For Eritrea and Ethiopia, 2021 was an eventful year, which is to say a frequent shower-upper guest showed up to screech hello: hello back, WAR.
And although there are contestants still arguing with the non-existent referee that he blew the Game Over whistle prematurely, it appears people are eager for finality to something that won’t be finalized for decades. None more so than the oldest Ethiopian opposition political party, PFDJ, which is feeling quite triumphant. In this immaculately stupid Ethiopian Civil War, you are declared a genocidaire if you question, politely, if the war in Tigray legally meets the definition of the heavy word. You are accused of being tit-biting, neo-colonialist, የጠላት ተላላኪ: አገር አፍራሽ: ጁንታ, enemy of the State of Ethiopia, Africa if you don’t think the genesis of the war is the attack against the Northern Command (BUT THE NORTHERN COMMAND!) And you are definitely a Tigrayan, by ideology or ancestry or both, if you don’t think Eritrea should have been involved in the war to the extent it is.
And 2022 appears to pick up where 2021 left off in its ability to surprise you with something you had no business being surprised by, revealing your idealistic self is stronger than your cynical. Worse, it’s making you a suspect in your own right-wing sphere of being a closet liberal. Never! Liberalism is now authoritarian progressivism with zero progress. At this point, Samuel Tsegai would give me a long lecture about the differences between Marxism as postulated and Marxism as practiced, but he is too busy celebrating the release from jail of his elderly father. Eritrea is such a strange country that when people come out of prison, the one topic you can’t discuss with them was about the days preceding, during, and post imprisonment. That is one other club we belong to: Eritreans who lived to see the imprisonment and release of their fathers. Eritreans have so many clubs without support groups: a club for those who shared the walk in Sinai; a club for those who negotiated with the same boat brokers of Libya; those who were exiled together in Adi Harush, who were made political football of combatants in their host country; those who are trapped still, paperless, in menacing Ethiopia, some of whom are from same families of those who were (a) deported in 1999, (b) returned in 2015, tiring of tyranny at home, just in time to be arrested with the Dimxachn Yisemma Ethiopian movement, to be released, (c) and re-arrested again because they speak Tigrinya and the PP just can’t tell you apart from the junta and they will round you up “just to be safe.” Be’kidmiya Ethiopia. Of course the Eritrean embassy can vouch for them, which it will, after they get caught up on their 2% national obligation, thanks for your donation. Hello? Yes. No, there is really nothing we can do: that’s an internal Ethiopian matter. I mean: when has the Eritrean regime spoken on behalf of Eritreans in foreign countries, except for the right of Eritreans in America to protest by holding placards of young Isaias–it is PFDJ culture, and you can’t spell “culture” without “cult”–to show support to his governance which outlaws protests?
I was going to give you 2021 insights in mind-melting prose, flowing like a stream, but you won’t read it, and so I will punish you with a bullet list. But because order is bias and I can’t hide mine: Eritrea first.
- Enter The Judge
Spoken Word Artists have a voice as they fire off their verses. Dr. Reesom Haile did. So does Rumana Berhanu, and all vocal poets, as does Amanuel Asrat, and, yes, Awel Said.
The voice for the first three is the voice of our opposition. One, Dr. Reesom, joined G-13 to reform her; another, Romana, gave a limb for her, and Amanuel, is serving 20-to-life at her maximum security prison for practicing his freedom of expression, freedom guaranteed in the constitution the president swore an oath to. Their voice is the voice of conscience, and it’s a universal language, even if the voice may have different accents.
The last, Awel Seid, sounds to me like the voice of a judge, from a medieval era. A judge reading, in a booming voice, the counts against HISTORY and ordering history, with hand gestures, to comply with the PFDJ NARRATIVE pronto, as was foretold in days of old (“Awet nHafash!“) Resistance is futile, and compliance is inevitable, so sooner is better than later, is always Awel’s judgement. The PFDJ NARRATIVE is the ERITREAN NARRATIVE, and dissent is just another word for treason. There are a rotating cast of characters in the Enemies of the State gallery who populate his videos, and in the most recent edition, I showed up.
