I thought this was an interesting post on hair stuff. Source

Come Christmas, I feel my adrenaline rush when I see flaring poinsettias lining the window sills, boughs of holly adorning office desks, the lights brightening dreary winter, the red gloves and scarves, the snow splattered cars crowding area malls, the foggy sky or rather the smoggy sky, the colorful sugar cookies, candy canes loosely clinging on Christmas trees, frosty, Rudolf, Santa and Ginger bread man, the carols blasting everywhere you go, evident  bad hair days, the snow stricken pale faces, the salvation army bell, the red and green everywhere, the beeping of snow cleaning  trucks, tacky inflatables cluttering front lawns, the traffic, the long lines in store register, the countless credit cards being swiped, worrisome scrooges loosening up their pockets, the kids excitement about what they will get………..

On that silent night and holy night I calmly wish to hear that distant heavenly chant of the holy liturgy .Instead of pine and cinnamon, I long to smell ketema, semhal and ariti. On that blessed morning, I want to see the blended smoke of inscence and roasting bunna rising in unison. I crave to eat my mothers dorowat with ayib and hmbasha. I, more than anything want to hear the endless chattering of my mom and sisters. And before they partake, I want to serve my father and uncles a wash basin for their hand. I hope to ponder the divine story behind it all instead of contemplating where to hide my kids’ gifts. I yearn to accept the Godly gifts I have instead of contemplating the earthly things I will get .Where do I even start…..

My kids excitement and the knowledge that this is indeed THEIR Christmas and ‘all the glitter’ rehabilitate me from my nostalgia that forever begs not to be disturbed .American Christmas is like walking into the garden of Eden serenely anticipating to see the prophecy fulfilled .It is decorated delightfully, it is neutral and all inclusive .In spite of my internal conflict, I think I am learning to like this white Christmas.

Although slowly, we here at bernos have been made some progress over the summer. We have been sending our products to retailers in various parts of the world.

I remember when we first sent some bernos™ tees to a store in US Virgin Islands about 18 months ago.

One of these stores is Agnes & Lola anAfrican Boutique based in London; which launched this past summer.  It was nice to see Lola Remi and Agnes & Lola featured on CNN this past weekend.

Please read the article and share it via your social networks; because like Lola said:

It’s not just about building ourselves but about promoting Africa in a positive way.”
—Lola Remi, founder of Agnes & Lola

We are extending the Free Shipping week from Last week through Thanksgiving.

Image Source

I know such a serious title to this post. I usually title my posts after I finish writing them.  This is one of those things I somewhat think about but never read anywhere.

I remember Karl Lagerfeld the Chanel Fashion designer wrote a book around five years ago about his diets.  I heard it was his doctor that actually wrote it or something to that extent — half and half of sorts.

Regardless he lost some 92 pounds in about a year.  After wiki-ing it looks like it was an extreme diet that required about 1000 calorie intake a day or so.

He was over 70 when he started his diet.  He is one of the most iconic fashion designers of the last 40 years.  But it was still interesting that a man of his age would go to such extreme to look good. I am not saying he is almost dead but you know what I mean.  It just doesn’t seem like a health issue as opposed to a social issue.

But I have noticed that the cultural trend is more the body shape than the shape of the nose now as opposed to the past.  I think the post nineties trend is the marathon and protein shake than the facelift.  The percentage of porn in the MILF category is closer to the TEEN category than it ever has been. I made that part up, but I think it’s true.

I don’t want to quote the clichéd idiom about beauty but it’s a fad. Cindy Crawford’s mole is not the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but I think  that was accurate when I was 13 years old.

Apparently a firm body is more important and more fashionable than the color of your eyes and the shape of your symmetrical face.

And yes I have joined a gym and am working out regularly.  At least till this fad passes by, 30 years from now.

The only good thing is that beauty is not a pie that exclusive to Hollywood and the marketing department of Coco-Chanel; it is not exclusive.  Thanks to factions like Black Consciousness Movement or similar empowerment slogans like black is beautiful or black power or hip hop songs — with lyrics  like the ‘dopest Ethiopian’ everyone and especially black people are defining their own definition of what beauty is.

There are many crazes that keep me blissful or the better phrase ‘keep me content.’ Sometimes I go home on a Friday night after picking up a Thai dish or the perfect cheese steak sandwich from the place 2 miles south of where I live.

