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My perspective has been a Capital mainstay for the last 6 years since it launched under Yonas Kebede and has gathered a sizable following among our wide readership. Written currently by one of our senior contributors, an economist and management consultant, My Perspective mines a deep trove of hands on experience, travel and insightful observations that only a professional of his stature can produce consistently.
The column leaves no stones unturned in pinpointing areas of concern in all aspects of Ethiopian political, social and economic life.
The columnist and Capital look forward to your input in the form of comments, suggestions and critical appraisal. Have a Fantastic Ethiopian New Year

The Beauty of Darknewss

Some English dictionaries give the meaning of 'negro' as a member of the black race of mankind distinguished by classification according to physical features but without regard to language or culture from members of other races. Others put it as a member of the dark African race, having woolly hair; thick lips and a flat nose.
After slavery was over, those who intelligently realized the worth of the Negro as a distinguished black race of mankind adopted an outlet of 'negrophilism' and started to become friendly to him and his interests; whereas, those who remained convinced that he was destined to become only slave could not reconcile their attitudes with obtaining reality of the times and became adamantly 'negrophobia.'
Although slavery never had had boundary of human race, the slavery that was put to develop America lasted for a good long years in the hatred and segregation of the black race as condescendingly low race. Then the time gradually arrived when a section of the white race started to take the black-race as an equal partner in real life.
This was followed by a joke that started euphemistically that served as socializing element in human relations that in the process of creation that the white man was under baked, and the black man was over baked and it was only at the right mix of material and timing that the yellow man was created as a balanced product of the oven. This joke diffused the hard feelings that some people had over the black man as a degraded classification of humankind, and those hard feelings started to dwindle thereafter.
Today, many in the white world want their colors to become darker, because, dark color is found beautiful. The ‘thick lips' of the black man are also being imitated through surgery by many white fans as they are proved worthy in social relations.
Moreover, international politics, today, shows further the reality of the changed world. The rise of Senator Obama as the official nominee of the Democratic Party to the Presidency of the United States of America is a clear demarcation of this changed temperament and attitude of the white man from color phobia to the ideals of statehood and the likeness of humankind.
Although the temperament is not totally the same with all Americans, such transformation of hard feelings to one of cosmopolitan ideals, shows a gradual exit from isolation and realization of the narrowing down of differences.
Yet some anomalies still exist in the minds of some. If you are a product of a white woman and a black man, you bet, you're neither white nor black. In the nature of things, you're an equally or evenly divided outcome at least, or, a half-cast at best.
Nonetheless, for unknown chemistry or make up, you're still called "a black-man"-an irony of truth. This is why I stand to appreciate the nice beginnings of things in view of the beauty of blakness, rather than look for their perfections, as I am convinced that their turn will come up at a propitious moment of historical march of time.