Reflection Speech on the occasion of the Graduation Ceremony of A PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Reflection  Speech on the occasion of the Graduation  Ceremony of

A  PREPARATORY SCHOOL - Class of   2001

27 July, 2009 ,The Hilton Hotel, Addis Ababa

Dear Principal and members of the school community

Dear Fellow Parents and Invited Guests

Dear Graduates

I am very pleased, touched and honored to be invited to present a short reflection speech in the name of the esteemed  and noble parents of the school at this momentous and enjoyable  occasion  and function to celebrate the  graduation of the students of the this Preparatory school- the class of 2001.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to congratulate the Graduates on their successes and fellow parents for the joy thereof.

Dear the school community members, and participants

Education is what shapes our thoughts beliefs, and the way & how we do things and live life and above all what shapes how we interact with the outside environment: the world.

Education is a key for development, economic growth and prosperity-getting yourself and your family out of poverty in our case.Nonetheless it is a long term and requires strength and commitment. Our experience in this country for the most is to opt for the short cut by-pass thought of chances and external factors like a mother thinking of her daughter or son winning a DV immigrant lottery or somehow get out of this country and work in the middle east for example and send back some, support the family and bring some hope out of poverty. I am sure you will not fall for this twilight and day dream, but rather take the long road –the right path of Education.  As the Swahili saying goes “With patience you can even cook stones!!!”

Education which is  systematic teaching & learning is a process, if rightfully  done, resulting in producing a thinking man  with skills and knowledge to be used  in making self dependant ,responsible and logical decisions in life.

As a consequence, the results of your efforts and the domino effect /outcomes of the school management and teachers is probed by whether you are changed?:  in how you think, internalize ,and view this world: to what extent logical and rational your decisions are..

Dear beloved Graduates,

Nature and the ultimate governance in the setting at its most will only provide you with equal opportunities…”Equal opportunities For all!!!”. Therefore, the choices and the decisions you make determine your destiny.In this era of uncountable choices in front of you, never run (boldly), but hasten. Stop…Examine and Choose for all that glitters is not gold.

Please, think globally- no problem about it; but act locally/nationally/individually. It is what we are that makes the building blocks of a just and fair world setting.

Dear Graduates

.

There are certain things which should not be compromised or sold. Your principles,  your beliefs and above all your dignity. If you abandon yourself and your roots and copy and paste, remember that you queue from behind – you are a follower. You, in almost all cases, will never win.

Be aware of the excessive individualism, greed and consumerism of parts of this world.I urge you to be your self and only bite what you can chew.Remember that We are Africans. (Most of Us…),where the norm is that" Each of us exists because we all exist". The philosophy is I am because we are. We are a group – a community- as society -a country….. Every one of us exists within this web. Within this wholesome set, the situation of yours is not enjoyed by many of the children of this country. We all know what we are. A lot is expected from you.

 Therefore be kind and payback for your community.  As the oromo saying goes”Liqiin galshaa beekaa“ - which is if roughly translated reads as –“Debt knows only repayment”

In addition, whilst congratulating you on your successes and feeling good about your past achievements this should not derail you from the upcoming challenges and difficulties as though this is the end of the road. May be for others, but no no  not for graduates of this school-our school. A delivery is likely from the best, from our creams. I am sure you will keep it up and keep the promise alive; and the momentum going.

Furthermore, thanking the school for acting as a second home and family, I request the school management not to abandon its peculiar social values and high standards of enforcements of self-discipline of the school.

Dear Participants,

 I assure you that I have not at the beginning and since then hesitated to send my children to this school. And this is more so now.

I pledge and reassure that we will make it our school for the years to come.

Thank you all!!

The Coffee Kids ...Are Coming - By A.E.Emama

The Coffee Kids.... Are coming!!

Let’s Have Coffee…let’s have wisdom…let’s have compassion!!

Coffee is an important cash crop. Popularly known as the "wonder bean”, it constitutes the second biggest international export commodity after petroleum. It is also the means of livelihood for millions of people around the world.