I fix up the coffee table with my soda, a cup of coffee and some cookies for desert. I tune the TV to stream a foreign film could be anything and enjoy the evening unwinding. If my phone doesn’t ring, I am happier. If I have some project to finish during the weekend, it’s on my mind. But then there are those weekends I could just sit back and relax.

I have never been able to explain this to my friends. Especially significant others, I need to be left alone every once in a while to reboot by short attention span.

I love spending time with my friends; I have about a dozen or so different people I hang out with on occasion. Different crews for different things. Sometime I organize outings.

I would send out an email and ask people to join me for a certain excursion. The people that meet on these occasions are ones that may have never met prior. We have fun; we keep it short and sweet

On the same token my friends also invite me to certain events or outings of sorts. I rarely join them but I do on occasion and it’s usually fun. I tend to leave earlier that everyone, unless I am the one that organized it.

I prefer the planned events compared to the casual meet-ups. Some people just text, I am over here having beer; if you want you can join us on Charles St.

I don’t just show up at a random gathering without knowing who is gathering. I thing being exclusive with your encounters socially doesn’t necessarily equate one as unsociable personality.

I believe I am social but not one of those people that go to a cocktail party and makes elevator talk with random people for no reason other than to seem like I am having fun.

Furthermore, I think it’s not proper etiquette to force someone to socialize with people that don’t necessarily have somewhat similar interests; much like forcing someone to go clubbing when they don’t like clubbing.

But people take it personally, when someone refusing to do certain things. I have never been able to understand that. Some people find me annoyingly blunt, and that’s ok for them to feel that way.

Basically, we should  only do what we want with people of our choosing.  Significant others or friends shouldn’t require people in their lives to be involved in with other people in their lives with different interests.

I was just browsing the web, reading the reviews of customers who bought a certain products on Amazon; scanning to see if a book is popular or lame.

I found that half the people think that the author is a pretentious bastard who can’t write for shit and then other half either thought the book was a page turner interesting even if the author’s writing style was amateurish or that the book is funny and well written in a straight unpretentious manner.

Interestingly enough I started write posts for bernos in one sitting or in two.  Sometimes I start and save the file and come back to it another time, in most cases the next day or 2 days after.

In this case however, as you may have realized I have disappeared for a while. A while enough that I wrote the first two paragraphs of this post over a month ago; beginning of August or so. Since then I have not only finished the book I was review the reviews of, but also finished reading or listening to audio book of two additional books.

The point I wanted to make at the time was, if I remember correctly that I wished people generally agreed more about everything. The fact is that people who read or see or enjoy a certain product see it from a different perspective. The best party could be the worst party ever depending on who hooked up that night.

The only consensus comes only after an over abundant set of reviews for whatever it is we are reviewing. I love reviews; when there are enough or better yet more than enough of them.

Some films on rotten tomatoes have 3 reviews and all 3 might say that the film is not rotten stupid. And this is not enough. You need 200 or so reviews before there is consensus.

The average of a small amount of people is not consensus. So my gut feeling is more of what I need to judge.

A few months ago, everyone that I talk to including family and friends suggested I do something. Althought I disagreed with the concept, everyone thought it was a good idea. Not even one single person agreed with my perspective of the situation.

It wasn’t a matter of life and death nor was it an extra ordinary venture but it was significant enough that I had to evaluate all aspects of the situation before I made a decision. My decision although was mine to make, but affected others, and thus had to carefully weight their thoughts.

It’s still early to judge the outcome fully but its looking more like I was right and they were all wrong.  All of them!

The point, consensus only comes after the number of feedback reaches an abundance of a minimum set.

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.

“Selam”, he nods at me.  “Tadias nefese”, I respond as continue to be pushed to-and-fro by the gyrating crowd in the constant move.

I say, “Nefse, foto’yen iko satey teyekengn anesah”.  He switches to English.  “Yeah man, we are documenting our parties so that we can post the pictures on-line.  You wanna see your picture…I can take it again” he says, eying the missing button from my shirt and fidgeting with his Cannon to pull the picture of me he has just ‘documented’.  I am mad now.  I am trying hard to keep myself stoic and rational but still, I want to strangle his scrawny neck.

