interested observer wrote:
I've been following this whole discussion with interest. As to the whole date/Ethiopian calendar issue related in the Washington Post. According to the Public Relations Officer at the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington:
1. An Ethiopian passport lists the date of birth both according to the Ethipian and the Western calendar. The passport information is in both Amharic and English.
2. The age of a person is the same no matter what calendar you use. Either way, a person would say, I'm 20, or I'm 16, or whatever age s/he is.
This is exactly right. The whole story Naomi told about getting the age wrong because she was using the Coptic calendar is complete BS and I can't believe those enlightened PC geniuses in Montgomery County are falling for that. The Coptic calendar has 365 days a year, just like the Gregorian calendar. The Coptic calendar uses a 13th month of 4 or 5 days to augment 12 30 day months. I also believe the Coptic calendar began in about the year 384 or something, so it doesn't take a mathematical superhero to figure out how old you are using the Coptic calendar. Jeesh!
It is also quite bizarre that boy wonder Solomon ran all these races, took prize checks and redeemable gift certificates, and never cashed or used one of them. Huh???
It is clear Montgomery County and Maryland do not want a lawsuit or a big controversy on their hands. They just want to get this man graduated and gone next spring, hoping the story will just go away.