September 30, 2007
Jihad ... jihad
The voice on the phone was cold and humourless. "Mr Andrew ..." it crackled down the line as the signal surged and faded. "Jihad ... jihad ... We will have your life at 8 O’Clock."
"What?" I croaked. All I could think of was Al Qaeda’s latest call to arms in Sudan, the recent foiled bomb plot against the British embassy in Khartoum, the new American travel advice about terrorists and kidnappings.
"Hello," said the voice again. "Can you hear me? ... Jihad ... Jihad ... My name is jihad. Mr Jihad. We have booked the television studio for your live at 8 O’Clock."
Posted by aheavens at September 30, 2007 8:47 PM
Comments
Nice!
:)
Posted by: tobian at October 1, 2007 7:07 AM
too funny
Posted by: yonas at October 1, 2007 8:21 AM
I laughed. I sensed there is more fear inside someone like you when you move from country of more christians to muslims. But, at least you have got the tv outlet. bizzare!!
Posted by: Abey at October 1, 2007 5:12 PM
It is sooo funny. How we get conditioned. Now if you understood Amharic well then most of the names would have frighten you too... Like Arbedebed (Terrorize) Aschenaki (Stress) Shegotue (My gun) etc... good thing you didn't know what it meant when you were in Addis :)
Posted by: Ethio at October 1, 2007 6:45 PM
Brilliant! A whole hilarious story, in one screen's worth. .......
(Just to be a bit snarky at the commenters who think that wouldn't start out very scary in, say, New York: the caller's shall we say non-idiomatic syntax would have the same implication the world over.)
Posted by: quixote at October 2, 2007 7:12 PM
This is too funny. I have never been to Sudan, but from what I have been hearing from Ethiopian friends who lived there, it is a hilarious place. Thanks, for the laugh.
Posted by: AG Medhin at October 3, 2007 12:11 AM
haha
'poor Westerners' living in paranoia...haha aww....actually i would also croak if were in your situation. :)
...that story is very funny.
Posted by: naz at October 5, 2007 4:12 AM
This was hilarious! After the fact of course.
Posted by: aaron at October 5, 2007 10:23 PM
http://www.theethiopianamerican.com/read.php?article=1&module=litreature
Posted by: :) at October 8, 2007 2:29 AM
Wow. A very funny story! Thanks for the laugh.
Posted by: Don't Eat My Buchela! at October 8, 2007 6:09 AM
Man you just killed me with that one! FuNey!
Posted by: Abe at October 11, 2007 5:13 AM