An interesting question to pose to purported coffee enthusiasts is where their favourite beverage originated from. They usually look confused and, when pressed, name a Latin American country. Whenever I hear them answer this question as Colombia or Brazil, they make me angry because, coffee Arabica, the species that produces all fine coffee with the best natural flavours originated in the highland forests of South Western Ethiopia, in the horn of Africa.

Our country is the the home of the best aroma and blend of coffee: Harar,Yirga cheffee,Limu , Sidamo. Jimma and many others… “How come they didn’t mention my country”, I ask my self. Do they even know my country produces coffee? Do they still know how many people are dependent on this coffee? I really doubt, …I am not sure,…I don’t know.

There are so many questions that circle my mind whenever I thought about this. But there is one question that always makes me wonder a lot. Do they know how many kids across the world are dependent on coffee when they buy & trade coffee? I guess not. Do they know how many kids across the world are dependent on coffee when they set quotas & fix prices of coffee? I suspect not.

“Do you know?” Not many people have answers to this question. But I want all of you to know the answer and that’s why I am standing in front of you today to tell you my story as one of the kid’s of coffee.

Dear respectable Ladies & Gentlemen Of the coffee Ceremony!!

I was born in Jimma, which is one of the places where coffee grows wild in the middle of the forest. My mom has been working in the coffee business for over two decades. She knows every little detail about coffee.
Being her daughter helped me know much about coffee. How it is planted; how it is harvested, processed, & tasted; how it is traded and exported. My uncles are also coffee Traders. Are not I, a coffee kid then? Wait a minute.

Above all, my grandfather was a farmer. A farmer with a large farm and with a great wealth. His farm was covered by coffee tree from one end to the other. He took care of the land more like his children. Because his land was the only income to his family, the only means for his kid’s education, and the only means for his family’s sustainable life.

Coffee was the income that got food on the table but when the season was unfavourable, the prices fluctuate against them, and their income dwindles.

Watching these variations of Mother Nature my father and many of my father’s friends and neighbours had a dream:- a dream of breaking the vicious cycle of poverty pungent in rural Ethiopia. As one of the lucky few, my father’s dream to be an engineer, to get the needed technology & water to the coffee trees every time became a reality, …He went to school, …to University and even Oversees and now he helps a lot of farmers.

Coming from this family, which is associated with coffee directly makes me one of the kids of coffee. Doesn’t it? And there are a lot of children whose education, health, shelter and food depends on people they have never heard about. Children with dreams of being a doctor, an engineer or a president. Children who can change our country, and even the world. Children who can erase our countries last name, which is “ POOR OF POOR”

Dear esteemed members of the “Coffee Family!!

I don’t actually remember when, but once some one told me “the best thing you can give to a person is hope”. So, think when you are buying a truck of coffee to how many children your giving hope too. To how many children you’re giving a chance to a better health, a chance to a better education, a chance to be a great person that could help this country. And this is what we need: -To help raise children with vision.

And remember these children have dreams only because of the coffee, because of the coffee tree in front of their houses, because of the tree they see on their way to school. Remember that bush under the shade of the natural forest which bears the beans we all cherish and depend on is their last resort.
So, me, I love coffee. It gives me hope. It tells me never to quiet when things are not good. It tells me that, if we help each other we could get anywhere. It tells me, if we work hard we could give hope to others.

So I want to be a farmer. A farmer of coffee, a farmer of “THE GREEN GOLD”. A farmer who can give a lot to his country. A farmer who can give hope to children that any thing is possible.

So all of you people that are families of “COFFEE”, all of you across the horizon, who are buying and selling coffee, the dream you gave to me is wordless; the courage you gave to me is measureless and I hope some day, God of coffee willing, we all could sit together around a big coffee ceremony and have a toast of coffee for each other.“May the almighty be with all of us in every thing we do and in every thing we say”

Dear Honourable Guests & Participants!

Finally, with a little bit of luck and the support of the “Coffee family”, I have come this far. Further coffee kids are coming as well. The others are thinking the same also.

As a result, I urge you all to agree to support, help, and facilitate this journey and the hope to celebrate their homecoming for the better.

Let’s Have Coffee…let’s have wisdom…let’s have compassion!!


Thank you all!!


Anita Etafa
Grade 11,
STEPS School, Addis Ababa
2007/8