Yes, it is unsettling to occasionally wake up to “holy shit, some people believe this crap!” but the picture they show, to prove my enemy status, is of me standing next to Ms Sheila Keetharuth, commissioned by the UN itself to investigate if crimes against humanity occurred in Eritrea. Since they would not let her in to Eritrea to investigate, she ended up collecting the testimonies of those who can shed some light on it: Exiled Eritrea. The kids pictured next to me are the son and daughter of Petros Solomon and Aster Yohannes (disappeared since 2001 and 2003 respectively); the elderly lady is the mother of Aster Yohannes. Their crime, my crime, is that I was there when we gave our testimony of how and when family members disappeared in Eritrea. It is an unforgivable crime to accuse Mother Eritrea of disappearing your mother. It is also a crime, as Pilot Dejen Andeheshel once narrated, to ask why you have been imprisoned, because to ask is to accuse Eritrea of arresting without probable cause. If you are arrested, you are guilty.
Because PFDJ NARRATIVE = ERITREAN NARRATIVE, government officials who disappear citizens in their dungeons, or exile hundreds of thousands of Eritreans while calling them, on live television, “a burden” are not traitors because How can Eritrea (PFDJ) betray Eritrea (PFDJ)? Utter nonsense! AybezHen do (isn’t it too much), asked Eritrea’s Charge d’affaires to America, Berhane, in one of his “public seminars” where he chastised us for daring to question whether a group of people including Isaias, who publicly, on television, pledged allegiance to a foreign power (Abiy Ahmed) can be entrusted with Eritrean sovereignty. And that is the objective situation in the home front.
Back to the judge. Judging by the viewer count of his performance art, and the viewers engagement with it, Awel is very popular. Ignoring for a second the merit of the poems, what exactly is the point of anything that riles half your tiny population to look with seething anger at the other half? Is that the purpose of high art?
If you want an easy demonstration of high art and low art, compare the feelings generated from all that fist pumping, chest-beating, self-praising swagger of Awel Said with that of a once equally-famous poet, the late Dr Reesom Haile’s and his simple “alewuna alewana.”
When you first hear Dr. Reessom Haile’s “We Have Them”, you are struck by the rapid-fire delivery of cataloging what we have, followed by the slow unfolding of aleh-wuna. Pause. Aleh-wana. It ain’t shouting. The depth of the poem emerges: it is not a celebration of geography but breathing, walking Eritreans, in the present. It is forward looking, not grieving of the past triumphantly. That is why it was inspiring and contagious. It was a “We Are Whole, Not Damaged” message. Street kids in Eritrea would approach Dr. Reesom Haile, recognizable by his distinct looks, to smile and mimic his style of delivery on “Alewuna! Alewana!”
Awel Said, the new voice of Eritrea’s Indignation At The World, has only one voice: triumphant bitterness. What exactly will kids approach Awel Said with? Fist raising? Will they just exchange knowing smiles about a victory, specifically Tribe of Eritrea’s triumph over the Tribe of Tigray but they have to do it in hush tones since the Tribe of Eritrea, officially, never fought in Tigray?
If only their triumphant attitude translated into doing what the victorious do: release prisoners; issue a draft of the constitution for popular discussion; reduce compulsory military service to 18 months; build the 12th grade schools you promised you would build when you “temporarily” created Sawa High School; legalize private press, the one you closed “temporarily” for 20 years. That would be a good start to convince us you truly won an un-winnable war. Otherwise, it is more empty sloganeering with no change: and those are the facts on the homeland, homey.
2. When Writers Stop Writing
Speaking of poets, I don’t know why dictators don’t know this but when you censor writers, you create activists. Even imprisoned writers are activist: 19 years after his arrest, Eritrea journalist Amanuel Asrat was named PEN Prize ‘s International Writer of Courage by Jamaican artist Linton Kwesi Johnson.
It was only a few years ago, oh maybe more, but Writer Ghezae Hagos and I were debating the quality of Writer Yosief Ghebrehiwet’s haiku poems, with Ghezae lavishing praise. And now? Writer Ghezae Hagos writes no more: he is now one of the leaders of Global Yiakl. Writer Yosief Ghebrehiwet writes no more. Instead, ubiquitous TV Guest Yosief shows up with his 10-point answers to questions that Tigray Media House, et al asks. You may not agree with his answers (I don’t) but, unlike most guests and hosts on most YouTube shows, Yosief comes prepared to push his advocacy. And I, well, you know about the media-shy NTT on GiE. So, if you want us to go back to writing, you do the politicking and organizing, so we can write about it. Otherwise, you will get AMBASSADOR Sophia Tesfamariam, once a writer, now the least qualified ambassador in the history of UN ambassadors.
Or, maybe reading is an inefficient way of information intake, thanks to the information age? And maybe this is the last generation of readers?
