A few days ago, Dr. Dehli wrote an article in the PFDJ propaganda website, Shaebia.org. His article was entitled, �The Ethiopian Government Practices State Terrorism�.  He accuses the Ethiopian Government of, among other things, �Torturing Eritrean students who were on the exchange program�, as well as  �Mass detention of Elderly, Women and Children in camps�.   

It is hypocritical of Dr. Dehli to speak of students and the elderly jailed in Ethiopia when his government is detaining the elderly and students and many others. When Ethiopia abuses Eritreans, although the pain is not minimized, at least we can say the Ethiopian government is an enemy and is in a state of war with Eritrea.  We can try, through third parties, to demand answers and accountability.  But what do we say of the PFDJ, which thrills itself with humiliating Eritreans?  Who speaks for Eritreans languishing in jail�at the hands of their government?   How do they and we get justice?  

The season of hypocrisy is in full bloom.  In the same website, in one his dispatches from Eritrea, Mr. Elias Amare Gerezgheir compared and contrasted the Eritrean journalists of the 1940s with the Eritrean journalists of 2001.  He found the latter wanting.  Question: if Eritrea was currently occupied by Ethiopia and the Eritrean journalists of 2001 had written what they wrote, would they not have been hailed as patriots and courageous heroes?  Would their work not have been microfiched and archived so that  some Eritrean, 60 years from now, could study and chronicle and dispatch?  We think so.  What�s the difference? Must an entire generation have to die and be exiled and be maligned before the next generation appreciates its work?   Must heroes die to be commemorated as martyrs but, while living, they must be exiled and ignored?  Does Eritrea only salute its dead? 

The difference is that these young kids practiced their profession (journalism) and in the process demonstrated how inept and bungling our sheltered government is.  Regretfully, Elias repeats the PFDJ�s assertion that the Eritrean journalists of 2001 were foreign agents which, ironically, is the same charge that was leveled by the pro-Haile Selassie Unionist Party against Wel Wel and the Eritrean patriots of the 1940s that we all lionize.    

Speaking of the 1940s, one of the targets of the Eritrean journalists then was the working of the Eritrean National Assembly, Mengsti Tedla Bairou, whose meetings were public and was relatively lively.  In future dispatches, we hope our friend Elias Amare will update us on whatever happened to that august body which has 150 of the quietest Eritreans.  He might interrupt his research of what happened 60 years ago to tell us what is going on now, under his nose, with the journalists and university students of 2001.  He might begin by interviewing some of the journalists who are in jail (without charge) as well as the University President student (in jail without charge and on his behalf he wrote a moving letter eons ago) and then, if he has the time, he can visit some of the elderly folks, who spent Ramadan and Eid in jail.  Then to the dozens of Eritrean CITIZENS who disappeared in the hands of their government.   

When your house is on fire, it is natural to prioritize what you want to save and to try to collect irreplaceable valuables like photo albums and videotapes.  But if your house is on fire and criminals are banging on your door and the family members are turning on each other, it is irresponsible to sit in a corner and pore on your pictures and family albums.    We invite Elias to take a break from the 1940s and report more compelling news occurring in front of his nose.   

The Latter Day Patriots� Song

There was a lady who sold �swa�, (local beer), and entertained her patrons with x-rated songs on her krar, the five stringed strum music instrument. Early every morning she would wake up and burn heavy incense that would engulf the whole street. Now growing up in a small town is:  having to walk to school every morning through the same street. The krar playing femme fatale was always there. The old despised her, an outcast who would trade in anything immoral, they said. The women hated her more because she would be teasing their �men� on their way to work. The students marveled over her ability to be bold and talk obscene in public.  The light-skinned ones blushed. �Ya Eneya� she called, a phrase she picked from the Sudan.  �Ya Eneya� she hollered at the passing students who would move fast to disappear from her sight. Oh this one-street town!   

People change. She changed. In 1977, she joined the liberation forces. She joined the cultural troupe. In her first performance, she entertained the members of the front, battle hardened patriots. She was a political cadre, or so she thought of her self. Her lyrics were full of political jargon from the then trendy terms of the communist world. Counter-revolutionaries, bourgeoisie, and reactionaries, she blasted. In the audience, there was someone who had been pestered enough by this lady when he was a kid. He had seen her flirting with the soldiers of the occupying army, the Tor-Serawit.   �Ya Eneya,� he exclaimed.   Behold.   What a transformation.   What a magnificent transformation.  

