{"id":1157,"date":"2017-10-07T08:18:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T08:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/new_thereporter\/2017\/10\/07\/dv-and-open-sesame\/"},"modified":"2017-10-07T08:18:33","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T08:18:33","slug":"dv-and-open-sesame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/1157\/","title":{"rendered":"Of DV and \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life was going well for the thirtyish couple. He, a highly paid accountant; she, a cosmetic shop owner in the affluent Bole area; a spacious multiple-room villa and a couple of cars. It was like the only thing they have to say was \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d  and the mountain of gold just cascades into their laps! Then DV lottery happened! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What! Yes, the man was lucky; the news didn\u2019t create much buzz around people they knew. Maybe it might serve as raw material for a little laugh around the beer table. They wouldn\u2019t take it seriously! Not given the life they were leading, anyway. Why would a couple so successful at a relatively young age need DV lottery? Why would they throw all that to the wind? That is exactly what they did, throw everything to the wind. No amount of advice from friends and relatives could change their minds. They sold every item to the last spoon and fork. Theirs was going to be a one-way ticket. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way we\u2019d come back to this country!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So it was \u201cSayonara!\u201d and everything was forgotten. End of the story. Or, was it? About a year and a half later they make a sudden appearance in Addis! That was fast. Coming back for vacation so soon must be a bullet-train sort of event. Well, it was a sad homecoming as they returned for good, and empty-handed at that! America, after all, wasn\u2019t about an \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d land they thought it to be.  A couple of months later their marriage ended. Life has never been nice to them ever since. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

People would give anything to go to Brangelina land. Even when many long time Ethiopian residents worry of possible deportation, America remains the Shangri La everyone wants to go to. We even have coined a phrase for it. \u201cGoing to America and death are everyone\u2019s destiny.\u201d We seem to have taken it as our God-given right to munch on the Big Mac awaiting us in a restaurant on DC\u2019 Eighteenth Street. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally it is DV time; I\u2019ve to say the excitement this time around isn\u2019t anywhere close to what it was years back. Of course, that doesn\u2019t mean the passion for \u2018the ticket to paradise\u2019 has ebbed. No way; that is not going to happen any time soon. But with many things happening at the same time the DV thing is no more \u2018Breaking News.\u2019 Still, someone\u2019s going to America creates reaction a Hollywood Oscar wouldn\u2019t generate. \u201cShe is going to America!\u201d is another way of saying, \u201cShe is going to heaven!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It is going to be a busy month. Ethiopians would be flocking in their thousands to Internet cafes and to places with to fill their application forms. Entire families try their luck. From high school students to retired civil servants one can\u2019t deny the allure DV lottery provides.  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, DV marriages are out. What a loss! We used to hear of stories where rich families paid as high as a half a million birr to give their daughters \u2018in marriage\u2019 to DV winners.  Well, that is no more a good idea; the warnings couldn\u2019t have been any more <\/span><\/span><\/span>explicit<\/span><\/span><\/span>; <\/span><\/span><\/span>\u201cIf you are not married when you enter the DV program, and your name is selected for an interview, DO NOT be persuaded to marry a stranger for money so that they can also get a Diversity Visa.\u201d The ban could last a lifetime! <\/span><\/span><\/span>A guy whose visa application was recently turned down joked; \u201cThe visa counselor didn\u2019t like the color of my eyes.\u201d For many, being denied an American visa is nothing to joke about, let alone a lifetime ban. It is tantamount to being sent to the electric chair.   <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The next several weeks families across the country would praying their throats dry for their children to win the \u2018Mother of all lotteries.\u2019 Life back home would be far better; they wouldn\u2019t have to worry if the teff<\/em> price shoots through the financial roofs thanks to the mighty dollar their children would be sending. Incidentally, those of us back home don\u2019t appreciate the trouble our relatives and friends in the US go through to send us money. Many of us practically live on the remittance from the Diaspora country folk. \u2018No work and all play\u2019 might not have worked for Jack; it works for us. Not that we don\u2019t have the faculties to be rewardingly employed. But who cares about work when we\u2019ve more than enough money to dress in the best; go to expensive places and just live it up. While they worry about next month\u2019s bills, we couldn\u2019t wait to try our limbs on the floor of the latest exclusive nightclub in town. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Ethiopians taking horrendous risks to go to Europe or elsewhere might be gravely miscalculating. But they are not fools, sick or something. They are not empty-headed as some reports make them to be. They just want a better life and believe all chances of survival back home are closed for them. They think that the moment the set foot in London they can phone Arsene Wenger for a cup of tea and some chatter. They think all will be well once they cross the Mediterranean or the Atlantic.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

One big problem is most of us lack adequate information about America, Europe or elsewhere. The moving images in Hollywood movies and glittering pictures in glossy magazines inform our decisions. Add to this the mostly fictional stories those already there write back home. They don\u2019t write, \u201cI work eighteen hours a day and still have fallen behind my electric bills and mortgage payments.\u201d  (Many don\u2019t have the slightest idea what working sixteen hours of a day means. Ours isn\u2019t a society famous for work ethics.) I mean, when people think Brad Pitt\u2019s America is everyone\u2019s for the asking no wonder the rush to board the next flight. People have to be given real information about life in America especially in connection with immigrants.  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean scaring people. Not that doomsday talk that paints other parts of the world as the earthly version of hell. But someone has to do the heavy lifting and acquaint the population with important details of the ways and norms of those societies. Many Ethiopian parents who tried to pinch or spank their kids have had rude awakenings. \u201cWhat! I can\u2019t punish my own child! What kind of a country is this!\u201d Your own child calling police on you! The culture shock could be worse.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHow about you and me getting together for a few drinks Saturday night?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSorry. Maybe another time; I\u2019m going to America for vacation.\u201d  <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What! What does he mean for vacation! He means he is going to do justice to his tense muscles and overloaded brain just like you and me try to do by going to the Lions\u2019 zoo in Sidist kilo<\/em>. Ha! <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

An elderly mother who came back home after about a decade or so was talking about the new person in the White House.  She didn\u2019t have any use for names. She had the perfect way of describing him; \u201cThey now have a new king;\u201d Ha! The Spicer guy should have stayed around for this! It would have been an opportunity for something like, \u201cThey said he is a king, and he is a king. Period!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Good luck for all DV applicants. But, it would be wise of us to bear in mind that being lucky doesn\u2019t mean life in America would be an \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d fairy tale.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Contributed<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life was going well for the thirtyish couple. He, a highly paid accountant; she, a cosmetic shop owner in the affluent Bole area; a spacious multiple-room villa and a couple of cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1946,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-touch-and-go","7":"category-uncategorized"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thereporterethiopia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}