3. The No Information Age
Ethiopia’s #StupidWar is quite possibly the only war, in modern times, that had no independent journalists reporting on it, even as it consumes the lives of hundreds of thousands (US estimate.) This was also a surprise. The information that the Information Age promised us did not age well. RIP, Information Age (1947-2021.) Or, we misread them: I definitely did. You see, what they meant by Information Age is that even if there is a news blackout, there will still be a lot of information (information age!) from the talking heads channels on whether there was a news blackout. We report, you decide. Opinion about the news or non-news will replace the news. There will be votes (please don’t forget to like, subscribe and share) on whether you really think there is a news blackout. We will also read your comments. Live! There will be evidence and counter-evidence (much of it fake) to argue for or against the fact that there is news blackout. In the end you will be very informed (Information Age!) on what some random people and trolls think about the news blackout, but you will still be confused on whether there was or wasn’t a news blackout. Despite the fact that most reputable media outlets told you conclusively that it did. But you KNOW there is no such thing as reputable media, so hating on media (#FAKENEWS) closes a door for clarity, ensuring the need for the pull of the dictatorship, because it speaks of what is “real” with certainty, owning history as its driver and front row observer.
You choose your bubble and settle nice and comfy: social media knows your every little confirmation bias and it will give it to you: for free! Artificial Intelligence is no help at all: AI is just a date-fixer, a mob organizer: “Users who think as stupidly as you, also liked this other content. Like?” You either got doses of ትግራይ ትስዕር! slogans, በሎም (dances!) and #TigrayPrevails news of scientific lightening, stunning military victories of Tigray Defense Forces (the killing of their own countrymen/women); or a steady diet (on a dozen channels, in multiple language including Tigrinya) of how the Ethiopian National Defense Forces is annihilating its own people who happen to speak Tigrinya. The Ethiopian Diaspora showed that, just as the Eritrean Diaspora, sees itself as ambassadors of their nations (and nationalities, in the case of Ethiopia) to their host countries, with no corresponding remittance of knowledge acquired in years of living in the West to their native country’s government. Worse, they rationalize the war in Ethiopia by citing the civil war in the US and that the former is as inevitable as the former. So, Diaspora Ethiopians largely divided according to their tribes: Tigrayans for TDF and the Rest of Ethiopia for ENDF. They could not be counted on to give us reliable information, much less be peace ambassadors.
Now, each side says that the other has set it back 30 years! In every war zone! Many, including Ethiopians, mock the Eritrean opposition. But it is our unwillingness to raise arms against our own conscripted siblings and children and destroy our country that has permitted the Monocracy of Isaias to reign. But to shoot at your own people and then brag (including by the Prime Minister himself) that እንደ ቅጠል እየረገፉ ነው(they are falling like leaves)? A tasteless, uncivilized comment.
There is no Ethiopian independent media to carry a spade and dig for the truth. They have all been replaced by those who carry the spade to bury the truth. Grave diggers. But they do it professionally, with polite bows and telegenic faces. Once in a while, you have to pause at the numbers: Ethiopia, a nation of over 100 million citizens, does not have a private, independent press that has not been shut-down, blocked, or its reporters arrested. And this is the country that wants to tell Africans it is our model nation.
But for a special kind of eccentricity, Asmara is the capital: 14 months and counting, the Eritrean regime has not once reported on the war-next-door through its State media while its spokespersons tour the world and UN halls making it known that they grieve inconsolably for the death of the NORTHERN COMMAND of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces and we stand in solidarity with Prime Minister Abiy. And those are the facts on the ground in the homeland, as they like to say. This is after making it known, again on LIVE TV before the war happened, that they are not just going to observe the developments in Ethiopia; they will influence it. So their refusal now to talk about the war is not some diplomatic wisdom; it is simply an extension of the total contempt they hold Eritreans in.
But from the information worm-hole, wait! Verily, I see two YouTubers, a heavily-accented Indian, and a “needs-some-water” American, who is constantly parching his lips, presenting themselves as unbiased sources of information. Well, gentlemen, you may have every intention of wanting to be unbiased, but your sources are, and all you can do then is aggregate the “news”, much of which is unreliable. Still, two guys who cannot pronounce the names of the war zone they are reporting on, was the best we could do in 2021, to balance the uni-dimensional Ethiopian State/Party TV.
