The Addis Ababa Riverside Project: Clean the City!

The bold PM Abiy has let the fountains pour out their water. The COVID is also somewhere in Addis Ababa. Instead of hiding behind masks and gloves and a covert-COVID, Abiy is promoting his Addis Ababa Riverside Project, and cleaning the streets and the air

...to enhance the well-being of city dwellers by mitigating river flooding and through the creation of public spaces and parks, bicycle paths and walkways along the riversides.

This project will run along two of the largest rivers of the city, stretching a total of 51 kilometres, all the way from the mountains of Entoto through to Akaki River.

It also aims to improve the well-being of inhabitants and realise the country’s aspiration of building a green economy through the expansion of green spaces...

Ezekiel 36: 25-38

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.

37 Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Blog Alexandra Poppies

These are Alexandra poppies, growing by the Chappell House in Riverwood Conservancy. This wonderful park/forest is a mere twenty-five minutes from Mississauga. Just take the 26 bus East, and ask to stop by the Conservancy (or at the Erindale Go Station).

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they?

Mourning Dove
Pastel Drawing
Kidist P. Asrat
2013

It's been almost a year (a month and and day short - there must be some numerical significance to that number) since I posted on this blog. There are a few drafts (three to be exact), but I briefly resumed activity at Our Changing Landscape, and I started something I called Society for the Reclamation of Beauty (more on this later), but for the most part I have just been posting photos, and the occasional communications with other bloggers.

My silence was not a renunciation, but a way to revive my interest and general excitement when I start a new blog post.

For some reason, I felt tired, as though there was nothing more to say.

What an error in imagination! There is always something to say.

I think what I felt was that there was nothing positive left to say.

As I discussed with a friend, this nihilistic, apocalyptic view of the world is anti-Christian and anti-God.

Who am I to judge, and decide, when things are over?

Even in the midst of horror, God would wish us to live. Each step we take in life is a preparation for harder times, making us hardier and more resolute to keep our world and fight for our world. We are sure to meet our ultimate enemy some time. It is better that we harden ourselves now.

Yet, we should also wonder at the eternal cheerfulness of the little bird.

It is telling that got my earthly resolve back almost as soon as I participated in a "Birding With Experts" walk, a program organized by the Riverwood Conservancy, where we meet and greet (so we think!) or pesky little fowl friends, who may grace us with their song, although it is more often with their flight.

Here are some photos I took of some birds at my last visit, along with the woods now almost fully clothed with their green cloaks, all the more easier for our chirping chickadees to hide in.

The Mourning Dove, elusive and shy,
with its silhouette against the early morning sky,
makes that plaintive cry

I'm not sure what this is. I think it is a yellow warbler.
I will ask at our next meeting.

The Indigo Bunting. It was playing hide-and-seek with us, calling out with its song, announcing spring, until it appeared hight up on the bare branches, above us, and any danger (except for that hawk!).

A Red-Tailed Hawk, glancing at our intruding group. He is ready
to circle and pounce on the rodent he's just eyed

Luc Fazio, our steward, as the conservancy calls him. The pole holding the video camera acts as his staff with which to rescue wayward members. I have slight vertigo, even for elementary slopes. and he called out at one time, pushing the pole before me:

"Just hold on!"
"But you won't be able to pull me with that!"
"Just use the stick as a guide, don't cling onto it."

I did as bidden, barely touching the stick, and sure enough, I was out of my hole!

"It's all psychological," said our kind shephard. "I once had a women in my group in Brazil, who wouldn't do as I told her. She fell, lacerated her arm, and we had call for medical assistance."

God forbid that they would have had to call medical assistance for me!


The Credit River, flowing through Riverwood
[Photos By: KPA]
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat

Riverside Drive, New York

While in New York, I stayed very close to the Hudson, in the upper West Side, near the Firemen's Memorial. I went for walks a couple of times along Riverside Drive (around 100-105th streets). Both times, I went later in the evening, and I got a chance to see the setting sun across the river, and the sun's reflection on the trees and buildings.

Below are some of the photos I took.




