አባል ውይይት:Russavia/Polandball

Interesting topic about an internet meme poking fun at 'national stereotypes and international relations' with flag-coloured ball cartoons. When I read about this, of course the first thing I wanted to know is if anyone has made an Ethiopia Polandball. This image below has the only one I have been able to find so far, though:

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/213/755/africa.png

I will help with the group effort to get the article translated to Amharic, little by little. It seems like a sense of humor, and sometimes ability to laugh at one's own country's stereotypes, is needed to fully appreciate this. I notice that there currently seems to be a version of this article on the Simple English wikipedia, but not the main English wikipedia. Why is that - did the famous deletionists crowd on en. deign it to be 'non notable', or were you just waiting to get it up everywhere else first, before springing it on them? Regards, ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 16:16, 18 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

Hi Russavia, I'm also interested in getting the article translated into Amharic. I was also wondering why there were articles on many other language wikis but not the English one. Does anyone know suitable Amharic terms for imageboard, cyberwar, and meme. And what about "Polandball?" Best Regards Elfalem (talk) 01:14, 19 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

Hi guys, thanks for your replies, it is appreciated. I've had a few days off, and am still in bed with the flu, so I hope to be able to reply to any questions in due course.

The article was deleted on English WP, because of what I can only describe as Wikipolitics. The article was kept on Russian WP AfD after the English AfD, and the English WP article will undergo undeletion review in due course. Codex_Sinaiticus has it 200% correct; first things first, one must have a sense of humour, and then an ability to laugh at one's self, or one's own country/nationality. Being an Australian, this is sort of already inbuilt into us ;)

I have already created a couple of variation of Ethiopiaball which can be seen at:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Countryballs_(Ethiopia)

I have also come across a couple of Polandball comics which feature Ethiopia -- the first being directly on Ethiopia, and the second being more of a statement of the state of African continent in 2011...

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/108/843/1300982951186.jpg http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/146/430/south%20sudan.GIF

Any help with the Amharic translation of Polandball would be appreciated. I will also be getting in contact with some of my aviation contacts (Russian aviation being my forte), and will see if my contacts at Volga-Dnepr may be able to organise freely-licenced photos of the return of the Obelisk of Axum to Ethiopia in 2005...as I am sure these would not only be beneficial to aviation topics, but also to Axum topics, on all Wikipedia projects.

If you have any other questions, please do ask. Cheers, Russavia (talk) 13:07, 28 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

Hmmm, I see that Volga-Dnepr Airlines is based in Russia. They would surely have some great images. I've had a chance to glance at quite a few Polandball installments from multiple artists now... it looks like nobody gets spared sooner or later, though you do have to wonder how many were drawn by 13 year olds. The first cartoon you shared is spot on, but it stops a few years before the US knocks Italy's lights out! (That's one thing many born Yanks like me are still proudest of!) The second one shows a more complete ignorance of the situation - nobody asks for food by saying 'You got food?' like that...! (It would be 'Mother Mary and Joseph, and Gabriel and Muhammad, give me some food!') But anyway, think what you want to think... Cheers, ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 17:02, 28 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

።Hey Codex, when the Obelisk of Axum was returned from Rome several years ago, they had to extend the runway at Axum Airport in order to have the aircraft land there; the obelisk was transported by an Antonov An-124 of Volga-Dnepr Airlines. I have made contact with my contacts in the airline already, and they will be seeing what photos they might be able to share with me under a free licence. It will take a little explaining to them how Wikipedia works and the like, but I do hope that they will provide some interesting photos which can be used to illustrate this historic event in Ethiopian (recent) history.

As to the cartoons, yeah I guess the "crudeness" of the actual drawings does make it look like they are drawn by 13 year olds, but many of the comics show that they author has some knowledge of history. There are some truly "epic" comics depicting the history of Europe going back to the middle ages, which make me think that they majority of them aren't done by 13 year olds, but by people with intricate knowledge of cultures, history, international relations, etc, etc.

Also, is there a way to turn off the automatic input from Latin to Amharic alphabet? It's no trouble either way, but would be useful to know :) Russavia (talk) 14:13, 30 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

The escape key is supposed to toggle the alphabets in the edit window, at least it usually works on my browser... ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 18:54, 30 ጁን 2012 (UTC)

Hi guys, I have managed to get permission from a photographer whom it appears works in Ethiopia, giving us access to quite a lot of Ethiopian aviation photos we wouldn't otherwise have access to. I am uploading many of these photos to Commons, and will continue to display them on my userpage here. I will also be displaying a smaller selection at om:User:Russavia. I have also uploaded some fantastic "people of Ethiopia" photos from Steve Baba - a photographer who's specialty is portaits of people. I hope these photos will come in useful on Amharic Wikipedia in the future. Russavia (talk) 19:29, 20 ኦገስት 2012 (UTC)