4. The Surprise
If you listened to the points of dispute between TDF and PP supporters, you quickly learn it is a tragic case of Your Villain Is My Hero; Your Hero Is My Villain. If you hate him, I love him; and if you love him, I hate him. From 19th century tales of King-of-Kings Yohannes IV & Menelik II & Tewodros II; to 20th century characters Emperor Haile Selasse I and President Mengistu Hailemariam; to the 21st century of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. And, yes, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki: he is the only one who switched columns. We are now carbon-dating the grievances in half-centuries: if, by accident, the antagonists agree on a common hero, they will ancesty.com him and tell us he is actually from their tribe (Alula and Tedros.) And every day this war drags on, the polarization and the enmity, that has been marinated for 150 years will bubble up and then simmer down until it bubbles up again. It’s really like the other legendary disputes: Turks vs Greeks, Palestinians vs Israel: a deep and complex issue that has been difficult to resolve. And my question is: how is it in Eritrea’s national interest to involve itself, solidly on one side, in a country where fratricide is celebrated? A country like Ethiopia where revolutions and counter revolutions see-saw?
That the Eritrean government, which has obsessed over Weyane since the 2005 elections and made its defeat its prime directive, would go all-in on Ethiopia is unsurprising. But still RECKLESS: the FANOs they are grooming now can DMHT them later. DMHT, you may remember, is Tigrinya acronym for Democratic Movement for Tigrayan Liberation, which trained in Sawa, Eritrea for years only to return to Tigray and join TDF. Doesn’t FANO (Amhara militia) constitute a large swathe of the “Red Sea Is Ours” constituency? Reckless.
But the real surprise was the alignment of the Eritrean opposition. Every day, people were discovering new reasons to show solidarity with TDF (almost always on the worst day of TDF) or wrapping themselves with the Eritrean flag and “standing with our people.” It is as if the 2000s and 2010s did not happen and we forgot the people with whom we are standing are not “standing with our people”: they are responsible for crimes against humanity against Eritreans (Eritrean regime) or doing everything in their power to paralyze the Eritrean opposition and its Tbah TBAH, and, by refusing to vacate Eritrean land, entrenching the dictatorship (the Weyane regime.) How will regimes–which are made of human beings–reform themselves if your support is always unconditional?
That still managed to surprise me. And in the end, I actually came to realize that, sometimes, when the fever pitch is that high, you have to give it time and space for the convulsions to die down. It is no using shouting at the storm unless you are King Lear.
5. NTT on GiE
While there are many factors for the delay in the progress of the National Task Team on Government In Exile, topping the list has to be that the Civil War in Ethiopia sucking the attention of most Eritreans, particularly given the surprising alignment of the Eritrean opposition. In other words, they found yet another wedge-issue to fight over, a particular talent the opposition nurtures. In this environment, a respectable person like Ambassador Andeberhan W. Giorgis doesn’t just have to reject the GiE concept; no, he can go full tabloidy: attack us, nay convict us, of being agents of TPLF trying to turn Eritrea into Lebanon, after making it Syria and Libya. Our only choices were to be silent or to jump on one of the dozen youtube shows to add to the cacophony. Since the latter has the effect of communicating to the people: “there go the opposition again!”, you choose silence and trust the wisdom of the listener. Another factor is that the years of Paltalk shows raining insults on Ghedli have not only created a significant number of Ghedli-haters (Ghedli to include its leaders) but, (and here is the second surprise of 2021), some of the Tegadelti themselves appear to have bought into it, questioning their own historical role and even participation. A third factor is the pace of Eritrean politics, its gobye (tortoise) nature apparently being of Eritrean and not PFDJ variety. To the extent criticism should be directed at NTT’s own performance, this writer carries the responsibility.
The goal remains the same: to create a GiE as a higher form of organizing so as to speed up the pace of change (with no defined role for GiE after change comes, other than that of any citizen.) But for most of 2021, Eritreans were fully immersed in Ethiopia. We will have to see how they emerge in 2022–hopefully on their terms. Meanwhile, we continue with our consultation of Eritrean stakeholders (ONLY): civil society and political organizations.
I believe, and I apologize if I haven’t made my case forcefully in the scores (dozens? hundreds?) of articles, many with sources, that I have written over the last 20 years; or maybe because of the nature of social media, where this article is likely shared, you have come to doubt everything unless it has your pope’s imprimatur; or maybe there are just too many Mohammeds in my name and you know how they are; or maybe you don’t like that it is written in English; or you were told I am not organic Eritrean, whatever that means: I believe, and I have supporting evidence for it, that the ruling regime in Eritrea is an imminent danger to Eritrea (its continued sovereign state status) and Eritreans (the systematic diminishment of the people.) From their severely-malnourished childhood which has life-long impacts; to their sudden death or martyrdom at old age, Eritreans witness or experience torture; they see jails where the citizens right to live with dignity is severely ignored; they are separated from families at a young age to attend a High School in a Military Desert; they are in prolonged military encampment and never ending wars, and they are exiled, and they are forcibly returned. And I take people at face value when they publicly pledge allegiance to a foreign power, as the Isaias Administration did, no matter how many times Awel and Berhane yell at me.
