I want to begin by writing a few words about Hedad Kerar, my father and your father: the fate of old men. I want to talk about a new country: Hadas Ertra. This new country of a jail guarded by prison wardens, murderers and foul-mouthed bullies and coddlers of injustice. There is no other way of saying it: the PFDJ thugs and their supporters are responsible for the death of Hedad Kerar and all the Eritrean fathers who walk with their head bent.
For many people, Hedad Kerrar might simply have meant another Eritrean elderly, another wronged citizen who passed away a few days ago in Hadas Ertra. To me, Hedad Kerrar was Am Hedad, another respected uncle lost. He grew up with my father in the same street I grew up in. His family is my family. We met again, after Independence, and I had several lengthy, enjoyable talks with him. He was quite the intellectual: literate, well read and with profound insights on a variety of topics. An unforgettable man, a man who would have been treasured by any decent country--but not the "Hadas Ertra" laboratory the PFDJ is experimenting with.
Am Hedad was in his late seventies. He had a stroke and the PFDJ refused to grant him an exit visa to get proper medication. They were afraid that a bed-ridden seventy-something man would do something to expose them once he goes out of the country. Thus, they kept him jailed in a country they have converted into a big jail. Now he is dead. I hope that his family will have the strength to cope; he was strong and so they are expected to be.
Yes, death is the will of God and when it comes, no one can stop it. However, the causes are important. Hedad Kerar died because he was denied medical attention. He died because he was denied freedom. The PFDJ was the cause of his death. PFDJ murdered Hedad Kerar.
Remember the dead and fight for the living is an old wisdom. Defying all traditions and laws, the PFDJ, a gang devoid of any compassion and humanity, is holding tens of sick, old and frail people in jail for years. On top of the hundreds of the youth, the healthy and the vibrant--at least they were young, healthy and vibrant when the PFDJ abducted them. If anything happens to them, their bloodstain is already in the hands of the PFDJ clique. And, by extension, those who know this to be wrong and cheering it and supporting it financially, morally and psychologically. There are murderers and accomplices to muders and there will be a day of reckoning.
For all the relatives and the families whose loved ones are cruelly held by the PFDJ I say: be brave and be ready to accept any eventuality. My heart is with you and I pray that you get strength if, unfortunately the worst happens. Just remember that this is where Eritrea has reached: total deterioration and disregard for the lives of human beings.
Last August I lost my father after a brief illness. He sought medical attention for weeks but they couldnt diagnose his sickness until two days before he passed away. I couldnt go to be with him on his last days on earth. It is the political disease of oppressive governments: a price that must be paid if one chooses to fight injustice. To be apart from loved ones in their time of need is painful; but it is not as painful as being a part of the gang of the unjust inflicting the pain. That is the choice Eritreans face in 2003: to be a part of PFDJ or to be apart from PFDJ. There really are no "neutral" positions.
My disgust at the PFDJ increased when I learned that patients who are admitted in the hospital should furnish their own pillows, bed covers and a family member has to play nurse because they dont have enough nurses around. Yes. How could they when the whole nation is aging in trenches?
My father, a stubborn man who wouldnt take humiliation any more, wouldnt cooperate and refused to bite the drip pipe-- which might have hastened his passing away. He died in a government hospital lying on his own bed covers and resting his head on his own pillows and embraced by my brothers arms. How many people are dying in such ways and worse? How many of our people are being treated like dogs? How many young people with promising futures are perishing because of the PFDJs mismanagement of everything in the country from medical care to economic well-being? You know because every one of you has a brother, a sister, a cousin, an uncle, a parent, a grandparent that has faced similar and worse situations. In the end, when all the propaganda wars and counter-wars are done, that is the enduring part: people form their opinion about the PFDJ by the way it has treated their loved ones. It is only those who hate their loved ones or are indifferent to their lives that still cling to the PFDJ: haters embracing other haters.
Shortly after independence when the mosquito eggs in his head hatched, Isaias temperature ran high. He needed to go elsewhere to be treated. Of course, no one would deny him an exit visa. Mahmoud Sheriffo, now in jail without trial for almost two years, is the only one who signed the papers allowing the unconscious Isaias to be taken to Israel for hospitalization. This was the first time Eritreans discovered that Sheriffo was the vice-president. He was running the country, then. Now the guy who is running it hasn't even had the decency to sign papers bringing him to court.
When Isaias is tickled; Ali Said laughs. And when Isaias sneezes, Ali Said coughs. So he was also sick and accompanied Isaias on the trip to Israel. More on Ali Said at the conclusion of this essay.
The Foul-Mouthed Wretches
Dont you find it funny that stooges and unprincipled weaklings insult clean patriots? Dont you find it strange that the dwindling numbers of foul-mouthed wretches never learn? Dont you find it amusing that they are the types of people who suddenly discovered that they are Eritreans almost by an accident?
People who have seen jails of the Derg many times before they became combatants in the struggle for independence; combatants who carry multiple wounds sustained while fighting heroically are now insulted by came-with-the-wind neo-patriots. Strange. And about the insults? If they were creative or imaginative insults, it would be one thing. But.
