Yesterday’s AA 20 Comments

Yes, we are developing our new site and I have been working on it on and off for about 3 months. It’s one of those things I have started working on a few times but somehow things fall apart as with any large web development project with a very small budget and time (mostly the bernos team’s). The new bernos™ site  is near a real e-commerce application on par with the large retailers and not just an open source content management system that is hastily installed.

Yesterday, as I was working on the product page and with all the things that we are going to leverage with the launch of the new site, including new bernos™ tees, bernos™ kids and as well as the many features of our application, I was thinking we should definitely educate people on the quality of the American Apparel tees.  I was thinking maybe some kind of logo badge….proudly printed on American Apparel t-shirts.

Everything about American Apparel has inspired me in many ways. The way they market their products unapologetically or their political stances on immigration like in the Legalize LA campaign (wiki), as well as their socially conscious position on manufacturing. They have the highest earning workers in the apparel industry, all the while the competition way is paying 50 cents an hour they were paying 24 times that at 12$ an hour. Continue reading ‘Yesterday’s AA’

Published by Nolawi August 18th, 2010 in African, Bernos, Shameless Plug and Thoughts.
Flashing Lights 23 Comments

I’m standing at the bar sipping my drink and chatting up with a couple of people.  My peripheral vision is disturbed and my curiosity takes over as I turn my head to focus on the disturbance.

Flashing light!

My first thought is ‘what da #$@$!’.  As I realize what just had happened, my confusion changes to irritation and then anger.

I threw my drink down my throat and started to follow.  He moves elegantly and professionally through the crowd.  He is completely inconspicuous and acts like part of the façade, the reprinted art hanging on the wall, the cheesy wall paper…  He is part of the ambiance and this is the reason of his success- un-noticeable but effective, in his natural realm and hard at work.  A fregging predator!

He pauses to shoot once more.  I reach him as he aims.  I wait until he has made the shot.

Flashing light!

I gently grab his elbows.  Firmly!  He turns smiling and expecting a familiar face.  His smile is still, although he realizes that the face is unfamiliar.  He is a professional. Continue reading ‘Flashing Lights’

Published by Tola August 13th, 2010 in Current Issues, Social and Thoughts.
unfathomable 53 Comments

Location: In front of 4 kilo AAU, café X, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Time: 9:30 PM

It was a random Thursday night. Gorgeous Addis Ababa evening weather. I can still feel the fresh breath of air on my face, my arms. I was a freshman at the University and I could not get enough of the newly acquired freedom. And I abused it profusely. I do not know how I made it through the first semester. I went out in that semester more than I can ever account for in the coming 10 years of my life.

This particular evening, my friends were supposed to pick me up at 9: 30, we were going out to one of the clubs, after having some macchiato at one of the café on bole road. We were supposed to go to 6 kilo campus to spend the night afterwards as the security was more lenient and we could use one of the windows to get into the dorm. We have done it plenty of times.

But this time around, my friends were late….I looked at my watch impatiently, and I said to Girma, “Beka ayemetum malete newe” (I guess they are not coming). Even though the club scene was not new to me I was disappointed. Girma is one of the guys that I have known since day one of my campus life. He hangs out at the café in front of 4 kilo every single evening. Continue reading ‘unfathomable’

Published by Totit August 9th, 2010 in African and Personal.
Metaged vs. Metadeg 26 Comments

Browsing through Ethiopian pictures on Flickr, I came across the one above. I glanced at the comments section and there was a guy complaining that the ad was senseless, among other things. So I took a second look  and it really was terrible, terrible sentence.

For starters, why is the word tigist in quotes? Do they mean patience or not? If the quotes have to be on anything at all, it should be on “second” … since technically that’s not an Amharic word. But what else should they use if they mean 1/60th of a minute? LOL. Well, I believe the Amharic word for second is sEkond. Ok, ok … maybe i’m nitpicking here!

The worst offender is really the last word : ‘lemetadeg‘. Correct me if I’m wrong but for one thing, it’s not a word. At least not in Amharic. If they’re trying to say ‘to prevent the loss of life and property…’, the word they’re looking for is a variation of maged. For this case, they should say lemaged.

“ye ‘second’ tgist hiywotna nibreting ketrafic adega lemaged”

Many people mess up ‘maged‘ and say, ‘metaged‘, which is really nonsense. But the ad didn’t even use lemetaged. They flipped some consonants (or entire feedeloch in Amharic) and ended up with lemetadeg. At best, the made up word at the end of the ad is a screwed up version of lemadeg.

In other words, with faulty grammar, the ad kinda says,

‘A second’s patience, to grow the loss of life and property …’

No f*%king kidding, Shell! A bit Hama Tuma-esque.

This is from 2006. In 2010, it would of course be more appropriate for BP to sponsor this ad instead.

“ye ‘second’ tgist hiywotna nibretin ke ma’idin mawCHa adega lemetadeg”

I also just realized that I really don’t know how to say ‘mining’or ‘drilling’ in Amharic. Mts.

Published by ityopyawit August 2nd, 2010 in African and Social.
mobile we come 10 Comments

Report shows that Africa has 12% of the new cell phone subscribers in the world, tallying 20 million more cell phone users in first Quarter of 2010.

What’s actually more fascinating to me is that they’re saying that the continent now has close to 50% penetration; meaning that there’s a lot of growth left to be had as equates to the rest of the planet. Continue reading ‘mobile we come’

Published by Nolawi July 22nd, 2010 in African, Current Issues and Social.
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