I inform him “dude, I don’t want my picture taken without being told that my picture is being taken.  Please delete my picture.  I don’t want my face plastered all over the internet….”—you know how the rest goes…

This is one of the few things that really get under my skin- rouge paparazzi wannabe’s (HEREAFTER known as PZ) snapping pictures of sober and not so-sober patrons trying to have a good time.  Next thing you know, your mom is calling asking when you started smoking having heard of your now public profile from Mimi’s mother, who used to be in the same equb.   (Side note: Mimi and I had a one night stand and one of us had decided to keep it at just that while the other may have had other ambitions- or at least, that’s the only reason I could think of for the change in attitude—but that’s another story.)

While I understand that there are no laws protecting unsuspecting patrons from their picture being taken by the  PZ’s, I am with the opinion that it is only common courtesy to let drunks be drunks and let  people enjoy themselves without being harassed by random flashing lights.   I would hate to see my picture on Flicker or the habesha related websites, which I will not mention here.

Especially today in the era of cloud computing where you have no idea where Google or Bank of America is storing your personal info, who’s  to say who can get to this info or how it may be used?  I admit it does sound paranoid, but I rather be safe and have no pictures of my smoking and drunk self posed on line.  That way, there is nothing to be worried about, or no skeletons in the closet to ‘admit to’ when I run for a Senate seat in 2050 – you know what I mean.

Basic etiquette, some argue is relative.  I argue the total opposite.   I will further argue that taking people’s pictures in places of entertainment without advising them beforehand does not adhere to idea of basic etiquette.  It, however, goes perfectly with the idea of Capitalism, where the goal is to make as much money as possible.  Why else would someone hire a PZ to ‘document’ his/her patrons?

Would it not to show off on some website what kind of crowd his/her party’s attract, the number of people, the length of the skirts and the depth of the cleavages?  So that when Asheber in Iowa looks at the website, he will immediately reroute his ticket to D.C for his Christmas break.  For many, this may be OK, but I, for one will b$%#@ slap the next PZ that tries to ‘document’ my charming smile!

MR/MS PZ, You have been warned!

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.

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.

I don’t know much about the internet phone usage but I did hear that South Africa has a service similar to 3G of AT&T.

Also smart phones are cheaper in Africa! Or so I’ve heard!

I am always confused when someone say mobile instead of cell phone. Read this interesting article about how phones end up in Africa.

... In any cluster of mobile phone shops you find someone who offers repair services. … People then come asking if other things can be fixed, and over time there’s an increased awareness of how to fix different models.”

This guys if weird, I mean really weird and whenI saw this video I couldn’t stop laughing. I could see how this could happen.

Regardless though, I was surprised this morning when I got an email this morning claiming that “… this sums of most of your articles on Bernos.”

Which is even more funnier than the idiot on the video. I really hope you guys don’t see me or parts of my opinions that I have shared through the past few years remotely similar to this guy.

Let me know

I recently went into Sachs Fifth Avenue after work because I needed these very specific shoes, and lo and behold, I found a pair  that was reasonably priced. In Sachs Fifth Ave, I generally expect everything to be $500+, and my pair was, after a ‘sale’, around $100. So I bought it.

Keza, tedesasetkuna … I went purse shopping. I saw this beautiful purse for $300,. At first I passed it because … seriously, I wasn’t about to spend that much on a purse. Keza I happened to pass by that area again and I thought, ‘What the hell! I work hard. I can afford it. Why not?’ So picked it up, walked over to the counter and surrendered my to-be purse and card.

As the woman was processing the payment I kept thinking to myself, ‘ok , min aynet qebeT honeshal. balegae lij. Spending 300 bucks  is ok, even for enjoyment, but 300 bucks for a purse? One that’ll be used 3 times a year? balegae, molqaqa, balegae, molqaqa …‘ iyalku irasen siqoTa, the lady leaned over the counter and whispered, ‘your card has been declined’.

I was looking at her like she’s crazy, because technically that was my debit card, which also has a credit line, and even the cash balance on it was many folds the price of that overpriced purse. I asked, if she was sure. She gently and quietly whispered back, ‘i tried it multiple times’. She looked so sympathetic and embarrassed for me.

Saqe meTa. I figured there must be a God, and he must be intervening. I grabbed my card back with a broad smile and bolted.

