"ergem is not a substitute for action" adei teK'a

When damages occur and people have insurance coverage, people run to the insurance companies for compensation. If a loss is associated with an  Act of God that is not covered by insurance, or by unknown causes, then people grieve and ��move on.�  

For man-made disasters, nothing should go unaccounted for, nothing. We still believe that Colonel Mengistu should be made to face a court of law for the massacres that he carried out in Eritrea and Ethiopia. The fact that he is leading a �normal� life is a bad message to future criminals. We do not expect the Eritrean government to pursue him now when they hadn�t done so for the last ten years. In a language designed to appeal to his main constituency (proverb-loving folksy women), IPIA declared �Mergemna yaKlo! [our curses shall suffice!]� when he was asked what should we do about Mengistu and the other war criminals.  And then the issue was closed: the mergem was the substitute for action.   The EPLF relegated the responsibility of pursuing Mengistu to its ally, the EPRDF, who failed to achieve any accomplishment in that aspect�although, at least, unlike the EPLF, they tried.

Leadership is not just about taking credit for everything that goes right; it is taking responsibility for things that happen under your watch.   �Under your watch means� you are responsible for things you did, things you didn�t when you should have, things you knew and things you should have known by virtue of the position you hold and the authority you exercise.   

If you are a leader, do you lose 19, 0000 lives (as announced) and move on as if nothing happened? Do you owe your compatriots an accounting of the missing-in-action and the maimed? How can the war be over for over a year and seven months now and we don�t know what to make of the three-year war with Ethiopia? Who is responsible for the colossal loss of lives? And who bears responsibility for the wasted resources, the loss of our dignity and the displacement of a third of our citizens? Who responds for the tens of thousands who cannot return to their farms due to the war? Do we just forget about it and move on? Don�t we have a moral obligation to identify who was responsible for all this loss?

In less than two months, the world court will pronounce its verdict in the border case between Eritrea and Ethiopia and we will have to abide by the final say of the court. As of this moment, we believe, at least in the Badme case, the ruling would be in favor of Eritrea. Whatever the outcome of the ruling, we wish the world court would begin deliberations on the case of humanity against whoever-was-the-cause-of-the-war. Our losses must be avenged with the proper dispensing of justice; nothing less is enough.

As for the origins of the war, �Let the UN do that,� is an irresponsible answer.  We all know that whatever conclusions the UN comes up with, in that area, are going to be disputed by both Eritrea and Ethiopia: they will quote the parts they like and disown the parts they don�t.  They will do this even if the report is �final.�  Then they will tell us to �move on��just as they did after the Hanish Crisis was resolved. We will be told that that part of our relationship with Ethiopia is an old chapter and �let�s just move on.�  To distract us, they will give us a candy (a bogus election, a bogus �financial miracle� report) and if that doesn�t work, they will embroil us in a new crisis and make us feel guilty for asking about the previous crises.

We need a fact-finding investigation.  But who shall conduct an investigation?  The so-called Eritrean National Assembly is a sumun bukmun Umyun (deaf, dumb and blind) organ whose idea of exercising its powers in any situation is to rubber stamp any action taken by the executive office. The youth who should have agitated and spearheaded such inquiries are busy organizing fund-raising parties and �gwayla� in every occasion. The reformists refuse to mention accountability of the past ten years: they would rather discuss it in a closed meeting when G1 calls them for a meeting.  And, since there is no meeting, they will just discuss it �among themselves��among the �trusted� comrades--in hushed voices.  Meanwhile, the public is singing Osman Abdulrahim�s �zHw ilu meAnTai� and silently agonizing.

This is a result of letting people get away with murder, literally murder. If everyone who led a nation were held accountable for his/her actions, the incentive to act irresponsibly would be eliminated. In our case, we were in a situation of war with grave consequences and we don�t have justice for it. Eritrea was wronged and justice must take its course. If not, Eritrea is being wronged twice, once when it lost its sons and daughters and a second time when their loss was not treated with justice. We need justice.

Globalism: Filling The Void For Home-Grown Decency

So, our hope is back to globalism: for �others� to do our job.   For other human rights organizations�the UN, the HRW, Amnesty International�to watch out for our rights; for other international student organizations to watch out for the rights of our jailed students; for Reporters Without Borders, Lawyers Without Borders, Doctors Without Borders to watch out for the rights of our reporters, lawyers and doctors.   What else?  Maybe the Grey Panthers can advocate the cause of our elderly. Maybe the National Organization of Women (NOW) can speak on behalf of our jailed sisters and mothers.  What a fine example of �self-reliance.�

It is not without reason that the G-1 trumpets �self-reliance�: it keeps all the �interfering� types out, so that you can molest your citizens without intrusion.  It is fast on its way to changing Eritrea to another Highly Indebted Nation without the nation having anything to show for its indebtedness other than empty slogans of �self-reliance.�

