THESE PICTURES ARE AMAZING. I CAN'T HELP IT BE LAUGH AND CRY THE TEARS OF JOY. THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA AND ESPECIALLY MY HOME TOWN AXUM MUST BE SOOOOOOO JOYFUL.
THIS IS TRUELY A TIME IN HISTORY TO BE REMEMBERED WITH GREAT PRIDE AND RESPECT.
THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR SHARING THESE PICTURES, IT MAKES ME THAT MUCH CLOSER WITH AXUM RIGHT NOW;-)

Yes, you have every reason to celebrate because it is in your plan to be happy at some body elses'suffering. It is the Ethiopian peoples' resources that is squandered to transport a rock from Europe to an already rocky Axum. What is its significance for those of you guys (Tigres) at all, leave alone the southerners who do not share any historical or linguistic link with you to cry about pieces of rock and tracing the glory of a poverty striken kingdom back to the bibilical times?

If you believe that it is the outcome of your genius ancient civilization, what hindered you to show to the world any of your skills thousands of years later?

I know the answer for my self already, but it is really and an irony of history to be called peoples of the same country "Ethiopia".

Rock with the Rock; and good luck with your rocky celebration.

I was wondering how long it would take someone to start moaning about the cost of the whole operation. What agame probably does not know is that Italy is covering the cost of the transport and re-erection. Ethiopia's costs - the various committees and the celebrations around the country - are minimal.

I will leave it to an Axum resident to answer the other points he raises.

Dear Andrew;

I believe, you are genuinely attempting to do your part to portray Ethiopia in the contemporary arena of the world media.

The point here is not primarily about the cost of the operation at all. Ethiopia is a country with various social segments of a hierarchy in which one segment is at the top (the super human) and the other segment is down at the bottom (the less worthy human being). If you think that this is not the Ethiopian reality of the last 120 years please refer to other sources of oral tradition other that Alula Pankhrusts text book of Modern Ethiopia and/or Donald Levines "Greater Ethiopia" along with his collegue, Harold Marcus of the the University of Michigan.

What the "glory" of this rock in Exile invokes is that Axum has nothing to do with the current composition of the Ethiopian people other than the myth of of a poverty striken ancient kingdom called Axum.

You can even observe the degree of execitement among the Ethiopian people of the north and the south. And you may slightly understand the point of my comment. I did not comment from the point of view of being negative to the process. I was simply annoyed by the irony of the tribute the current Ethiopian Authorities are paying to a rock (infact most of them are from Axum/Tigray)while keeping so many Ethiopian youth in the jail, which other wise wouldn't let them to celebrate this rock peacefully.

I am sure, no Axumite will agree to my point of view and this is an apriori knowledge.

Who cares any ways!

Nagaatti!

I am tired of these smart a... comments that are being posted here. If you don't have any Ethiopian sentiment or rather consider yourself none Ethiopian then so be it and don't try to bash or demean other people’s roots and treasures.
The transportation cost is covered by Italy, and will be erected with the help of UNESCO, everything not at a single cost of Ethiopian government.
Anyways with all do respect how would you people know anything about stone/rock/monument when what you worship is a tree. If someone took your tree would you say zeraf. May be if I give you a saying using a tree then you might understand what all this hoopla about a rock is all about.
“A people without knowledge of their past is like a tree without roots.”
And all this is just the beginning, we gonne bring back Prince Alemayehu’s body and erect a monument at his grave site......and much much more you like it or not.

Obbo Gammachu!

You just jumped to the conclusion of ones' sentiment about Ethiopiawinet simply because a different point of view about the rock.

Why didn't you comment about the Ethiopian reality at least in terms of the historical, cultural and linguistic attributes of the various ethnic groups in Ethiopia vis a vis "the Kingdom of Axum".

You also tried to demean a society worshiping tree (Green Odaa) while you may be one of the worshipers of a piece of a tree (the wooden arc). It is not my intention to draw a line between societies based on their tradition and faith. My issue is about the socio-political system of inequality and injustice that is still carried out in the name the old glory for one sector of the ethiopian society and 'the nothing to do with' of the others.

If you wish to bring skeleton of an imaginery prince, no wonder that it is inherent in your tradition to collect rocks, skeletons etc..., a tradition that always attempts to dwell in the past other than looking in to the future. Good luck!

By the way, I am sure that you notice, I am not an agame even though I use the name and at the same time time I am sure that you can not be a Gammachuu even though you use the name. A Gammachuu can not demean a society as a tree worshiper.

Let's all keep in disguise, but still reflect our different perspectives. That is what matters.

Nagaatti!

I wrote the previous post in the heat of the moment after reading your ridiculing comment (please see your first post). Sorry for the unnecessary roughness on my part. Whatever differing opinion you may have on the subject is your prerogative. Nobody is trying to impose on anyone to accept the historical significance of the return of the obelisk. We are just happy and celebrating, not as EPRDF or what have you, but simply as ordinary Ethiopians, and of course there will be many who won't share our enthusiasm or worse make any sense of it all.

Yes, you have come to your senses and I hope that you have realzed the type of the vicious circle we are in. The Germans call it "Der Teufelkreis" meaning "The Devil's Circle" where there is no any outlet out of it.

If we continue demeaning each other, no body will come out victorious other than repeating the nasty rhetoric of ridiculing each others' values.
I do not want that to happen regardless of my "ethnic" place in the Ethiopian Pyramid of values. If you think also that I am trying to ridicule this process because of its Tigray origin, you may make a mistke. I grew up with a boy from Tigray who has been displaced by the Derg in the early 1980s in the name of resettlement and were taken to the western part of the country. When I see the current atrocities of the TPLF, I always remember that little boy, Habtom, who joined me there starting from grade 8. My parents were his parents and also my sibilings were his. Unfortunately, that did not deter me from having the sharp difference I have now towards TPLF's Ethiopia.

I have no any prejudice nor hatred.

The fact that we all do not have the common history and heritage that forged us all together as "Ethiopians" gave rise to such diametrically opposite views in celebrating the home coming boy, "The Rock". Neither me nor you can help it, for the missing classical bond of a Nation State's Evolution. We just have two choices: Either keep fighting on the Dichotomy of a Rock and the Odaa Tree or recognize our differences and work on the common denominators of the interests of the Homo Sapien.

Nagaatti!

hey guys...have u ever stopped and asked yourself?...what is this all pride in being a memeber of one ethnic visa vis another one?...from what i can trace it is all a curse in the Bible..we were with one language! had it not been for the gathering of the people to work against God! anyway i don't see any special outcome coming out of taking pride in one's ethnic origin...for whatever it is worth..just stick to being an Ethiopian.."the whole is greater than the sum of its part?" I think so ...anyway i like what u commented agame or otherwise...u strike me as someone smart and who knows what he/she is talking about..bless your heart..as for the oromo one hey come on now..rock or otherwise it is about having what is rightfully yours and respect others sentiment if u don't have a shred of it in you will you?
p.s. can i get in touch with you the smart one? email me at kostarit@gmail.com
u take care
Ethiopiawi through and through