So then I called my bank to ask WTF. The customer rep said, ‘yeah, we put a hold on your card because we noticed a purchasing trend that was very different from your regular shopping habits’. LOL.

Apparently my shopping trend says shopping at Sachs Fifth Ave and/or $100 dress shoe is a lil’ too much for my qonTari style.

Temesgen, consumer-tendes-analizing-algorithm hoy. Temesgen!

I read top ten lists all the time mostly about technology; or sometime designs or photography. I have read many random facts of African countries although it seems like most of the ones white people write are generic.

Like (in my California blond voice) ‘Africa has 54 countries. I thought it was a country in itself. ‘ Yes and Africans are 1/6 of the world population and we have over two thousand languages and dialects which comprise 25% of the world languages.

So yes, this list I compiled over 3 ½ weeks. My list is the most interesting and most unknown. Some wow factors, I will now stop tooting my horn and let you be the judge in no particular order:

1. Arabic in different dialect is the most spoken language in African with over 175 million speakers (estimated). Not only is it the most used language but it influenced many other language in Africa.
2. Sudan has twice as many Pyramids than Egypt. source
3. There are more physical variations than on any other continent among the native populations of Africa. source
4. At one time, prior to colonization (scramble of Africa) Africa had more than 10,000 different states. There are only 54 countries now. source
5. 93 % of Equatorial Guinea’s labor force is comprised of Men. I could not find the average proportion of male to female work force in Africa but the number is estimated to be around 75%.
6. Shells were once used as currency in Africa as recently as in the 19th Century. source
7. Cricket is the second most popular sport in Africa. The west influenced Africa too.
8. Africa is the only continent to have a large percentage of its population transported for slave labor. Estimate that approximately 8–12 million slaves were transferred from between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The number might seem minute but Africa population before the 19th century was never over 120 million. 8% to 10% of African was slaves at one time. source
9. The Nile is the longest river in the world. Most people thing it’s the Amazon.
10. The largest Desert in the world, the Sahara is growing by about ½ a mile a month. Looking for confirmation for this one.

Can’t imagine being  estranged from their own parents for 27 years, but Sandra Laing, a “black” South African woman experienced that during the apartheid era. Born to White parents, she was born with “African features” which caused much controversy & eventually forced her to claim the race that the South African government classified her as – Colored.

A while back someone wrote about the  effects of skin color on bernos, and I wrote about beauty. When I think about skin colors, I think of house Negros from the field Negros. House Negros intermingled with the white bosses and even had children with them and through generations they became lighter than their brothers and sisters in the field.

Regardless though, the blood of a black person automatically classifies one as black. Refer to Obama for this one. He is Black; no one even talks about him being half white, not predominately anyways.

This is one of those stories, a true one at that, we can learn from and understand why, even as Africans, it’s engrained within us to view lighter skinned people as superior that those of that are darker.

When it comes to Ethiopian/Habesha mainstream musicians I’m always skeptical about the talent, or lack thereof.  Yes, you can call me a harsh critic.  I have my circle of friends to thank for that and who were nice enough to groom me into the music lover I am today.

Betty was introduced to you, the general public, by us through a photo shoot we did for the “Roots” tshirt.  At that time, we were not aware of her musical aspirations.  Fast forward a couple of years later, she’s been involved in several projects that have showcased her talent and her ability to be diverse.

Her bio states “It’s impossible to place B-Sheba in one particular category or mold. Her compositions encompass various genres and often blend several different styles.” She was involved in a group called Kaffa Beanz &  featured in a score  for the movie “Toe 2 Toe” . She is now working on her solo album “Hello World” and working on putting a group together with APthePrince called “TheeInCrowd (T.I.C)”. Does she ever sleep? I don’t think so.

I admire individuals who pursue their passion and focus on perfecting their craft. In addition to that, being a female in this industry is not an easy thing.  There aren’t a lot of females industry who are up to par, or some haven’t been given a chance at all. Bsheba is a lyricisist and will take you on a journey.If you’ve never seen her live, you will not want to miss her performance.

Bsheba will open for Meklit Hadero at our 4th year anniversary event on Sat May 29th, 2010.

For more information about the event and to purchase advance tickets, please click here.

