Mezemir
G.
April
7, 2021
I
was the attendant at Ras Abebe Aregay Library on March 21, 2021, a Sunday
morning. I grabbed a book that I was planning to read for long. It was “Becoming,”
by Michelle Obama. At the middle of my reading I was astounded to learn that
Michelle read from the Internet that there are people who wrote that she is male.
I went to a tailor neighbor of mine and told him about this. He responded, “I’m
rather worried about the fate of my country!” “We are all worried about our
country. But you know, people who claim there is 666 were talking about it” I
tried to explain. He seemed uninterested and I headed back to the library pursued
reading.
I
read the first part which is about the childhood of the former first lady.
Michelle wrote about her family life in Chicago. The unique encounters she had
with her brother Craig and their parents were impressive and ignited similar
ones in me. As African Americans, they underwent many ups and downs. Fortunately,
they had a strong family that cared for their needs. I was so impressed with
the story that when I came to my office at the university on Monday I searched
YouTube to learn about Craig’s current status. In one video, both of them were
giving an interview on Good Morning America. It was really impressive to have a
sibling at your book launch. Lucky Michelle!
I
reminisced about my own childhood when I read Michelle’s. It even occurred to
me if I could read a biography’s childhood part without remembering mine. In my
family we were two children like Michelle’s. I was with Emebet, my sister. Only
because my parents divorced did my sister and I live together with our father. I
was 10 when they divorced. I was the first child of my parents. The two of us
were given to our father. The other two were given to my mother because they
needed her care as they were little ones.
As
children, cooking was one of our challenges. Firewood being scarce in our area,
we had to go to the jungle and find and fetch home. When women from the
neighborhood saw me carrying much wood, they would scold their children and ask
them to be as good as I was. Theirs never worried, but I did. Water we fetched
from a place which was a kilometer or two away. The nearby communal tap water
station was built afterwards. But most often our neighbours gave us firewood
and water when we didn’t have. Fanaye and Tiringo were our neighbours who
always gave us. Tiringo died recently and I couldn’t make it to her funeral. Bearing
all that in mind, if I have to make a contribution to my people back home it
should be on energy and water.
Michelle
is a strong person with seemingly strange decisions. Punching is one of these.
She punched a bully girl who harassed her repeatedly. I was not such a person.
I bore it anyway. What surprised me the most was her decision to quit her first
job at a well-paying law firm for another one that paid half the salary. Who
among us here would make that sacrifice? It was at the law firm that Michelle
met Barack Hussein Obama, her husband to be. He was an apprentice from the
elite law school of Harvard. He had the most coveted position of the editor of
Harvard Law.
How
the couple made it all the way to the presidency is astounding. Obama’s
interest in politics and his absence from home for elongated times was
touching. The couple faced miscarriage as well. How they fought it! Eight years
at the white house as black couple is unthinkable bearing in mind that African
Americans are minority in the United States. A new thing I read in the book was
that the gun attack someone made on white house. Why did the USG build the palace
like that? I think it should have been a shorter building and covered with
trees. All the beauty, grandeur and abundance of the white house seem to fly
away with the eight years of Obama’s tenure. We learn from the US system of
government that there is no presidency for life. This was the exact idea Obama
raised to the African leaders at the AU in Addis. But given the effort and
intellectual ability of Obama and his family to get back to normal life from
that height they had climbed seems distressing. If they were billionaires for
example, they could have the luxury for life. This is my thought as an
Ethiopian. At least this is how it is here.
I
read one of Obama’s books before. “Becoming” has inspired me to read the others
as well. If I muster the energy and stamina, I don’t have to worry about the
books since I have copies.
ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