War is ever-present with this crew in charge.
Consider this: When Eritrea accepted the Ethiopian invite to send delegation to discuss normalization of relationship in 2018, we heard about it from President Isaias Afwerki. Later, it would come to light that Andargachew Tsigge was the middle man, but the point is, in this peace negotiation, while the reality of real peace, for the first time in 20 years, was in the horizon, Isaias told the assembled Sawa graduates, that we had sent delegation to Ethiopia. In the meantime, continued Isaias, the youth are to tighten their belts and remain on alert. This is not the time for relaxation. Or something similarly un-assuring. Recall: Yemane G and Osman Saleh did not go to Addis to negotiate anything, that was done earlier, they were there to announce, as they were instructed by Isaias, publicly, on live television, that Abiy Ahmed, a foreign national, is “our leader.” And if you don’t agree with the policy to surrender your sovereignty to a foreign power, you are probably not an Eritrean. So: war in times of peace, to protect ourselves from enemies of the peace. War, obviously, during war. And war preparations after war. War, war, war for 30 years. Muting, for now, the moral implications of this policy, how viable is such a policy for a country with such a small population. And when it dawns on you that the only reaction to this is outrage, then even NTT on GIE will start making sense to you.
6. The Premature Post-Mortem
If supporters of TDF want to now know how come everyone, except them, knew that the rise would be followed by a fall, I have pointers that they are free (and they will exercise that freedom) to ignore it. But it is from neighbor with genuine goodwill who wants Tigrayan people’s (the praying moms!) peace and prosperity:
(A) People, young people, on Tigray TV said this (REPEATEDLY) after a war: እሶም ናይ ኣቦታቶም ጌሮም: ንሕና ድማ ናይ ኣቦታትና (They did as their fathers had done; we did as our fathers had done) and the “they” in that shorthand were fellow Ethiopians who were killed, wounded, dispersed, captured.
(B) That toxic mindset is definitely a culture, a brew of Weyin, Weyanay, Yohannes IV, Ras Alula, Axum and a procession of saints who are always fighting on the side of TDF. TPLF has to be the first communist organization that encourages superstitions.
(C) When they were not saying እሶም ናይ ኣቦታቶም ጌሮም, they would talk about military science, singing about scientific lightning ሳይንሳዊ መብረቕ, they are praising their own ቖረጻ and mocking others, as if ቖረጻ is a military strategy invented in Dedebit. They are at war with three of their neighbors. Simultaneously. 27 years in power bought them goodwill only at the State Department and UN, but nowhere else. Still they marched towards Addis Abeba, stretching their supply line to its absolute limit, and being surprised by the power of drones AFTER the events in Libya and Syria.
(D) Only they believed their own “there is no power that can stop us” message, but bubbles are more than dangerous, they really are deadly.
If supporters of Prosperity Party want to know how come the war was executed so poorly by their side:
(A) Tigray youth of October 2020 were indistinguishable from any other Ethiopian youth of October 2020: their affinity was to the international youth culture (music, fashion, art, movements, career-search) never mind Tigray much less TPLF. Ethiopians must ask themselves: what terrible things did we do; what horrific things did we allow to be done; what ghastly facts did we not know that we should have known between Novemeber 2020 and June 2021 that transformed the Tigray youth of September 2020 into a fighting machine?
(B) Is the former minister (the only one to resign during the war) telling the truth when she said in cabinet meetings Abiy was discussing war long, long before “NORTHERN COMMAND!” That she was prevented from sharing damning information she collected about Ethiopians conduct during the war.
(C) You have set back your country back 30 years. You can no longer even console yourself by saying “the Weyane rule was terrible, but at least they built some infrastructure” because you have methodically destroyed your country and impoverished her even more. A Prime Minister who got his PhD by writing a thesis on alternative dispute resolution should not have gone rushing to war, no matter the provocations. This embrace of peace at almost all costs deserves a Nobel Peace Prize. Sadly, its premature conferring, has the opposite effect: if peace is making me appear weak, then war can change my image quickly! It is what resulted in Obama bombing Libya and what contributed to Abiy bombing Mekele. And denying her citizens food, medicine, banking, electricity, internet so they “can pressure the people to overthrow Weyane.” Barbaric.