Well, I wanted to say something about this for a while now, I sense I might have hinted the way I feel about the topic here and there but I wanted to tell guys what I see. But as easily as I express myself I didn’t know how to flow the words to say this without sounding like victim myself.

I for one, am prone not to be a victim per say, not because I am smarter than most but because I lack the patience of the norm.

Based on real experiences with ‘lets call them acquaintances’’ but in reality they are less than that, they are people I have seen or had very few conversations with.

There is Carrie, who is a friend, a platonic one at that. She asked me to hang out with her and her friends who I will call Deidra.  Deidra gets dropped off by Jimmy in a nice BMW in front of the ‘outside table of the restaurant,’ I was sitting with Carrie.

I have known both these girls casually for a while and I could talk to them freely. I mentioned the car, and she became defensive and said

he’s not my Boy Friend!”

So we discussed it the rest of the evening. Jimmy started hanging out with Deidra casually. Then it became more consistent, she knew he was interested in her but he didn’t make a move. She was not feeling the same way, but she enjoyed his attention and company as friends.

He didn’t make it clear he wanted more than friendship thus she continued to see him. When he finally had the courage to make his motives clear, she told him honestly that she was not interested in more than friendship at this time.

Thus it was left at that but they continued to hang out, since she was single. I told her it’s wrong for her to mislead him to which she reiterated her honesty.  It was left at that.

Half a year or so later, I ran into Carrie, Deidra and Jimmy among others at a gathering of sorts. I was introduced to Jimmy, and we all hanged out. It was not clear if at first that Deidra had a change of heart and gave him a chance but as the night went on things became clearer. Jimmy is still looking for more while Deidra is looking elsewhere.

I wanted to slap him, scream or something! Dude WTF are you doing? Get a back bone, run, say something just don’t sit here and watch her flirt with anyone but yourself. It was unbearable to watch.

I didn’t say anything; it was neither my place nor my business.

A few months pass and my friendship with Carrie although not strong, persevered. I heard about Deidra and her new real boy friend, one she could publicly acknowledge.

I once was asked to help both of them out because they encountered an emergency while driving to the airport near my place. I arrived to find Carrie and Deidra outside Deidra’s car with luggage rushing to catch their flight. Jimmy and his bimmer arrived shortly thereafter. It had already been decided; I would drive them to the airport while Jimmy would figure out a way to get her car towed to her apartment or a mechanic.

While we were driving I asked why Jimmy was called instead of the boyfriend, I couldn’t help but not say anything in this situation. Deidra said that the BF said he couldn’t.

I thought if it was me, and realized that it would never happen to me. It had happened to me once when I was younger and naïve but it was much shorter period of time, like 2 weeks! My experiences has thought me if a female is interested she is interested otherwise there is nothing you or anyone can do to make her change her mind.

It’s rare that waiting for a female to make up her mind or change her mind becomes really worth it, I thought at least in this case patience is not a virtue.

I guess I have to say it more plainly, although jimmy was and remains to be an idiot, the girl is a bitch that she is intentionally misleading him to keep her options open.

The names and plot of this story although not a fictious have been changed to protect the identity of the characters or should I say victims.

As a music lover, I’ve always been open to different genres and musicians. I always want to hear the next best thing.  Over the last few years,  I’ve been privy to a lot of new and good music.

Meklit and I have never met. We have mutual friends and have heard about each other. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that she is an amazing artist.  It wasn’t also until recently that I received her album, “On A Day Like This“  in my inbox to listen to it. One dreary Saturday afternoon, while working with Nolawi and the Blen Team,  I decided to listen to it. We were all in awe.

Usually when listening to an EP/LP, I pick out 1 or 2 of my favorite tracks. I’m pretty good at memorizing album names, lyrics and track lists. Over the years though, I’ve been very picky about what I’ll commit to memory.  Meklit’s “On A Day Like This“  has been on repeat, loop, shuffle in my iPod for the last month and half. Every single track speaks volume and will move you.

However,  her rendition of Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good” was an unexpected surprise.  As soon as I heard the washint playing in the beginning of the song, I was sold.  The way the washint is played in the intro will leave you with goose bumps. As Meklit begins singing the first verse, you can feel the power in her voice and almost as if she feels liberated.

Her album will make you feel good,  her songs will enchant you and her voice will mesmerize you.