What is wrong with people transforming or reforming themselves and aligning their beliefs with the grassroots? Nothing.  Nothing, that is, provided they don�t act holier than thou. Nothing as long as they do not insult those who caused their transformation or who suffered because they refused to understand earlier.  A little humility, that�s all. 

Bronze In Them Hills�

We love Girma Asmerom because he continues to provide us with rich material.  In one of his lectures/mock resolutions a few months ago, Ambassador Girma unwittingly explained the way the G1 thinks and operates. In that lecture he beat renowned theoreticians on the science of economics.

In the early nineties, according to Girma, a Japanese firm approached the government of Eritrea to mine for copper in a location near Debarwa. The Japanese estimate of the copper deposits and their offer was not favorable, said the Ambassador, and the deal was not approved. Years later, the government found out that the deposits were far more than what the Japanese had estimated. Girma literally was congratulating Eritreans for having the good fortune to be led by such a wise government that won�t allow itself to be taken advantage of.  One could almost hear him whispering, shTaraKn felTnayo �lena.  As usual, the PFDJ shTara (smartness) is always too good to be true.

Never mind the estimate by the Japanese, because after all, it was only an estimate. There are many ways to protect your interest in instances where the deposits are not exactly known including preparation of contingency agreements in case things are not as they appear to be.  More to the point, Ambassador Girma negates something the economists call the time-value of money, which is the whole basis for interest rates and capitalism: a dollar today is worth more than a dollar a year later.  The PFDJ has many economists that can explain this to the politicians.  In our case, it was ten years.  After ten years, we don�t have the money; we have lost opportunities and have netted zero growth on our money. Still, we keep hills of good-for-nothing copper because unless they are exploited they are good as not having them in the first place.   But no matter; the Turtle takes pleasure in its crawl.

The G1 is always robbing Eritrea of time because the G1 not only don�t value time, they have promoted (and are imposing) their idea of �time is valueless�: be slow, take forever and you give the impression of being �thoughtful� and �deliberate.�   Because of this negligent view of time, high school aged youth go the trenches and if they ever get out of the hellhole, they are in their mid-twenties, which means years of college education wasted, years of productivity lost, and years of offering support to the family missed forever.  People are jailed without charge: days become weeks, weeks become months and months become years; still, the government wants to be credited for being �deliberately� and �thoughtfully� slow!  The less efficient it is, the more credit it seeks for its inefficiency.

� Dirt In PFDJ�s Swimming Pool

If you want to know to what extent the PFDJ has fallen and where its base is, we invite you to read some of the notes posted in some of the strongly pro-PFDJ websites.  Make sure to bring a barf bag, though.  It is lamentable that some of these readers are so angry they have taken to targeting the Awate Team personally.  We shrug this off because by now we are used to it and if they derive some entertainment from it in these humorless times, we don�t want to deny them these little favors.  We don�t want to spoil their fun but none of it will deter us from our mission in any way; we have taken bigger shots from worthier adversaries.  

We think it is inexcusable, particularly coming from those who are constantly lecturing us about �unity� -- as if unity were eggshell glued by the G1 that can fall apart by the mere act of criticizing the government and its head -- when those who have issues with us resort to cheap ethnic slurs.  It is hypocritical to accuse others of being �divisive� when you accuse entire ethnic groups just because you are having a bad day.  

We have seen enough of a pattern in these disturbing articles and writings at a couple of pro-PFDJ sites (including Abdulkader Hamdan�s PFDJ subsidized media outlet, Voice of Eritrea) to dismiss them as the work of lone individuals or kooks.  Does Hamdan�s mission now include targeting unpopular ethnic groups that his website has to litter its pages with them while his webmaster tells us that this dangerous and vulgar commentary, lifted from Dehai, is the voice of �true Eritreans�, whatever that means?  Does true Eritreanism now include bashing ethnic groups?  Has the PFDJ fallen so far and so fast that it is now in bed with bigots, chauvinists and ethnic baiters?  Is targeting ethnic groups deemed unpopular the only way the PFDJ can consolidate its base?  Has the PFDJ power base so degenerated that it can only attract the ethno-chauvinists and the closeted crusaders?  We already know that the PFDJ condones violence (as DimSi Hafash did when it congratulated hooligans for disrupting meeting) to promote its agenda.  Does it also condone bigotry?  Is there anything the PFDJ will not do to hold on to power?

Merry X-Mas To All Eritreans of Every Ethnic Group and Faith and Happy New Year. See You Next Year.