The forces of globalism do help in speeding up the process of democratization but the impetus must come from within us.  We must come to accept that Eritrea has become a prison: a nation where people are told what to think, what to say, how to say it; a nation where people�s liberties can be denied at the whim of one man and his lieutenants.  And we must make it our mission to liberate the people from this prison.  How?  That requires strategies and plans; and to do that, people need to meet.  And to meet, they need to abandon the era of suspicion and mistrust: seeds sown by the IPIA, an expert at planting suspicion.  We won�t make much progress as long as those who have positioned themselves as alternatives to IPIA continue to use the language and the mannerism of the IPIA.  After all, if Eritreans want that demeaning language and that exclusive culture, why would they settle for a counterfeit when they can have the Original? Some food for thought to our Reformist friends�

Le assed assed ketleyu

One version of a popular Eritrean joke goes something like this�.

A man with a reputation for being a bully and a coward was drinking tea in a teahouse with some friends.  A fly landed on their table and the bully smashed it, while it was on the dining table.  A disgusted waiter looks at his table and asks the group: �who killed the fly?� The bully replies proudly: la assed assed qetleyu! (A lion killed the lion). 

After jailing the too frail, the too old, the too young and the too innocent, the G-1 are feeling like furry-headed lions after a kill. 

The health of a few individuals detained last September has deteriorated to such an extent that they may be living their last days in jail without any medical attention.  At least one, we are told, has been released and is under house arrest. (Usually, when people die in custody of the G1, their next of kin are not notified: they are insulted for daring to ask their government the whereabouts of a loved one.)  Spending a lifetime liberating a country and spending the twilight of your life in a prison guarded by a �comrade�: such has become a metaphor for IPIA�s Eritrea.  Whatever the outcome, there is someone responsible for this and they must understand clearly that justice can be delayed but it is never denied.

The helpless people in Eritrea are suffering because Eritrean culture does not condone violence and Eritreans have reverence for authority�even illegitimate authority.   Knowing this, the G1 is provoking the people so much and leading the nation to a brink of disaster where the people cannot handle the oppression any more. Then, all the patience will explode and the whole nation will lose.

Fall Of The Anters

In the early seventies, there was an Ethiopian soldier who frequented a popular after-school hangout for students.  His name was Mokenn.  He once disappeared for a week and came back to tell a group of Eritreans about his adventures fighting the �werebela� [Amharic for �bandit�] and how his unit had wiped them out. He shook his head in disbelief, trying to explain how �a handful of raggedy shiftas [outlaws] would dare to challenge the authority of anbessaw Janhoi [Haile Selassie I.�]  He leaned to the wall and tried to push as hard as he could to dramatize his point: �however hard you push, the wall is so strong you can�t make it fall�.   (Later, the Eritreans found out he and his unit had just returned after burning a village and killing tens of poor peasants in the Azreqet area.) Years later, Mokenn ended up in on of the ELF�s POW camps: he had surrendered to the �wenmbede� [bandits] who dared to challenge the unbeatable Janhoi.

It turns out that Janhoi is timeless; he just assumes the bodies of different Anters: Strong Men.   Sometimes he is an ill-tempered short man with military khakis; sometimes he is an ill-tempered tall man with Western tailored suits.  But the Eritrean spirit never changes:  it has to fight Janhoi regardless of whatever shape he assumes and whenever he comes.

slTane slTania: The Lunch Box Civilization

slTania is the lunch box that the working class used to pack their lunches in for noon breaks.  In Eritrea, it is equally famous for the meals it transports from the family members to their jailed loved one.  Generations of Eritreans are familiar with it�it goes back at least to the 1952, the beginning of Eritrea�s federation with Ethiopia.  People who grew up carrying �slTania� [meal boxes] to one jailhouse or another know what it feels to have people jailed.  The long-suffering Eritreans equated slTania with bad news, at first (meaning the loved one is in jail); then the same slTania was a sign of good news (meaning at least the loved one is alive.)   The jailers were telegraphed to this Eritrean optimism and decided to abuse it: long after the jailed victim had disappeared (transported to another jail, killed), the guards would continue to receive the slTania: it was free lunch.    

Eritreans know much and they attune their survival instincts to survive.  They know the arguments of the �qarmas� and they deal with them with dignified silence. ��ziwin kHalf iyu: [this, too, shall pass],� they whisper to themselves as one arrogant government replaces another, abusing their security and their person and their property, as they pack their stTania to work or to visit a loved one in jail.

What is the wellspring of Eritrean�s strength?  What accounts for the optimism?  It is the knowledge that as the jailer constructs more and more jails, he continues to build more and more watch towers: to watch the jailed, and to watch to the other jailers watching the jailed. Ultimately, the prisoner becomes the imprisoned worshipping a god not of his choosing.