As her bio eloquently puts it, “If Joni Mitchell were East African and met Nina Simone for tea in San Francisco’s Mission District, she might end up sounding like Meklit Hadero.” I cannot stress enough how amazing she is. She’s been featured on NPR’s “Tell Me More” (3/24), as well as several blogs.  In amazon.com pre-sales, Meklit’s album reached #9 for sales in the category of Jazz vocals, #20 in the category of broadway/vocals, and #42 for pop vocals. It reached the #1 slot for music movers and shakers.

Meklit will be on tour in the East Coast. We are pleased to announce that her first stop will be in DC for  Bernos’ 4th year Anniversary .  Please mark your calendars for:

Saturday, May 29^th @ the Warehouse Loft – 411 New York Ave NE , Wash DC.  More details to follow soon.

And she’ll be in NYC, as well – at the New Africa Live at Le Poisson Rouge on June 1st.

The Album is already out on Amazon only and will be released nationally on April 20th.

You can find Meklit on Facebook & Twitter .

Now that we finally know which countries are going to the world cup in South Africa this summer, wiki published a map and it’s really intriguing.

Looking at the map, the green for qualified; {see Large version here}nearly all of Asia except the two Koreas and Japan; as a matter of fact, even though this will be the first African World cup out of 53 countries less than 3% will qualify in the world tournament.

Nearly all of South American and most of Western Europe seems almost always guaranteed. It’s not just me saying, it but FIFA ranking system is terribly flawed.

Its seems so complicated that I think most of the soccer players do not understand how it works. You can read more about the process and the recent update here.

Now if in two years if a new team becomes fantastic but the team has never participated with another team that is deemed to have a strong competitive state then it’s weighed against them. Kind of like boxing, if you don’t get a match from the champion how are you suppose to show the world that you can possibly beat him.

I will be rooting for the below teams to win the whole enchila this year.

• Cameroon
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Nigeria
• South Africa

I remember when I attended my first ESAi summit. I remember the trouble I went through to get there and I’m pretty sure those around me then can vouch for it too. It was one of the most invigorating and unforgettable experiences of my college years.

It was the 3^rd annual Summit in Berkeley, CA.  I was excited to meet some new faces and see what they hype about these summits were about.  I may be biased, but that was my favorite summit. I then went ahead and ran for a position in ESAi and proud to say that I loved each and every moment of it.

Fast forward 7 years later, I still hold on to those memories and look how far ESAi has come. For those of you who are not familiar with what ESAi means, Ethiopian Students Association, International. For the first time, ESAi is putting living up to the “I”. All summits have been held all over the US but never have they crossed the border. It’s great to see that this year’s host are located in Canada.

I wish I could make it. The other day I asked Mike Endale whether he was going or not, he said of course.  I was sort of worried that we’d only be the “seniors” and not too many to join us, so I’d feel out of place. He also said something poignant. When we used to organize past summits , we were always looking for folks to attend and it would only be right to support their efforts.

So if you live in Toronto, or you know anyone who lives in Toronto, please make sure to support these young, energectic individuals who’ve poured their heart and soul in organizing the summit.

10^th Annual ESAi Summit
March 25th -March 28th 2010
Toronto, Canada

Following the Summit on Saturday is the Selam Visual Arts Festival. The visual exhibit ranges from photography, oil paintings, motion graphics, textile and digital art and brings together Ethiopian and Eritrean artists from across North America and Ethiopia to Toronto, Canada. This year’s artists will feature : Abye Kifle, Assegid Gessesse, Naz Mebrahtu and Kal Assefa : For more info, please Click Here. 

It still retains water from winter. Tulips are sprouting. Neighbors have started lingering around mail boxes longer than required .The Nosy one’s are updating the loners on who in the neighborhood got divorced, who had hip replacement done, whose son is graduating this summer, who is contemplating the biggest garage sale ever and the sorts.

Every year my elderly neighbor comes up to me and after a brief catch up swears that this will be his last dreadful winter in this sleepy snowy town before he moves  to Florida. Don’t we all wish…?

It seems that the grand entrance of spring motivates us to look fit. My long black winter coat with its flattering cut is neatly folded and stored in the basement. I endearingly call in “gebena shefagne.” It somewhat makes me look leaner than I am. But, alas spring comes along and reveals the true rolls I acquired during those long winter evenings. Soon people will also fulfill their duties of going bare. It is only fair .After all the trees were bare all winter long.

