Yeah, but what is new? Confession: what I really want to call this article is “Isaias Afwerki Said Some Crazy Shit Again” but that is not befitting a head of state.
There was a time when Isaias Afwerki used to pretend that he is not a dictator because (circular argument alert!) the Eritrean people would never put up with a dictator (they did, they do, until they won’t): therefore, I am not a dictator. Now his answer to accusations that he is a dictator is: “And? What’s your point?”
But I am getting ahead of myself. So, he was interviewed. And you are saying to yourself, “He was? What was the occasion?” Excellent question because you have been paying attention: the president doesn’t tolerate the indignity of having hand-picked State media employees ask him hand-picked questions unless there is some occasion for it. It is not like he owes the people accountability because in this country (meaning Eritrea), as he once said, nobody (meaning he) owes anybody (meaning you) anything. You, on the other hand, owe him everything: your very identity, your ability to inhale and exhale, your limited freedom (if you have it) and the privilege of having your dead body buried (when you die in exile.)
The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the 1994 establishment of Sawa as a military base for National Service. This was one year ahead of the 1995 Proclamation declaring an 18-month long National Service on all 18-40 year old Eritreans, except those who live in the West, who are exempted not by law but by favor, but including Eritreans in Eritrea who may be under 18 (as young as 16) and a lot more than 40 years old (60, 70, 80 if in the People’s Army), and not just for 18 months but for multiples of 18 months (7, 8, 12, 15 years), the proclamation itself being the third revision of itself, voiding previous ones but not totally and…never mind.
The point is: such compulsory and thoroughly corrupt “National Service” will be evaded and, to counter such evasion, harsher measures must be taken (look what you are forcing the poor government to do!) including ensuring the only 12th grade in the entire nation is housed in one location (in a fenced camp next to the military base of Sawa.) And, to make sure the transition from student to soldier is seamless, they will wear military fatigues and live like soldiers. And, in their spare time–when they are not running up and down in stifling heat of Sawa to work out the calories accumulated from the piece of dry bread and cup of lentils–they will be taken to State-owned farms to work the fields, then they can run and gather wood for cooking, just before they can rush to study before the lights go out.
Every rational person knows this is reasonable and necessary when building a nation especially when we have to catch up to recoup what we have lost (source: Isaias), although we lost nothing and we recouped all our properties (source: also Isaias a fews seconds earlier. Can you spell schizophrenia?) Thus, if Eritreans are making the very irrational decision of risking death by drowning, death at the hands of smugglers, exile to live in refugee tents, it must be, it can only be, because Eritrea’s enemies (the whole fucking world, it turns out) have been plotting to empty the country of its productive citizens and bring about regime change (because, apparently, regimes fall when those most likely to resist it leave the country in droves. Isn’t that happened in Ethiopia and Sudan? Exactly.) That is what President Isaias was going to explain today and I hope you are paying attention.
- The proper reaction when you learn your people are dying is to laugh.
Why? Because you have to show those who want to force you to change your policies that you are not going to change. You should never ask what you are doing to force them to leave their country (push factors); you must instead ask what they, the world, is doing to mislead the youth into thinking that what they experienced in Eritrea–indefinite conscription, slave labor, sexual assault, disappearance, cruel, degrading, physical and psychological abuse–is not good for them (pull factors.)
2. Plot Twist: Those Asking For Asylum in Israel, Europe, USA Are Eritreans
After denying that those who are applying for asylum in foreign countries are Eritreans–and convincing all the useful idiots, including the foreign ‘instant-Eritrea-experts’ that they are actually Ethiopians and Sudanese and Somalis masquerading as Eritreans–now is the time to admit that, yes, they are Eritreans because your goal now is to show that you are not going to be pressured into changing even if the whole fucking country is emptied out. Now that is steadfastness, Lion, Nakfa, Pregnant Tigress, etc.
3. Plot Thickens: Those Abandoning Eritrea Are From “Specific Localities of Eritrea.”
…and: it’s not your locality. Now, doesn’t that make you (NNNN, Militia Taff) feel very special? In 1993, Isaias Afwerki (in Washington, DC public meeting) was asked about women’s rights and his answer took the usual scenic route (kolel) and it ended with this: men are not as steadfast as women and we know this based on our statistics of desertion rates during the armed struggle. The women ululated and the men applauded. The women for the special recognition (this is before they would learn they would be the playthings for the corrupt military, sexually assaulted, with their “advocacy group”, NUEW telling them they imagined it all, forcing them to accept early marriage as the only way out) and the men applauded because Isaias knows everything. ኣሃዛትን ፊደላትን ናይ ኩሉ ኣለዎ ‘ዚ ሓያል ሰብኣይ!
