For the longest time, I placed blindfolds over my eyes, and acted as if nothing bad was happening in the place where I was born. The place that I, like many others, feel so passionate about.
But then came the time…the time to face reality…the time to reincarnate my soul, and send it on a long journey back to infancy…back to childhood…back to ‘gurmesina’…
A few months back, I started my relentless search to learn more about my “home”…and what better place to find quick info about a “foreign country” than the ‘net’ - as in the ‘Internet?’
Zimmy, zammu, zamma dot come, bam! There it is! My birth place! …Dilly, dolly, dalla dot com, swoosh! There they are! My high school buddies! …Kinny, kanno, kana dot com, dwing! There it is! The Mezzo bike that I used to ride…Ribby, rabo, rabba dot com, yang! There he is! That snout faced kid that used to beat me up!
WOW!
At first, I was very excited! I was ecstatic! I was verwhelmed! …
Excited to see pictures of my friends…ecstatic to see my birthplace…overwhelmed to know where that snout faced kid lived…
But then… reality…the root of all evils…
What I saw afterwards was very shocking… it was very disturbing…it was very sad…
The one page websites were all fun, because they focused on one subject, and one subject alone. They did not have the resources to ‘selemayakut neger lemekebetater’
But there they were… the evil sites…the DOMINATORS…
Most of them titled, ‘my-home-town dot com’, or ‘some-variation-of-the-word ‘Ethiopia’ dot net’, or ‘not-so-funny-name dot org’
Most of them focused on the same political garbage with not-so-brilliant commentaries like, “you this and that will die!”, “you aheya!”, “you komata!”, “we will kill you!”, “we will slaughter you!”…with no regards to the human element…
I was losing faith…I was ready to place that blindfold once again…
Lo and behold, I noticed a small flashing pop-up ad on my screen telling to me, “come to daddy…come to daddy”…I looked around to make sure that no one was watching me at work… for fear of catching some computer virus, I did the famous “click, click” very gently…
And there she was… my epiphany… ‘Bernos.org’…Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Hal-le-lu-iah! Hal-le-lu-iah!…The light has shined down on me! Jesus! I am born again!
Bernos.org…not, ‘my home town’ dot org…but bernos dot org… Now, there is an undercover genius behind that name! … it isn’t just a URL, it is a concept!
I loved the name… I loved the site… but most of all, I loved to see ‘my people’ becoming creative once again
“We got t-shirts!”… “T-shits right here!”… ”bara-bara-bara-bim…boool-bu-la!…” …”t-shirts!”… “t-shirts!” … “cooooome and get your t-shirts!”… “step right up!”
WOW! Fresh concepts are flying all over this red zone! Entertainment, Information, Music, Merchandise…
America, get ready! There is a new sheriff in town…Meet Bernos…Bernos dot org that is…
I wrote this piece to show my appreciation and support to Bernos creators. I am so impressed and happy to see my fellow Ethiopians smelling like a potpourri with fresh ideas once again…
Yes, what’s on the picture is a real Bernos, going head to head with the “swifter”…I use it on my wood floor and it is the best wood floor care product available– PERIOD! I had my mom send it to me a few years back, and that same piece is still functioning well…
Bernos - It takes the sliding, and keeps on gliding!
It took three takes, having to bribe my seven year old beautiful half-ethio girl with lots of sweets, a plethora of Vaseline on my feet, and a lot of “you better get finished!… I got to go!!!” from the wife. So, feel my pain, and be considerate…
Written by Mamo Kilo at 1:00AM local time
…And then, we danced the night away with our famous Bernos dance… “Twistin' … twistin’… twistin’, the Night Away”
Published by July 23rd, 2006 in Bernos.Send this post to a friend
Great observation,
I foresee a great many interesting ‘metatif’s’ render about.
All I can say is hooray!
March forward – great thinker!
the awdema crew.
Ha I havent Loved so hard, in a while. Next I would like to see a video of the bernos dance. aye mam wunetim qilo neh.
just kidding… keep writing!
Just a single ‘ha’? Come’on, please indulge me? Hahaha
Just kidding, but if you are interested on the Bernos dance, go to the link below, and select #9.
The music is “Twistin the night away” by Sam Cooke
While playing the music loud, just follow these simple steps
Slide to the right…slide to the left…twist & twist…glide and slide and twist…pam,pam,pam…Simple!
Easier than the Macarena dance!
http://www.rhapsody.com/samcooke/samcookeatthecopa
Thanks for your feedbacks!
You know….and I know that you know!
Peace and Pancakes!
Zuzu
It was a good piece of writing and it brought a lot of memories, some very fond and some not, of my childhood in Addis.
I used to hate the “Bernos” as it meant I had to spend, at least a couple of hours, on weekends doing chores waxing and polishing my room. And those were, as you can imagine, precious hours that I should and could have spent doing nothing and goofing around with my home boys.Ha Ha!
As the saying goes ” Ligenet temeleso aymetam!!”.
Thanks for sharing .
Sam
ok, I dont know if you all know but I’m a huge sam cooke fan.. twist the night away is a great song.. but he has even greater song.. really one of the biggest talents from the motown era.. ya better than marvin and the reverend al..
as far as bernos goes… yes we do use it for the floor… but the actually bernos is the one that they wore on their backs! aymeslachehume!
mamo great peice… keep it up.. and meshkakate des yemeleh kehone eshkakalehalehu.. haha hahahhaha
look forward to your next peice! thanks for the support!
That really is nice. Bernos.org sounds to me like where all the smart and CHEWA no BALEGE lijoch come to talk. Keep talking.
Yes, I have done the twist dance back home, yes on the bernos, not in a club but in the living room of our hard wood floor house. Back then hard wood was not as hard to find as it is today in FERENJ AGER.
Yes, the Sam Cook song and the bernos picture brings memories of some 18 years ago where my friend’s dad would always listen to Sam Cook and my friend would do her one 1/2 and hr day of polishing the hard wood with SEM.
Thanks
Nolawi,
You might be right regarding your take on the use of Bernos. I actually heard that its use for hard wood floor was discovered inadvertently…
I believe it was the year 1896, a high ranking government official, while entering a palace wearing Bernos on his back (I heard the palace’s wood floor was very slippery because of the SEM treatment that it was given), he tripped, and skidded across the entry way…
One of the guards noticed that the skid mark created a highly glossy surface. While pointing towards the “triangular” skid mark, he screamed “Bernos! Bernos!”…Hence ruining the lives of millions of kids like CHILO and I…soccer no more, it is time to…
twist’n…twist’n…twist’n the night aaaaaaway….ahahahahahah
The floor vs. the clothing things is like the ‘chicken and egg’…I am not sure if we really know the true story, but the most important thing is that Bernos to us is like Apple pie and baseball to America…IT IS OURS!!!!
Chilo, thanks for reminding me the name SEM…while I was writing the piece, I tried to recall the name, but kept going blank…I was able to envision the container (round, with yellow external, and a picture of a bee or beehive), but I couldn’t remember the name…
Maybe I will call my next piece ‘Chilo & I’…hmmmmmmmm!
Once again, thanks for your feedbacks…keep reading, and I will hopefully keep writing
Hip, Hip, Hooray!!! Or as we say in the mother land, Yaz, Yaz, Berta!…Yaz, Yaz, Berta!
Nolawi, as the saying goes “shiaskaka, moferun ankaka” ahahahah
Interesting article. I found some more information here