For me spring is largely a season of revival and awakening, a season to detoxify spiritually and physically, a season to give-up ,a season to repent, a season to regret , a season to rejoice in a newly resurrected promising future.

Somber thoughts aside, I gleefully say “welcome bright colors.” And I boldly say “bring on the bugs” because a night sky full of fire flies is worth all the sharp mosquito bites I will suffer .I take it my blood is the sweetest around .Wow …. Nature, warm and accessible simply makes me happy.

Ethiopia from olivia wyatt on Vimeo.

Filmmaker Olivia Wyatt went to Ethiopia to document the music of 13 different tribes for her a film on tribal Music on Ethiopia.

Along with the film, she took some Polaroid’s of her experiences with the locals. The shots somehow found my inbox via two sources. See more on pages 46-54!

I thought they were very worthy of note, and well fairly re-emphasizes my claim about photography that the camera doesn’t matter.

More searching online, I found the below quote story,

One night I took a mini-bus 12 hours north of Addis to witness a Zar spirit possession on a hyena-invested mountain. We left at 3 a.m. from Addis Ababa. On my bus there was a Muslim woman, a catholic priest, a six-year-old boy, and other adults. I fell asleep, but awoke at 4:30 am to p

olice men with guns at my window. Directly behind them, a mini-bus was completely turned over and the police were angry that we were traveling illegally at night, so they took us all to a tiny jail in the mountains and we were told we had to stay there until sunrise.

Everyone was staring at me; they would look in my direction and whisper and laugh, or some just stared, even the police. I decided to just go and talk to the police. I asked them questions about their life and told them what New York might be like at 4 a.m. and the next thing I know, they let us go. The entire bus was chanting “forenji, forenji, forenji!” [foreigner]. Source!

Indeed Forenji! The only thing is that she thinks Forenji means foreigner, it does and it doesn’t the origin is actually not foreigner but French and its used to describe white people not all foreigners. I think!

But what a story , and what great photos!

Daym, is what I was thinking when I saw the above chart, the growth rate of twitter is unheard of in the world of web. Twitter is now processing 50 million Tweets a day, which comes to about 1.5 billion Tweets a month.

By Comparison, Facebook which has more users and the number two website in the world grew so much slower.

I went back to read an article I wrote about a year ago. I was such a pessimist, how many friendships and relationships were broken up by it, but in reality how has it helped all of us keep in touch with friends, family and help up network a bit more, both professionally and personally.

I am going to look at twitter more positively because it suits me, or at-least my view of how everyone should be. Opinions, in 40 letters or less.

This way it helps us Africans who are so frightened of expressing our feelings publicly. Twitter will be therapy for African.

I know it sounds ridiculous but think about it, practice makes perfect!

Bernos though is not doing so well on Twitter, compared to Facebook, we have 250 followers to 5000 Fans.

I was discussing with Beshou, who is much less adverse to the social media technologies, and I asked her how to improve and she gave me some marketing methodologies. Well, and the method although might work were not organic, meaning people that are not inclined to follow us because they want to know about us does not necessarily help us.

Its like mass email that is unsolicited. Those that do not opt in to receive it just ignore it, so its pointless. And so when you market, leads are not generated by quantity rather by the quality. ie extreme niche targeting!

Oluchi Onweagba, that is her name — she is no Alek Wek, I have always love Alek because of her skin color, but there is a whole girlish look to her. I know most of you guys will disagree, but we all can agree that she changed the way being black is looked at, at least commercially more so than the top black models of the 90′s.

I first saw Oluchi’s picture on a Gianfranco Ferré ad on some magazine, years ago and I looked her up because I was fascinated by her looks.

I have always been interested in the color of skin, at least for people African decent. I know for some we are all black, & yes I agree but there are a lot of different types of black people.

For most westerners, Kojo Nnamdi from Guyana is the same as Yaphet Kotto, who is from Cameroon. And yes at some point in history we were the same but we are not anymore; there are a lot of diverse types of black people with distinctive cultures and unique histories.

As a consequence our looks differ, and each culture appreciates beauty in divergent customs. But bias play a role in how  mainstream society views beauty and the proof is in the pudding. According to what I read at some point on Forbes; Liya Kebede is the only black model with earnings in the top 15, the rest are all white.