That Goes For Tigrigna?
Some Eritreans are at the receiving end of a barrage of insults. I know it because I am one of the victims whose name is raised tens of times a day by rascals and others whom the Amhars would call asadagi yebedelew. Sometimes, I am almost convinced that we need to talk to them in their language; it is a basic language of insults composed of a tiny collection of vulgar vocabulary. The language is typified by one born-again Eritrean whose interview with one of the PFDJ satellites in DC we were subjected to by Asmarino.com a few weeks ago. What a riot! Thanks for the laughs, Asmarino. It was an enlightening interview; if not for it, we wouldnt have discovered that our Tigrigna language is dying. Did anyone say mutilation? No. It was more of a massacre; it was a senseless mass murder of a language, killed in each and every sentence uttered by the assailant. Lord have mercy on us. A crime is being committed and the next-of-kin should be notified: the language of Tigre should issue a warrant for the arrest of the people who are murdering the Tigrigna language.
It is puzzling. If one makes insulting decent patriots a vocation, wouldnt it be prudent to at least learn the language? But for a person who speaks like tSeyaf quolAa to practice insults makes as much sense as a stuttering blabberer to want to be a broadcaster. Being insulted in Tigrigna is one thing; being insulted in a mutilated language that is supposed to pass for Tigrigna is another. It is pathetic. Now I understand what is meant by negative complexity.
I Deserve Freedom, You Dont
Last summer, I was in Washington DC to participate in a demonstration. There, I saw a man carrying a TV-Camera following the procession. In a corner, a man - I later came to know was Turkish- asked the cameraman what the demonstration was all about. They are Jihad and AlQaida! the cameraman replied.
I shook my head and, in a nice way, I tried to correct him: "newri, newri," I said. I was familiar with the name and image of the cameraman from the Eritrean Internet and I politely introduced myself to him and asked: _____ hawey, am I a member of AlQaida? Honestly, he was embarrassed and pointed to the crowd and said, there are Weyane and Jihad within the crowd! It was a dead-end. I explained to the astounded Turkish gentleman the purpose of the demonstration and he reprimanded the cameraman for calling trouble to his own country, How would you accuse your own compatriots and by extension your country of being an accomplice of AlQaida? The gentleman didnt know the cameraman was just a foot soldier; the instruction was obviously drafted in the DC office of the PFDJ boss who supposedly represents Eritrea. Dont blame him.
The poor cameraman thinks it is all a football game. The PFDJ football team against all-the-others team. He probably thinks that two teams will meet in a stadium called Eritrea and he is preparing for the match by clownishly exhibiting his favorite teams T-shirt, the flag. The rule is the same everywhere: cheer your team and behave like a real football hooligan, or for politics, POLIGAN. Eritrea has become the cheering ground for ignorant, noisy and unprincipled alien-mannered people.
Reconciliation, Not Injustice
We use the privileges afforded to us by the regime and if the regime is changed, nothing will happen to us, seems to be the motto that all the mahber wdase have. And so, they are dividing our societies and cheering the oppression of our people. They are backing an unjust regime and encouraging the violation of human and civil rights. They are mocking the plight of the helpless. They are feasting on the blood of the oppressed. and naturally, the regime they foolishly consider everlasting is doomed. How would we serve justice? I have a few of them in mind. I would do anything to bring them to a court of law (not a dark kangaroo court) and push for a punishment equal to their deeds.
No, no. Reconciliation does not mean we hold hands and sing Kumbaya Sing Kumbaya Some people mistake reconciliation to mean all crimes go unaccounted for and we all hold hands and sing the national anthem like boy scouts. No. No, apart from the wronged individuals themselves, no one has the mandate to forgive on behalf of others. Now tell me if the work of the despicably few individuals who are inflicting so much pain on our country should simply be forgotten? We should start to NAME & SHAME. Anyone who oversteps on the rights of others should be identified, named and shamed in public. This should not be witch-hunting, their favorite method. No. We should form a legal advisory body-- we have many with access to lawyers and pro-bono services. The cowards should be dragged to all the courts of the world. As for those who couldnt be reached, some day, the sun will shine over Eritrea and true Eritrean legal system will have a swell time disposing justice. We should be determined to teach them what the rule of law actually means. Until then, the deck of cards is a good idea. On our deck of cards however, the zeragitos who reside abroad should be displayed because their bosses, the oppressive clique, do not number 54 people. They are a handful and we all know them.
More On Ali Said
After his treatment in Israel, the future foreign minister of Eritrea, Ali Said, was sent to Great Britain to learn English. To ensure that he was totally immersed in British culture and he would have no choice but to learn the language, he was sent to a remote Scottish village. Months later when someone called to talk to Ali, the landlady answered and said to him, e-hallani serraye? She was supposed to teach Ali Said English, instead, he taught her Tigre.
The morale of the story? You can take the person out of PFDJ but you cannot take the PFDJ out of the person. PFDJ is un-reformable and unteachable.
