has deemed it necessary to leave a single strand of eyelash hair in all the Amharic Bibles? It was to be found between the books of St. Mathew and St. Mark, THIS it was rumored was a test of devotion. It would only appear to devout christians .Others who were not holy enough to find it were advised to start the “tsom ina tselot” right away, or prepare for eternal fire by moving to Aseb where it is a 110 degrees year round. (Aseb was part of Ethiopia then). YA, LAUGH NOW ……….BUT YOU KNOW YOU TRIED YOUR DAMNDEST TO FIND IT!
How about the time when some “FOGGARI” started a rumor about a house belonging to the German consulate (on bole road). This “FOGGARI”, alleged that the house was a popular hangout place for Lucifer and his cohorts. Their hobbies included sacrificing children, burning the bible and chanting in their (evil) language (SIEG HEIL!...sooo sorry). Anyways, within days this rumor spread through out Addis like wild fire. Mr. Funfoughtflouter (we took some liberty with the name) who was the unfortunate owner of the house and his terrified wife, were chase away by an indignant and infuriated mob. Priests armed with holy water and crosses were present in the crowd, ready to attack in the event the devil dared reveal his nasty self.
(Sen.Joseph McCarthy a name synonymous with mass hysteria)
Why bring up all this you ask?
The pressure for CUD executives to take an IMMEDIATE ACTION regarding PM Meles’s refusal to accept most of their demands seems to be gathering MOMENTUM….YUP the same kind of panicky mass momentum we talked about earlier……… Rumors are starting to circulate…..YEEHEY SEWYE SHETON LITTEFA NEEW HASABU!…….YA SEWIYEKO DIROM YENESU CADRE NEBER!…..AYIREBAM! ALALKUSHIM, DIRRO NEW YALKUT AYREBAM YIHE SEWIYE….. …etc…
It is obvious this has started to affect the organization. Seems like NOW every day some CUD official, worried about loosing public support, is defending CUD’s silence on any media outlet available. This has become such a nuisance to them that yesterday the main dude himself… EL presidente!… (Engineer Hailu).. had to come to the rescue.
So, …Our humble advice
To the…..
PUBLIC- - know that you are dumb…. (We mean that in a good way)
PERSON – these are hard times with very hard questions……to come up with a good solution, time is needed.
CUD - Chill baby……..take your time……………we got your back!