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Man Refuses
to Wear Tiny Ribbon
Harsh Situations
Remain in Ethiopia, Etritea
HOUSTON- Phil Duval, a computer
programmer for Aetna, refused to wear a tiny black ribbon Friday after
Mark Gibson, another Aetna employee, died in a car accident. Fellow
employees were horrified.
On August 13, floods
around the Awashi River in central Ethiopia killed nine people, left 30,000
homeless, and killed over 5,000 cows, goats, and sheep.
"I just didn't see
what the fuss was about," said Duval. "I didn't even know the guy,"
Duval's coworkers were
outraged at his blatant lack of acknowledgment of the death of a man he
had never seen, let alone met.
The government of Etritea,
which recently accepted a ceasefire with Ethiopa after two years of war,
has forced 6,500 Ethiopians to leave Etritea over the past couple of weeks.
The returnees include elderly people, children, pregnant women, and 39
mentally ill patients.
"I don't care if he
never met Mick," said Sandy Crane, a secretary at Aetna. "He has
to wear the ribbon. Doesn't he care about other human beings?"
The returnees were
dropped miles from the border and forced to walk for hours across mined
areas in bad weather conditions. Three died last Wednesday crossing
via the Tsorona front.
Duval's potential promotion
may be in jeopardy. Jason Stiller, Duval's supervisor, has begun
an investigation into "just what kind of person Phil is."
"When I was told that
Phil didn't want to wear a ribbon to symbolize that he cared about that
guy, I just about lost it," said Stiller. "Even though Mack worked
on another floor, in another department, Phil should've still worn that
tiny piece of black satin... or whatever the hell it's made of."
Zalambessa, an Ethiopian
town of about 15,000 people, was destroyed during the war.
"He just has no compassion
for fellow humans," said Crane. "How could one be so ignorant?"
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