Consider the differences.  Our Eritrea is colorful and inviting; the G1�s Eritrea is dreary and restrictive. Our Eritrea extends from Qarrora to Umhajer to Rahaita; the G1�s Eritrea is limited to the Presidential Palace,  the officers clubs and the segretos. Our Eritrea is all about empowering the people; theirs is about dictating to the people. Ours is a peaceful Eritrea; theirs is one indefinitely at war and bloodstained. Our Eritrea is tolerant and stable; the G-1�s Eritrea exists so long as there is intolerance and instability, a breeding ground for ultra nationalism and militancy.  Ours is a reconciled Eritrea; theirs is a nation full of enemies and suspects.

The G1 believes that the struggle-years were a down payment, Erbun, for them to monopolize Eritrea now and forever.  And, to some extent, the Eritrean people were willing to give them wide latitude to implement their vision.  Ten years later, the G1 has not only not come close to living up to the dream of the struggle; it has declared war on the owners of the dream. Instead of handing power over to the right owners, it continues to tighten the strings and suffocate the whole of Eritrea.

In addition to the �high profile� ministers and reporters now in jail, there are many that you never had the chance to know. There is a whole chunk of Eritrea beyond the limited horizon. That horizon cannot be lived in a brief chauffeured trip from Asmera to AliGhider; you have to blend with it. You have to be a full-fledged Eritrean, feel the agonies of your people whoever they are wherever they are. The temperature of all Eritreans cannot be checked by inserting a thermometer in the mouth of the G1. You need to read all of Eritrea and don�t be limited to Haddas Eritra and Dimtsi Hafash

Spell Hypocrisy!  D-I-A-S-P-O-R-A   E-R-I-T-R-E-A-N-S

Listening to the address of the two reporters who fled and found asylum in the United States, we could only reflect on their words and appreciate their frustration.

The reaction of the privileged minority of G1 supporters, who enjoy all the rights and benefits that the West has to offer, and deny it to others is very strange. There is a pattern to their behavior: they get uneasy about any sign of freedom: the voice of the free press frightens them; the possibility of political pluralism scares them; any enhancement of civil societies and organization alarms them.  

Part of the reason is that they actually deny that there is freedom in the West.  They will say that only the rich can get justice in the US because only the rich can afford lawyers; they will say only the rich have freedom of speech because only the rich own the media.  And so on with claims reminiscent of the Soviet Union.  Since only the rich can afford freedom, goes their logic, then it is better that nobody get freedom.  We may not be free but at least in Eritrea we are all equally un-free.   Thus, it is perfectly OK for Eritreans to live with one undemocratic and dictatorial organization underwritten by the G1 until the nation is �ready��a to-be-announced date at the convenience of G1.

The logic is bad but the hypocrisy is worse.   The prized possession of these folks is not their car or their house: it is their �green card� and �naturalization certificate� given to them by a Western nation (which, according to them, has job opportunities but no freedoms.)  They are hypocrites because we know and they know that if and when they have the opportunity to earn in Eritrea the same money they are earning in a Western nation, they would still choose to live in the West.  And that makes them flaming hypocrites.

Praise Be To Our Enlightened One

The G1 have attacked everyone and praised only one. The praised one is not popular outside their narrow circle. Prove it? No, we will challenge it instead.

Imagine an election between your one of the G1 and his contenders in all major cities. Now imagine the outcome. Imagine an election in all the regions from Rahaita to Rahia Abai to Lower Anseba to Fledareb to Gergef to Shambqo to Tserona to Shebeq to Halhal to Alghenna to Ghedem to Zula to Embassoira and Tsllma, There. You have the result. People count, don�t they? We can guess how popular (and where) the G1 idol is. The whole of Eritrea is fed up.

Dictators don�t continue to exist because their people like them; they stay because they can until they are dismantled. Haile Sellasie and Mengistu stayed on our necks not because Eritreans liked them, but because they could. When the Alarm Clock sounded, they had to go. All the gangs had to go. No gang can stay indefinitely by subjugating free and proud people.

People should not feel guilty for opposing the local throne created by the G1. They shouldn�t be weak to the extent of being blackmailed: opposition to dictatorship is not an opposition to Eritrea. In fact, not opposing dictatorship is a totally an un-Eritrean culture. Extolling an authoritarian system�reciting awlos about its genius--is an extension of Janhoi�s feudal system.  But one doesn�t oppose dictatorship by parroting the traits of dictatorship: one does it by providing alternatives: alternative agenda, alternative culture, alternative value system.  Nor is �mergem� enough: we need a plan of action and a timetable for action.  Until then, Eritrea will continue to be an amusement park for IPIA.

Our Last Charity For the Month

IPIA is conducting a high profile diplomatic exercise; we applaud him for that. He is reconciling the Sudanese government and its opposition. That is what is expected of a good neighbor. We genuinely admire IPIA for his noble efforts. However, the IPIA doesn�t believe in dialogue. We are wondering how he is standing people involved in a dialogue in front of his eyes! Isn�t Eritrea in crisis because he rejected calls for dialogue in 1991 and later in 2000 and throughout his political career?