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Endris Mohammed could be the Ramanujan of Ethiopia: An appeal to Ethiopian
Mathematicians
Dr. Mogus Degoyae Mochena
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Reporter
By Deyamo Daelie
Awassa
"They ought to have used their budgets as Maresha (ploughshares)" complained
the Prime Minister. "They used it as Genfo (porridge)!"
We are fortunate, indeed, to watch Prime Minister Meles Zenawi appear on the
TV screen whenever he wants to speak out his mind. For, you see, the prime
minister was speaking his mind when he made those statements about the
conduct of some officials of the Southern Nations, nationalities and Peoples'
Region (SNNPR). Had he been in "real-space-time", and in Awassa at that, he
would have proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Dostoyevisky's description
of the encounter between Jesus and the Pope in Brothers Karamazov was a mere
replication of what we do in this part of the country every day. Ato Meles
would have become persona non grata as soon as he landed here with those
statements.
In the hotel where I was watching the ETV transmission of the event with the
new nomenclature, no one looked surprised by what Meles Zenawi was saying.
For all practical purposes, his statement had the effect of the famous news
headline stereotype: "dog bites man!" - not withstanding the laughter of the
federal lawmakers who found the statements funny! However, my friends of the
new nomenclature did not hide their resentment against the PM' statement. "Of
course, everyone knows that investing your budget on ploughshares brings in
more returns of food over time than spending your budget on a highly buttered
dish of soup. The problem is that we do not want to wait for an interminable
time. We choose to have our soup here and now. What Ato Meles is saying does
not make sense!" they would remark.
Surprisingly, I found myself in total agreement with the man just by seeing
things his way. Meles Zenawi was talking as if he expected the parasites to
care and plan for the future well-being of their host. Sure, that will not
work. Either you are a parasite, or you are not. If it is true that you are a
parasite, the most logical way of spending "your budget" is buying a meal of
Genfo or Kitfo with it. If the prime minister had expected to create feelings
of embarrassment, shame, or guilty-consciousness in response to his
statements, he did not succeed. Neither the "parasites" nor the public
consider the issue as a moral one. Parasites do not expect their hosts to
love them. And the public has never thought of parasites as ethically charged
particles.
But parasites are entitled to rational justice. For one thing "food is good"
when it has been made ready for you to swallow it. The self-service
cafeterias are disqualified. If you have the parasite capacity of vision,
cooking your own food would be like building a decade of eternity between
your gargantuan appetite and its satisfaction. As for beginning from the
ploughshares, well, the distance from your avaricious need to its fuse
filament is simply infinite.
There is no gainsaying the fact that parasite ethics and host ethics are
mutually exclusive. Meles was applying host ethics for interpreting parasite
ethics.
Naturally, the "parasites" disagreed. Now, some of the "parasites" are either
under police investigation or under police custody for allegedly endangering
the constitutional order. "Thanks be to the parasite god", say the parasite
community, "the constitutional order endangered is the host's not the
parasite's!"
Of biology - old and new
"Biology is the study of living things," announced my first biology teacher,
in grade 9. "Living things are divided into plants and animals," he
concluded. And as if he had wanted to contradict himself, he gave us an
example of a living animal: "Amoeba is a single-celled animal!"
Well, I thought to myself, I have learned more than enough nonsense already.
I decided to quit learning biology there and then (cramming for exams
excepted, of course!). I have never regretted making that decision at that
time. |
Talking about single-celled animals and parasites as "living
things" is what I cannot stomach. The only "living thing" I know to have ever
lived is the good old Adam of the Garden of Eden, the first victim, "because
he invented the word NUDE and created a moral order out of it!" He paid the
price by being exiled from the Garden where he was enjoying a parasite's
existence. As a true descendant of Adam the exiled, I am proud to declare
before all and sundry that there is no "living thing" without a moral order.
Messieurs amoeba and parasite fail to qualify for the status of the "living
thing," and both we the Southerners as well as the EPRDF must be held
accountable for allowing "parasites" to hold offices of the living public.
Or, we must begin learning biology anew.
The new biology appears sensible to me. What attracts me most about it is its
view of the meaning of life. My favorite concept is "artificial life", a
concept coined by a scientist - a certain Langton. This biology, says the
scientist, differs from the old one in that it sees life from the perspective
of synthesis. The old biology used too much analysis for its own good, said
the scientist. It talked of the "building blocks" as, for example, a man's
body begins from cells: by putting cells together tissues are built, by
putting tissues together you have organs, by putting organs together you have
the organism, a man in our case. This old biology view considers man as a
collection of hardware. The new biology defines life as "computing" software.
You have the DNA molecule for the application software component of the "life
computing program". It has sets of genetic data, including the data for
copying the sets of genes. You have the RNA molecule for the operating
software, a set of instructions for building cells, tissues, organs, and
organisms as per the demand of the computer program user. You think that what
I am talking about is pointless? Just wait until I tell you the news!
You see, this RNA, notwithstanding its tongue-twisting ribonucleic acid
title, is the ultimate virus. It is a non-living thing as long as it does not
receive command from the user to turn out living things. You can picture it
like the connectives of the syntax of a language - not, and, or, if ... then,
if and only if, therefore - which have no linguistic life of their own
whatsoever, but which churn out living sentences when commanded by us. My
favorite description of a virus is a ghost. As ghosts live only through the
living, so do viruses - from the RNA to the "I love you!" computer virus.
Your Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a ghost that lives through the
living cells of your immune system. And now to the news: What Ato Meles and
the EPRDF-SEPDF (Southern Ethiopia Peoples' Democratic Front) officials call
"parasites" using the old biology lexicon are "viruses".
From the perspective of the new biology
What the human immune system is to a human body, the constitutional-legal
system is to a polity. The natural and logical place for parasites is the
digestive system where they get processed food in plenty. Once a parasite
crosses the gastronomic territory and enters the blood stream there is no
sense in calling it a parasite anymore. And if a "parasite" takes shelter
inside your white blood cells, you must know that your immune system is
demobilized. With a virus attacking your immune system, every passing minute
takes you nearer to your end - the ghost is at the wheels of your
life-vehicle!
It has been reported that some of the notorious "parasites" identified by the
SEPDF 2nd Round Renewal or "Gemgama" were members of the Legal Affairs
Standing Committees in the House of Peoples' Representatives and the House of
Federation. I think explaining away the alarming events of last year by
calling it parasitic behavior is not correct. "Parasites" that penetrate our
legal system are "viruses" that propel our polity toward disintegration.
If I were Ato Meles and the Minister of Federal Affairs, I would take a
glimpse of the justice system as well, especially in those woredas that had
been fighting their respective ministate wars. Who knows what is lurking
inside the courts? After all, viruses are both life and non-life. |
Articles & Opinions
The Drifting Mind
Messay Kebede
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