Below is more background on the memorial, found here

The Firemen’s Memorial (1913) in Riverside Park is one of the most impressive monuments in New York City. The monument was designed by H. Van Buren Magonigle (1867-1935), and its sculptures are attributed to Attilio Piccirilli (1866-1945)...

This monument is said to have had its origins in the remarks of the Right Reverend Henry C. Potter at the funeral of Deputy Fire Chief Charles A. Kruger in 1908. Bishop Potter said that while there were many memorials to public and private citizens there were none “to our brave citizens who have lost or will sacrifice their lives in a war that never ends.” Potter was the first chairman of the memorial committee...The committee raised $90,500, of which $50,500 was through popular subscription and $40,000 was in public funds allocated by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment on July 17, 1911.

Though originally intended for the north end of Union Square, the monument was ultimately built on the hillside facing the Hudson River at 100th Street.

To the Men of the Fire Department
Of the City of New York
Who Died at the Call of Duty
Soldiers in a War that Never Ends
This Memorial is Dedicated
By the People of a Grateful City
Erected MCMXII


This is an interesting image, with a cherub on top, a kind of a dragon in the middle, and a floral motif at the bottom, and with graceful leaves framing the whole thing.




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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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New York in a Week Part II: Straus Park

This is the second time I've been to the lovely Straus Park, on Broadway and 106th street.

Here is what I wrote the first time I went in Straus Park in New York:

I had my tablet with me while sitting in Straus Park in the Upper West Side in New York, and searched for the biblical quotation inscribed behind the statue (in gold, it is visible in the above photo) to see it in the context of the biblical story it came from:

Lovely and pleasant were they in their lives
And in their death they were not divided
II Samuel 1:23

The quote is a strange and obscure one. It tells the relationship between a father and a son (Saul and Jonathan), whereas the memorial is dedicated to a married couple.

I suppose we can use biblical texts to transfer to, and describe, many kinds of loves. Still, it is a little strange to transfer a father/son love to that of a married couple.

Ida and Isador Straus were on the Titanic when it sank. Ida, rather than save her life by boarding a lifeboat which was rescuing women and children (first), decided to stay with her husband as the ship sank. Eye witnesses say that Ida chose to remain on board with her husband, saying,"I have lived all these years with you. Where you go, I go."

I think a Biblical quote more appropriate to a married couple could have been found. I'm not sure who chose this quote, but it is probably a team of people from the various New York city offices, the sculptor and the the Straus family descendants.

There is also an eternal fountain (see top image), which originally flowed into a reflecting pool. The pool was filled in to create a flower bed for easier maintenance.

There are more images at the site, which I took from various websites on the park

The anonymous person I was with, going through my tablet, was Larry Auster. We met in the park (on his suggestion) on our way to other bigger New York landmarks, but I would have never found this lovely place had he not told me about it. One thing Larry told me was that at there is a small park at each point in the New York City grid where Broadway meanders.



Here are most of them:

- Mitchell Square Park, Broadway and 166th
- Montefiore Square Park, Broadway and 138th
- Verdi Square, Broadway and 73rd
- Sherman Square, Broadway and 70th
- Richard Tucker Square, Broadway and 66th
- Dante Park, Broadway and 63rd
- The beautiful Columbus Circle, Broadway and 59th
- Times Square, Broadway and 47th
- Greely Square, Broadway and 32nd
- General Worth Square, Broadway and 25th
- Union Square, Broadway and 14th
- City Hall, Broadway and Chamber St.
- Bowling Green, Broadway and Battery Place

We also discussed the German ß, which is used for the double s (as in Johann Strauß, which would be spelled Strauss in English). I said that Straus Park should correctly be spelled Strauss Park (the ß doesn't exist in the English alphabet). We didn't have time to look up these details in the tablet computer, but now I can say that there are a few German names which use only one "s" (Straus), while the majority use the double "s." These were the kinds of details which interested Larry.

During my visit to New York in mid-August, I went back to Straus Park and took the following photographs. I had used various web-posted images for my 2012 post on the park.


Straus Park entrance


Female figure "Memory" reclining in front of a reflective pool
By American artist Augustus Lukeman.
Sculpture completed in 1913





[All photos by KPA]
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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