So now, if you are learning that a country whose entire population is less than 4 million (according to government report to African Commission on Human & People’s Rights just two years ago) and this same country produced over half-a-million exiles in less than 10 years and that all these half-a-million exiles are from “specific localities”, it is a good time for you to turn your brain off (the voice which says there aren’t half a million men, women, children from the “specific localities”) and enjoy the warm glow of knowing, “he ain’t talking about MY locality.” Those from my locality? ንኺድ ጥራይ! Andiamo, let’s go!
4. Eritreans Are a Very Special People
There are some people who mock Isaias Afwerki for dropping out of college, but I am not one of them. Lots of people who changed the world dropped out of college. However, I do think that his decision to drop out of college is either the effect or the cause of his inability to process information correctly, specially as he gets older.
A few examples: there was the wikileaks report that he was very upset to learn that cherry tomatoes were tiny and will never be big ripe ones. (Obviously, an American conspiracy.) A few years ago, somebody told him in passing that, due to its altitude, Asmara is not the ideal location for international airports (burns a lot of fuel on takeoffs) and he took the country on a futile effort to establish an international airport in Massawa. (We will have 6 international airports according to the latest ኣንታ ዝኾነ ኢልካ ኣካርጆም* public seminar directive of PFDJ festival in San Jose.) Related to all of this, Zemehret Yohannes (the capo di tutti cappi of PFDJ “cultural affairs”) wrote a book “ኢጣልያዊ መግዛእቲ ኣብ ኤርትራ” chronicling the number of Eritreans who were enlisted (conscripted) in Italy’s colonial army, year by year, from 1912 until 1935. His point (I think) was that by 1935, from the 150,000 able- bodied Eritrean males, Italy had forcefully conscripted 40.3% (compared to less than 10% in prior years.)
Isaias’s takeaway from this is: Italy was able to occupy Italian Somaliland, Libya and Ethiopia using Eritrean muscle, brains and guts. So all glory goes to us. We are a special people.
First of all: this proves, really, that it was EPLF military strategists that carried Isaias on their shoulders (ተሓንጊርዎም ኣስመራ ኣትዮ) and not, as claimed by his propagandists, vice versa: no wonder they never let him lead a single battle in the EPLF. His analysis is a total misreading of history, specifically history of colonial wars. Italy, a mediocre colonial power and a late-comer to the whole Scramble for Africa, snatched Italian Somaliland from the overstretched Brits because it overwhelmed them with its manpower. Italy snatched Libya from the declining Ottoman empire (which was willing to give it up without war if it could have token title of ownership) because, again, it had more army and weapons than Turkey in Libya. Italy was able to occupy Ethiopia because, by then, Ethiopia was exhausted, divided and didn’t have the arms to fight back. If Italy’s magic ingredient was Eritrean “muscle, brains and guts” why did Italy have its ass handed back to her in Adwa, Gurae battles with Ethiopia? And by the way, which Eritrean “muscle, brains and guts” was Italy using when it occupied Eritrea? Its own?
Secondly, and more importantly, a person with this mindset, with unrestrained power, is very dangerous for Eritreans. Such a mindset gets one to believe that he has some magic ingredient to wage constant wars (then loses 30% of our land in one war); to believe he has an influence much more than his modest means (“Eritrea is the center of gravity in the Horn”) bankrupting the nation in the process or going to long, deep depression when the world disagrees with him. And when it is echoed by what my friend Saleh G Johar calls fascistic thinking, then we are doomed. And who wears the brunt of the dangerous thinking? We the people: impoverished, exiled, ricocheting from one war to another, and falling behind each year.
But not to worry! There is a parallel universe: while I was shouting “Down! Down!” in San Jose, CA led by our young Yiaklers, across the street from us, the fantasy show was going unimpeded. Somebody made a Powerpoint presentation about an imaginary solar power that is being built somewhere in Developing Eritrea. Applause. Somebody else made a presentation about the 5-star hotel that is being built in Fast Developing Asmara. Applause! It is awesome that we are building 5 international airports! But where will all the people (who are not exiled) live? For that, my favorite source is Madote.com: every couple of years it publishes architectural rendering of a massive apartment complex that is being built (but never does.)
In a land where cement is illegal, new construction is illegal, and a government that can’t even provide running water, can’t keep our borders open, can’t resolve a tiny conflict with Djibouti, can’t educate its people, can’t even keep its people, can’t even maintain institutions it inherited (churches, mosques), never mind building new ones and, for the 15th year in a row, just got ranked as next to dead-last in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” ranking…. The Isaias and Isaiasts can comfort themselves with: “We beat Somalia! First with war helping colonial Italy and now with “Ease of Doing Business” list! Nkhid Tray! Isaias Afwerki is in his 70s, he will go by Act of God or Man: it is his toxic mindset that has seeped into much of Eritrean psyche that we will have to work hard to rid Eritrea of.
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