7. Covid-19 Vaccination:
It was a valiant effort by Burundi to also be special, but in the end, it yielded to Eritrea. Eritrea is the only country in Africa that doesn’t allow COVID vaccinations. Except for high-ranking officials because they can’t do their job–travel internationally–without getting vaccinated. I hope you understand. Never mind if the question has not been answered: has it been asked? Why is Eritrea not allowing vaccinations? Or did we just file this in our “Eritrea Is Special” folder and await patiently for our leaders to tell us why? Is the silence part of the strategy to keep our enemies off-balance?
And just so you are up-to-date on the Eritrean Narrative (I don’t want Awel to yell at us again): Eri-TV has a 3-part documentary updating it: Eritrea’s independent political stance which resulted in phenomenal economic growth in the 1990s was so terrifying to the USA (because Eritrea was creating an alternative success model) that the US ordered Weyane to declare war on Eritrea in 1998. If you are thinking, well, I read of Hillary Clinton visiting, I read of Bill Clinton praising Eritrea, I know the glowing reports about Eritrea were actually published by American institutions (press, IMF, World Bank), I know of the manic efforts to reason with two bald men fighting over a comb, and so only the most ill-informed would believe this Eritrean Narrative, you are sadly mistaken about the value of confirmation bias: in the hands of True Believers and Mzungus Who Blame America First For Everything, it will always have currency. It is actually our only export to Ethiopia now: the power of conspiracy theories.
8. Exit the Veterans:
If you read Hadas Ertra regularly, you will notice there are daily death announcements of veterans. This is natural, given their age, except that the people dying occupied large spaces in our imagination once. So as with all deaths you are mourning the passing of the YOU at the time you met, or heard of, the departed so many years ago. Two of the three, to be exact: Ramadan Mohammed Nur and Alamin Mohammed Said. The latter I had always thought of as a humble man until he became the Voice of Isaias on G-15 in 2001, and on that I will say nothing because at his funeral I briefly saw his daughter, and it is a father-to-father courtesy.
To an entire generation of Eritreans, Ramadan Mohammed Nur is A Man Famous For Resigning With Dignity, one of the most hopeful things that happened in 1994, which we enjoyed thoroughly, in the honeymoon years, as a sign of Eritrea’s readiness for electoral democracy: The Co-Founder Of The Front Resigns At The Front’s Congress To Give Front New Blood. No threat of dynasties here! Well, until we were told the truth: he was arm-twisted into resigning. Wait, it gets worse. Some of those who did the arm-twisting in 1994 disappeared in 2001.
But to prior generations, including mine, Ramadan Mohammed Nur is one of the pillars of modern Eritrea. My pillars include ELF, EPLF, ELF-PLF, SAGEM, ETC, anyone who was influential in raising Eritrea from the ashes in 1991. Yes, I know, some of our pillars were crushed by a fallen pillar, a pushed pillar. And so when he passed on just last week, well it is like any death: I thought of the first time I heard of him; I thought of the last image I saw of him was at a hotel reception for Abiy Ahmed Ali in Asmara. Seen, not heard from, voiceless: basically, Eritrea.
Earlier in the year, Ambassador Adhanom Gebremariam passed away. I happened to have narrated my recollection of him in my interview with Yoel Lino, in the same interview when I proposed GiE as a solution to our country’s lawlessness, and I will never know what he thinks of GiE.
Is it just me or do you ask, every time you hear of death, are people still being born in Eritrea? The ratified Eritrean Constitution of 1997 says ” The family is the natural and fundamental unit of society and is entitled to the protection and special care of the State and society.” and the PFDJ National Charter, which the NNNN quote like a Bible says, “our vision is for Eritrea to preserve its identity and uniqueness, develop commitment to family and community care.”
Does it show commitment to family, never mind protection by State, to break up families by separating husband from wife for decades; for children 16-17 years old are compulsory bussed to a high school in the middle of hottest regions of Eritrea? Does it show care to family when it is denying prisoners family visitation which is recognized world-wide as a form of torture? Those are the things a righteous poet should rail against!
There was another veteran who passed away around the same week as Alamin Mohammed Seid. The fact that his name escapes me humbles me: Eritrea required and will always require many like him, who work tireless and quietly: its too bad, in his case, it was mostly pushing the rock up the hill and that these quiet workers focus on their work deafens them from hearing the cries of their own family, friends, relatives, neighbors: their Eritrean community.
Happy New Year
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