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On January 5, 2001, an Eritrean family was slaughtered in Shegerab, a Refugee camp in the Sudan. Adem Mohammed Kher, his six years old son and six-month daughter were killed. Another three of his children aged six, nine and eleven years were badly wounded. But who cares, let them rot in the refugee camps and die mysteriously! Leaving the accusation business to those who are close to the scene, we would like to invoke our assessment engine. When governments worth their thin oily sweat become aware that one of their citizens was murdered, they protest, they ask for explanations and clarifications about the whole incident. They pressure for an investigation surrounding the circumstances of the murder. On the other hand, when governments that are not worth their stinking sweat, hear of such incidents, they go mum. Now, an Eritrean family was murdered in a cowardly act. A family that was disowned together with thousands of other refugees couldnt even have the luxury of a safe refugeeism. The Eritrean media was silent about the incident. The so-called private publications followed suitall went on a silence strike. One could imagine them asking, who? Who got killed? It is the despicable culture of cant-see cant hear and cant talk. Any one who knew of the incident and kept silent should be ashamed. The media that doesnt report such incident (debating the incident would be too much to ask) is not worth, again, its stinking sweat. Bravo the loyally silent. Bravo to those who keep their conscience indefinitely in deep-freeze. Hail cowardice. Hail betraying your people. Hail to selective noise button. Bravo. Bravo indeed. Do they deserve a Bouquet of Flowers? No. They dont even deserve a bouquet of rotten onions smelling just like their morale sweat. The Carrosa and the Martyred Horse
A young man goes to the field, the Armed Struggle. His mother is left behind alone. Years go by and she is still waiting. She dreams of her loved one returning victorious. When he comes back, she would hug him and kiss him and not let go for eternity. She would shed tears of happiness and tears of longing and love. Her wrinkled face would control the flow; rivers of tears would run dawn her darkened cheeks. Eritrea would be liberated. Her son would support her. He would get married and soon, she would play with his children, her grandchildren. Giggling everywhere in the humble house; laughter and happiness in the streets. She would kneel dawn and pray for that moment. She trusts that God listens. Her son returnsrather his picture returns. A certificate that says: Mom, sorry I cant make it, keep my picture. She had promised to cry when she meets him; so she sheds warm tears of motherhood. She had dreamed that he would support her. She received some money and a letter that read: your son died heroically. She knew it before. She knew her son was a hero before the letter was read to her confirming that he was a hero. He was a hero, she knows. She is the one who brought him to this world. She raised him to be only a hero. Cash to support her for a while. Good gesture, commendable action indeed. The old woman goes to the city. Buys a Carrossa (Cart) with a Horse. Employs a young relative of hers to drive it. Now she would make a living. She would have money to enlarge her sons photograph. She would feed those poorer than her and pray for the spirit of her son. And his friends. God giveth and God taketh. She is a believer. The Carrossa violates a traffic law in the polished city. A red light here and No-Stop sign there, well, horses do violate traffic lightsthey do not see themselves as cars. Cars are for the rich; and horses are for the rich but not when they are pulling carts and operating as fachini. The horse is jailed. The jailers are mean they do not believe in feeding road-sign violating horses. The horse goes hungry. The horse becomes sick. The horse sacrificed its life: it becomes a Martyr. Not knowing that her horse was a hero and it sacrificed itself, the old lady went to beg for the release of the struggling horse. She was told that the horse passed away heroically. Only this time, they would not give her a picture and a certificate for the martyrdom of the heroic horse. She was ordered to take the body of the horse (not the carcass) with her and bury it. If not, the horse mortuary that was established in the HazHaz jail would take care of the burial ceremony. But she should pay the bill in advance. The women asked for a permission to hug the dead horse, to wash it with her tears. It was the price of her martyred son now a silently dead horse. The living masters have divorced their conscience. Is there a way of telling this to the martyrs? How cruel can one be! Royalties for the PFDJ Franchise The Big M of the McDonalds hamburger business. The red roofed cottage, the Pizza Hut brand. Many other Franchisers offering their brand names for a fee, a life-long income of royalties. The PFDJ is a hot franchise. Community teashops, publications, video and audiotapes, concerts, festivals, money-transfers and many more and these are only in foreign lands; the franchise inside Eritrea is more suffocating. It is difficult to comprehend that the single-party, and by extension the government, leaves the task of governing on the back seat while it busies itself with making money and competing with its citizens. It is even more difficult to understand how a government could not have any qualms in levying income tax in foreign lands. Here, the issue is not the 2% monthly tax; it is deeper than thatwe will try to touch the rim of the economic malpractice. The exploitation that the common person doesnt hear about. Individuals act on their own and if they commit legal violation, they should be pursued legally. But when a government violates laws left right and center, it takes the dignity and integrity of the whole nation to the pit. It is common knowledge that to operate in commercial or