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by Hénock Gugsa ©
A while back, I was sitting at a café with an old school friend ... drinking coffee and just shooting the breeze ... having a wonderful and jovial conversation. We had begun doing this as a weekly ritual. My friend is fully retired, and I am effectively semi-retired, and anyway we both agree that Facebook somehow just is not enough for old folks like us. Interfacing on the computer cannot match actual face-to-face interaction between friends. But sometimes, this rare luxury is spoiled by the appearance on the scene of some unwanted persons. There are indeed such people out there who just drop in uninvited and insert themselves in private conversations. There is no rhyme or reason (or should I say excuse) for spoiling the good ambiance of a favorite café. In Ethiopia, such people are, not unkindly, and collectively labelled: Yogurt fly.
The common garden-variety picnic ant has nothing on the pesky and ugly green fly of great infamy. Even its Latin name gives one pause: Calliphora Vomitoria! .... But, some people simply refer to it as a green-bottle-fly ... an innocuous and nonsensical appellation!
Literally-descriptive Ethiopians, on the other hand, named this terrorist insect: “yogurt fly” (የ እርጐ ዝንብ ) ... because of what it does. A person may just be getting ready to enjoy a glass of yogurt or some specially-prepared milkshake. Then out of nowhere and with great and malicious speed, the fly appears and just literally dives into the delicacy in much the same manner as a kamikaze pilot. There is no escaping this fly! And after it has landed on the yogurt and is feasting with spiteful greed, there is not much else to do but to dispose of the yogurt in disgust and frustration.
Understandably, such flies are despised, and people who behave like them are treated likewise as well. They are avoided with passion and soon become friend-less. It is true that butt-in-skis and busy-bodies are everywhere, but we patiently tolerate and cope with their behavior. I suppose there is nothing else one can do with such people.
In old and ever-wise Ethiopia, when a child behaves in a manner akin to a yogurt fly, he is right away given that nickname. And it will stick unless the child takes the reprimand to heart and shirks his bad ways (manners) once and for all! Such shaming is actually very effective psychologically, and I wish it were practiced more here!
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