CBS, or Tyra approved for the use of the Americas Next Top Model brand for West Africa; I think somewhere West Africas Next top model is on air, featuring women from 16 countries in West Africa.

My point is to bust the idea that lighter skin is not necessarily better than darker skin.

Something that is fully developed; at least that is the definition according to Merriam & Webster.

When I pick fruits at the neighborhood grocery, I look for the once that are not fully developed but close to it because I want to take a bite when it’s ripe. The danger is that it could get too ripe to be edible.

I have often wondered what the age of a fully ripe human is; I am thinking that it applies to everything. Obviously the perfectly ripe age for humans is longer that for dogs and shorter than for turtles.

Lets assume 25 to 40 is the prime age for humans…

More and more there is prevalence in society at least for females that older is better physically & mentally than the previous decades. Words like Cougar and MILF are thrown around and I find myself finding the women in the TV shows like Desperate Housewives & Cougars sexier than Hugh Heffner’s 8 wives or so in the Girls Next Door.

I read recently that MILF porn is gaining more popularity that it’s considered a fetish no more; its mainstream. Don’t judge me, I read it on GQ magazine.

I tend to agree, in my personal experience too. Although my experience with 35 plus women is very limited, I have wanted one for a while now. No doubt a divorced single mom is much more interesting, than a 21 year old college girl; as a matter of fact 35 year old’s are better in every area, yes including physically.

They just look more sexual, more female and comfortable. I know that a blanket statement like these are not always true and you guys hate generalizations, but at least to me these virtues apply to society somewhat, where I am around.

Obviously, there are negative things as well.  I was watching Superbowl commercial in which, they basically insulted girlfriends and wives everywhere.

I am not an idiot, I know I have to compromise when I finally start living together with a significant other. But I just can’t imagine it being this terrible for every man. And so I am wondering at what age are they the most demanding?

Wale – My Sweetie (directed by tabi Bonney) from tabi Bonney on Vimeo.

2009 was a great year for us; we experienced a lot unexpected positive outcomes, and a lot of our hard work came to fruition.  As soon as we were ready to call it a year and start working on 2010, Dawit gets a call from Tabi Bonney’s production company and he tells me that Bernos is going to be featured on Wale’s video “My Sweetie” off his new album “Attention Deficit.”

For those of you who are not familiar with Wale, he is a local rapper who got signed to a major record label and released his album in late 2009.

It was a chilly, dreary and rainy Saturday morning as Dawit came and picked me up to go to the location. We were both excited and sort of unsure on how to proceed with such things. Obviously, we are going there to provide wardrobe and that was it.

However, what we didn’t expect is what really goes on behind the scenes. Tabi Bonney and his production company were directing the video.  Earlier in the week, they had a casting call for African female models in the area for the video.  We were able to bring one of our favorite models, Selam who was gracious enough to accept our offer.

We had to opportunity to meet some local talents who work in the industry. It was also amazing to see the hard work and organization that goes into these type of productions. Wale & Tabi Bonney were gracious enough to accept a few of our tshirts.

Once the video is up and ready for viewing, we’ll upload it and share with you. In the meantime, click here to listen to the single.

I just recently twitted about Zewdy who has thousands of followers on twitter & friends Facebook; just an example of a success based upon networking via web platforms.

Although most of the people that do this kind of branding are artists, like our own rawbubble, doing his writing, videos and other forms of art; there has been more and more people blogging and promoting their talents

The only problem I see with this is that there are a bunch of new people starting up a new brand every week, even in my own network and literally nothing is sustained; people come and go, and the market is diluted.

In 2004 when I started blogging, there were a handful of blogs in my network & community but now there are 100s of them. Don’t get it wrong I’m glad people are finally expressing their views and opinions; showing their personality through dozens of pictures in their Facebook profiles etc.

Right now things are so easy to start marketing and people start in one afternoon, never to follow through.

I think the only solution is to put resources together to make a bigger product. Work together; if you are thinking of starting a blog or a business venture I think people should partner up share their resources to make promote the brand together.

Not only will to help improve consistency but it will give the product a bigger platform and more resources, be it time or money.

Sharing is not selfish; not having full creative freedom is not necessarily a bad thing. It just sustains you!