financial activities of any country, you need a license. Any activity that is not licensed, whatever the justification, is illegal in nature. Governments that get involved in illegal activities are not worth any respect at all. The firstly-economy-secondly-politics party has involved itself in all sorts of financial transaction without any license from the host countries. For example, how could one explain that you could transfer money through an Embassy? Do the Embassies have a license to operate as banks and exchange institutions? There is no point in going any further but just to remind those who are running the notorious conglomerate and the different parastatals to think about the dignity of Eritrea and the principle that any government should adhere to. The above was triggered when I heard of an old man who is suffering of a wring for royalties that he defaulted in paying to the bosses of the parastatals. He is ordered to cough thousands of Saudi Riyals. Here is the story: We all know that Embassies are not set to engage in the commercial-premise renting business; somehow, they seem to be earning some royalties/ rent income. A community recreation center that was established years ago in Jeddah was taken over by the PFDJ some years ago. Mohammed Hamid Jeme'e, whose nickname is Poveri, has been running the cafeteria in the center for almost twenty years always paying rent to the community center. Some years ago, the power that be, hiked his rents by folds per month. A year later, it was hiked again. And now, word is that it is renting for close to 30,000 Riyals per month. Well, prices go up and go upseldom coming dawn. If that was that, we would consider it a normal commercial dispute. But it is deeper than that. In August of last year, Poveri left for Eritrea to visit his country. Everything went all right for the duration of his stay in Eritrea. When he was leaving, however, he was stopped from boarding the plane going to Saudi Arabia. He was taken to jail where he stayed for a month. Finally, he was released on bail. The bail was set on a strict condition. Poveri is supposed to pay the disputed amount of seventy eight thousand Saudi Riyals in six-month and be finished by April of 2001. Now few points to ponder. 1- How on earth is a sick and ailing man supposed to come up with 78,000 Riyals from? 2- Who gives the Eritrean government (represented by its police force) to jail someone for a month? 3- Who gives it the authority to look into dispute over transaction that happened in Saudi-Arabia, isn't it a case for the Saudi courts to look at since it concerns Saudi property inside Saudi Arabia on agreement reached in Saudi Arabia? 4- Who gives it the right to stop someone from boarding the plane, what court issued the warrant to do that? 5- Who gives the police to take over the role of the courts and exercise the authority to make someone sign, under duress at that, a commitment to take responsibility of the claimed loan, which is disputed? The sad thing is that the party engages in commercial deals with individuals and organization. In case of dispute, the party has all the state institutions and the police force fully supporting it and squeezing signatures and commitments from the weak plaintiffthe helpless individuals. Then you have the blackmailing exercised through out the Embassies of the Middle East... especially in the Gulf States who have strict residence laws. Here, citizens are blackmailed into accepting draconian laws legislated at the embassies demanding hefty payments in many forms. If one does not obey and cough money, chances are that one would face grave consequences of deportation, job loss and other unexplainable difficulties. I do not know how one would not be enraged with all this violations and bullying that is going on everywhere outside and inside Eritrea. Maybe those people think Eritreans have submitted to slavery and are acting like masters from the middle of the middle of the Middle Ages. Levying taxes on a foreign economy
Governments have authority only over the territories that lie within the confines of their country. If a certain wedini (lets call him Hagos), decide to destroy my bicycle in Italy, then I can only sue him and report the incident to the Italian Police. If I decide to take the case up with Hagos in Eritrea, the Eritrean police and legal system has nothing to do with the case since it did not happen in Eritrea. This is something common and one doesnt need a Law degree to understand it. I can not complain of an incident that happened outside one country in another country. Of course, there is the Interpol and the agreements that govern it. Similarly, no foreign country has the right to levy taxes on earnings made in a foreign economy. Because it doesnt make sense for someone to be taxed by the government of the country in which he lives and by the country of his origin. Again, some fees could arguably be levied on citizens living abroad provided the law to do so is passed by a representative government. But paying taxes legislated by the central bank, the Wahio organization and a moody official is outrageous. Creating conductive investing environment instead of trying to collect taxes by harassing citizens and using illegal means could better attract income to the country in the form of investment by citizens. Now, what was collected was squandered and the citizens are poorer than when this adventure of around Eastern Europe for three hundred million Dollars was started. Had there been a proper investing opportunity, citizens would have invested many fold of what they contributed in the form of taxes and imposed bond buys. The usual bluff about self reliance is being exposed by the day. Government officials even hinted that Eritrea is not a debt-free country as many were led to believe until recently. What remains now and what we beg for, is, for the government to hit us hard on the face with the figures: how much do we owe the world? the awate team |
